Tornadoes Hit the South, Hundreds of Dollars of Damage Done

[WayAbvPar]

I just checked Steam, DV was online as of 3 hours ago.

I'll try to remember to chat with him tonight if he's around.

Don't forget to bring the noise.

[Soulflame]

DV says he lost a window on his garage door, and that's about it.  He also appreciates the concern.

[taolurker]

I just checked Steam, DV was online as of 3 hours ago.

I'll try to remember to chat with him tonight if he's around.

Yes, I saw him on other forums sometime mid week this week, and his area lost power for a significant period, with little to no real damage to his home. It was really close to him though.

[Simond]

So, did everyone here make it through yesterday?

[01101010]

So, did everyone here make it through yesterday?

Only those who were saved. 

[Furiously]

I always tell people to retire in Joplin.  I need to check on a few friends who live there.

[Tannhauser]

Hope all your friends are OK.  My insurance adjuster is coming to my house Friday so hopefully they cover the damage.  I actually went to FMEA's temp center and registered.  After the horror stories of Katrina, I thought it was a fairly painless process.  So now I'm officially a disaster victim.  Yay.

[RhyssaFireheart]

Heard from a friend who lives in Joplin.  He and his family are okay but he said the tornado only missed them by a couple of blocks.  That's just way too  for me.  And seeing entire houses turned into kindling just freaks me out.  Made me think about where we'd go in our house if a tornado came through and the only options are the downstairs half-bath and/or the closet under the stairs.  I don't think we'd have time to get into the crawlspace and I doubt I could get the dog down there anyways, so closet or bath it is. 

[01101010]

Heard from a friend who lives in Joplin.  He and his family are okay but he said the tornado only missed them by a couple of blocks.  That's just way too  for me.  And seeing entire houses turned into kindling just freaks me out.  Made me think about where we'd go in our house if a tornado came through and the only options are the downstairs half-bath and/or the closet under the stairs.  I don't think we'd have time to get into the crawlspace and I doubt I could get the dog down there anyways, so closet or bath it is. 

While I can't attest to a fast moving tornado, I found myself unconsciously moving slowly to the middle part of my apt in the few hurricanes I weathered through. Winds pick up and you move a bit aways from the windows, it increases and you move further until you are halfway between front and back windows - then you instinctively move to rooms without possible shards of stabbing pain. Of course, in terms of a tornado rendering your house into vampire killing stakes, I'd be at a loss other than to harken back to the story of the three little pigs. 

[rattran]

We had the top half of a tree fall down and take out the phoneline. Several neighbors lost trees, and one got their car smooshed. So pretty standard for the hellacious late spring storms of the past decade. Another few years here, and I won't have any trees left to worry about!

[Lantyssa]

A tornado can import one from elsewhere in your neighborhood though...

[01101010]

We had the top half of a tree fall down and take out the phoneline. Several neighbors lost trees, and one got their car smooshed. So pretty standard for the hellacious late spring storms of the past decade. Another few years here, and I won't have any trees left to worry about!

So the winds can be even faster without resistance and nothing in the way to slow down the flying van heading down the street! 

[RhyssaFireheart]

Heard from a friend who lives in Joplin.  He and his family are okay but he said the tornado only missed them by a couple of blocks.  That's just way too  for me.  And seeing entire houses turned into kindling just freaks me out.  Made me think about where we'd go in our house if a tornado came through and the only options are the downstairs half-bath and/or the closet under the stairs.  I don't think we'd have time to get into the crawlspace and I doubt I could get the dog down there anyways, so closet or bath it is. 

While I can't attest to a fast moving tornado, I found myself unconsciously moving slowly to the middle part of my apt in the few hurricanes I weathered through. Winds pick up and you move a bit aways from the windows, it increases and you move further until you are halfway between front and back windows - then you instinctively move to rooms without possible shards of stabbing pain. Of course, in terms of a tornado rendering your house into vampire killing stakes, I'd be at a loss other than to harken back to the story of the three little pigs. 

Oh, I believe it.  Last year we had a tornado warning in the area because one was moving through the Elgin area (aka about 10 miles SW) and it was moving NE.  Skies got that freaky greenish color and everything was still as hell.  I found myself putting things in the half-bath like the dogs leash and my purse "just in case" I needed to be in there quickly. 

A tornado can import one from elsewhere in your neighborhood though...

LOL!  The only problem is that the importing process is done by a sub-contractor to the sub-contractor, meaning your newly imported tree is now in a gazillion pieces and the directions got lost in the mail.  Anything which can just snap a tree with a foot diameter+ is scary.

[Simond]

Aw.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110520/us_yblog_thelookout/adorable-lady-finds-missing-cat-during-interview-outside-tornado-ruined-home

[WayAbvPar]

Sounds like poor Joplin, MO could be in the firing line again today. Maybe a big EF-5 will clean up some of the debris?

[Simond]

Dear everyone within about a 100 miles radius of Oklahoma City: Get into your cellars. Now.

[ezrast]

It has occurred to me that spending my formative years in tornado alley has made me maybe a little too cavalier about the whole issue. My whole sky turned an eerie shade of orange on Sunday evening and I didn't really think to do anything other than snap a couple pictures.

On the other hand, I live in a second-story apartment. Takes about five seconds to hide in the bathroom and there's not a whole lot else I can do.

[ghost]

Wow.  This has to be the craziest tornado video I've ever seen.  The footage of that telephone pole flying in the air is just nuts. 

[WayAbvPar]

Dear Mother Nature-
If it  isn't too much trouble, can you knock down the OKC Thunder arena next time you blow some tornadoes through? No need to kill anyone (but if you must please start with Clay Bennett)- just knock it the fuck down and make them play in a high school or something. Thanks!


Seattle Sonics fan

[Ghambit]

We had the top half of a tree fall down and take out the phoneline. Several neighbors lost trees, and one got their car smooshed. So pretty standard for the hellacious late spring storms of the past decade. Another few years here, and I won't have any trees left to worry about!

So the winds can be even faster without resistance and nothing in the way to slow down the flying van heading down the street! 

The Great Plains are uhhh Plains for a good damned reason.
It's like in South Florida, how every other plant is either a derivative of sawgrass, mangrove, or palm tree... 'cause that's the only thing left standing typically.   Mother Nature throws in the towel long before we do.

[RhyssaFireheart]

Storm chasers are insane.  Great videos, absolutely insane videographers.

That being said, the video that I saw on the news last night of the semi-trailer just getting shredded was so 

[Jimbo]

Got lucky last night, Tornado hit Bedford, Indiana, about 20 miles south of Bloomington, Indiana (Indiana University), the others hit across the border in Edgar County, IL (more like radar saw funnel clouds), but we did get a bunch of trees knocked over.  I lost guttering and maybe some shingles, so calling the roof dudes.  It blew over us then hit Bedford, but it is a crap shoot when they start calling the warnings.

The one in Joplin, MO is scary, that hospital looks like ours, and it is FUBAR'ed, they said it happened so quickly they couldn't get the patients out of the rooms and some were sucked out of bed and out the window, then again, it tore a whole in the building and sucked some out that way too...

[Tannhauser]

Glad you made it OK Jimbo.  We just left another tornado warning down here.  I lost my power for a minute and the interstate got so much hail it looked like snow.  But looks like it's dying down now.

FMEA declined to give me aid so I hope the insurance adjuster is good to me tomorrow.

[Sand]

Jimbo they said on the news tonight that there were reports of baseball size hail in Indianapolis, IN 
Glad you came through okay.

[Jimbo]

Local News Pics, scroll to #61 and you will see the size of the hail we got.  Three tornadoes near my area, we were lucky we didn't get hit like Joplin did, in my county the west and north got hit hard from wind and hail, I'm lucky with minor roof damage (I hope, haven't had the roof guys out yet).  Hope everyone does okay with crazy weather!  I'm wondering why we don't build house better for tornadoes, kinda like Florida builds the new houses so they survive hurricanes and flooding better. 

[KallDrexx]

Can you build houses that can withstand a tornado though?  I mean an F2 tornado has wind speeds between 113 - 156 miles per hour, and an F2 tornado relatively isn't that strong.  Meanwhile, category 5 hurricanes only start at 156mph, and once they hit land they drop down from that quite fast. 

[01101010]

Can you build houses that can withstand a tornado though?  I mean an F2 tornado has wind speeds between 113 - 156 miles per hour, and an F2 tornado relatively isn't that strong.  Meanwhile, category 5 hurricanes only start at 156mph, and once they hit land they drop down from that quite fast. 

Correct me if I am off here, but structurally, buildings can be built to withstand pretty high wind speeds. It's not so much the winds that do the damage but the projectiles the wind is throwing into the buildings.

[KallDrexx]

Correct me if I am off here, but structurally, buildings can be built to withstand pretty high wind speeds. It's not so much the winds that do the damage but the projectiles the wind is throwing into the buildings.

I've heard that before and it's probably true, but there's also the case that higher winds make projectiles hit the buildings with much harder force.  Didn't that Home Depot that got destroyed have concrete walls?  If so, what housing material would stand up to a tornado (and its projectiles) better than concrete?

Tornadoes are wierd things.  My mom told me a story from when we lived in SC and a tornado went right down a street, destroying everything in site except for a completely grass building.  It ripped all the trees and everything from all sides of the glass restaurant, but didn't touch any of the glass panes.

[Lantyssa]

Very tall concrete walls are susceptible to shear winds.  The roof on our local ones are just standard tin warehouse roofs and nothing special.  A home depot would be one of the last buildings I'd want to be in, because they're just glorified warehouses.

[Merusk]

Home Depots are CMU (cinder block) walls on very tall, thin columns with corrugated metal roof structures and very deep, very long trusses, like all big-box stores.  CMU can be punctured by a 115# woman with a ball-peen hammer.  It's not withstanding anything tossed-about by a C5 Tornado.  As Lant said, it's one of the last places I'd want to be in any severe storm.   They're built to withstand high winds only for toppling purposes. 

Sure you CAN build buildings to withstand incredibly high-speed winds, water and other natural forces.. but that kind of expendature only goes into shelters, not your every-day store.  It costs too  much unless it's mandated.

[Sheepherder]

The trick is to build a hobbit hole.

[01101010]

The trick is to build a hobbit hole.

Honestly... that is not that bad of an idea. Of course, cel reception would be a nightmare... but yeah.

[RhyssaFireheart]

Someone tried that in Bend, Oregon.  Last I heard they were facing foreclosure because of the housing market crash.  The houses were pretty neat though.

[Merusk]

The trick is to build a hobbit hole.

Or, like the guy I heard interviewed on NPR today, bury an old bus in a hill behind your house then use that for shelter.   His brother did the same thing with an old van.   Certainly cheaper than building a whole concrete shelter underground.

[MahrinSkel]

If you need somewhere to hide during a tornado and have the option: Banks.  Reinforced concrete walls and often ceilings, the closest a common commercial building gets to being a bunker.

--Dave