Sunday, January 02, 2011

1385 - Tornados

This is a little over 2 miles from my house. They have categorized it as an EF3 tornado. The St. Louis area was hit in about 5 or 6 different spots. There was wind damage in many other places.



Here's a link to more pictures.

Some stories:

One guy was watching the news news and got tired of listening to the storm warnings. He turned the TV off and was on his computer. His wife and Mother were in the basement already like he should have been. He said his ears suddenly started popping. His wife was screaming at him to get in the basement but he couldn't hear her because of the popping in his ears. He got up and ran for the basement steps trying to close the basement door behind him. The door wouldn't close because of the pressure change going on. He gave up on the door and ran down the steps and 15 seconds later it was over.

Another family of 4 went to the basement and huddled in the corner. Their whole house was blown off the foundation. Not one of them had a scratch.

Another guy went out to put his car in the garage so it would be safe. Before he could get the garage door down he realized it was to late to do anything but dive under his old tractor in the garage. The garage collapsed around him. He got a scratch on his forehead. That was the only injury in Sunset Hills.

My son and his girl friend just left the Penn Station sub shop 15 minutes before the storm hit the strip mall.

The place I go to every Monday for lunch (O'Leary's) in that same strip mall had all the windows blown out. There were about 30 or 40 people in there at the time and they all just managed to get into the bathrooms and coolers just as the tornado hit.

There is a jewelry store in the strip mall. One customer was getting a surprise engagement ring to give to his prospective fiancee that night. The owner and the customer just got to the back room when the windows were blown out.

I'm sure there are a lot more stories that I'll be hearing about over the next few weeks. It's just amazing no one was hurt here.

 

5 comments:

Amanda said...

Good to hear that you and your family are safe.

Looks like there is crazy weather everywhere. Its been raining for most of the past month and there have been many floods here in Queensland.

Bilbo said...

Glad you're safe...tornadoes are extremely dangerous because the force of the wind is tightly focused, unlike the fierce, yet unfocused winds that constantly blow from Capitol Hill and cause more widespread and long-lasting damage.

Dana said...

So glad you and your family remained safe!

Jay said...

We had an outbreak of 'em here too. It was looking pretty nasty for a while in the morning. Glad they missed ya.

Mike said...

A - I have been watching AU slowly sinking into the water on TV.

B - I don't think the EF grading system goes high enough for DC.

D - No way I would let a tornado take my house. I was standing gaurd out in the front yard.

J - Yep, it was a loooong line of storm that swept through the midwest.