tornado too close to home

[sea-nile]

We had a tornado about 3 miles from my town (4 miles from my house) last Monday.
I didn't realize the devastation it caused for some families until I heard about it in church today.

Hug your family and friends and count your blessings. You never know what is going to happen next.

http://web.mac.com/lakegenevaballoon1/W ... /Home.html

[Ksea]

Yikes! A few years ago I accidentally got caught in a small tornado here in VA. Trees were snapping everywhere! The sounds were like nothing I have ever heard...like trains coming. I was driving and had no idea what was happening. Very scarry!

[nothintolose]

Okay - tornadoes totally freak me out. You'd think hurricanes do but they don't (unless they spawn tornadoes). You get NO warning and here, you have NO basements to go in!!!!

I do have a question though. Everyone always says it sounds like a train. Do they mean the whistle sound or the engine sound?

Since Katrina, for some reason, we have had tornadoes here and we NEVER had them before. So I am totally freaked out about getting the two of us and my dog and cat in the bathtub that is NOT big at all

[Ksea]

Not the whistle sounds, its like a ROAR of engines. I never saw the twister thing, I guess cause I was in the middle of it! It supposedly touched down quickly.
Its usually in a wide open area, not where there are lots of tall buildings and such.

[nothintolose]

Ksea - the wide open area is what I always thought too till this past year when one went right through a heavily popluated area in New Orleans with lots of sturdy two story houses and huge oak tress - no wide open spaces any where near there.

They totally freak me out!

[Ksea]

This one touched down in the elementary school field. Gobs of 2 story homes surrounding it. It was very unusual, but it does happen! Im glad I didnt know, or I may have panicked!

[sea-nile]

Check out the aerial views. Some homes were totally destroyed while a few doors down, no damage.
WAY too close to home. We were lucky.


http://www.aerialimages-photo.com/Wisco ... do/map.htm

[Nic in KC]

nothintolose, I didn't know the tornadoes were new since Katrina. Interesting...and scary. Living in the midwest I grew up making trips to the basement whenever the sirens blew. Now, we live in the country and have a log home with no basement and I'm terrified every time it storms. Like you, we have a plan, but it doesn't make me feel safe. However, I loved my husbands home when I met him. I told him if we stay forever we are building on another room and putting a basement under it!!

[nothintolose]

Nic - I don't remember ever having them IN the city. Occasionally, we would see water spouts on Lake Ponchartrain but never tornadoes. The one I mentioned was only one of about 4 that went through that month. Another one of them went through Lakeview and damaged a bunch of the homes that were devastated by flood waters. I remember that everyone in Lakeview rushed to their devastated houses to see if the tornado had gotten theirs and finished them off so there was less debris to clean up and less arguing with the insurance companies over whether or not it was rising water or rain water that devstated their houses.

Anyone one I ask though never remembers tornadoes here (in the Greater New Orleans area) pre-Katrina. We would occasionally hear about them across the Lake but not here.

nothintolose

p.s. I always said that I wanted to live in a cabin in the country/woods. You must love it - except that there is no basement