Louis
04-23-2011, 03:47 AM
Incident #1 - A few weeks ago.
One evening while I was home a strong line of thunderstorms came through and a tornado watch then a warning were issued. There wasn't much rain, but lots of gusty wind. We then lost power so I could no longer listen to the radio. (Battery powered one died a while back.) I stuck my head outside and heard a very, very loud noise coming from the west (perhaps the proverbial locomotive) and decided that that was good enough for me. I grabbed the cats and went down to the basement.
After a while things quieted down enough for me to hear the warning sirens, then it was all over. Still no power, so I took a quick shower (no city water here, so I have a well, pump and pressure vessel that is pressurized by the pump, but no power means what's in the tank is all you can use) and went to bed. The next morning I looked around and saw a roof shingle on my deck, and going outside I saw more loose shingles on the roof. My heart sank, because I figured I had some wind damage. As I walked around the house I found quite a few more shingles. Finally a light went off in my head - those shingles are a different color from mine. Turns out they were all from my neighbor about 200 feet to the west of my house. His house is on the top of rise, whereas mine is on a bit of an east-facing slope with a rise to my west, and I'm surrounded by trees. That must have saved me.
That day driving to work I saw a whole bunch of trees down - near my house they were take down by a west wind, on the other side of my subdivision by a south wind. There were reports that a tornado had indeed touched down in the area, but I don't know if that is indeed what hit us.
Incident #2 - Tonight
I was working late in our area down in the basement. No windows or anything like that, so I had no idea what was going on outside. I knew that the forecast called for another strong line of thunderstorms with possible tornadoes to come through, so I checked the NOAA forecast but was mostly concerned about what has happening at my house which is about 35 miles from my office. As it turned out, a big red blob (with tornado watch box) went north of my house and another one just south. Dodged that one.
A bit later as I was working away at the computer the lights flashed briefly and I quickly hit the "Save" icon. About a second later we lost all power. I sat there for a bit in the near-dark (a few emergency lights had come on). After about 30 seconds the power came back, I re-booted and continued to work. Several hours later as I was getting ready to leave I noticed a headline on the web "St Louis Airport hit by tornado and shut down". My office is on the north-east side of the airport, right at the edge, with an unobstructed view of the runways and terminals. Later as I left I could see all sorts of flashing lights on vehicles moving around the airport, with no planes coming or going. The last time I had heard the airport so quiet was on the afternoon of 9-11 and the days after. As I drove home about a block from where I had parked my car I saw a large tree down at the edge of the high-way on-ramp. I purposely passed just south of the airport. Lots of areas had lost power. There the highway was closed and all traffic had to get off, but not before I saw an 18-wheeler trailer still on it’s side and another that had just been righted by a monster wrecker. What a mess. Happily, I haven’t heard of any deaths.
To make things even more fun, the storms continue for the next few days. Last I checked Thursday of next week is our first day without thunderstorms or rain. What a messy spring. At least it hasn't been as bad as what the southeast endured a few days ago.
One evening while I was home a strong line of thunderstorms came through and a tornado watch then a warning were issued. There wasn't much rain, but lots of gusty wind. We then lost power so I could no longer listen to the radio. (Battery powered one died a while back.) I stuck my head outside and heard a very, very loud noise coming from the west (perhaps the proverbial locomotive) and decided that that was good enough for me. I grabbed the cats and went down to the basement.
After a while things quieted down enough for me to hear the warning sirens, then it was all over. Still no power, so I took a quick shower (no city water here, so I have a well, pump and pressure vessel that is pressurized by the pump, but no power means what's in the tank is all you can use) and went to bed. The next morning I looked around and saw a roof shingle on my deck, and going outside I saw more loose shingles on the roof. My heart sank, because I figured I had some wind damage. As I walked around the house I found quite a few more shingles. Finally a light went off in my head - those shingles are a different color from mine. Turns out they were all from my neighbor about 200 feet to the west of my house. His house is on the top of rise, whereas mine is on a bit of an east-facing slope with a rise to my west, and I'm surrounded by trees. That must have saved me.
That day driving to work I saw a whole bunch of trees down - near my house they were take down by a west wind, on the other side of my subdivision by a south wind. There were reports that a tornado had indeed touched down in the area, but I don't know if that is indeed what hit us.
Incident #2 - Tonight
I was working late in our area down in the basement. No windows or anything like that, so I had no idea what was going on outside. I knew that the forecast called for another strong line of thunderstorms with possible tornadoes to come through, so I checked the NOAA forecast but was mostly concerned about what has happening at my house which is about 35 miles from my office. As it turned out, a big red blob (with tornado watch box) went north of my house and another one just south. Dodged that one.
A bit later as I was working away at the computer the lights flashed briefly and I quickly hit the "Save" icon. About a second later we lost all power. I sat there for a bit in the near-dark (a few emergency lights had come on). After about 30 seconds the power came back, I re-booted and continued to work. Several hours later as I was getting ready to leave I noticed a headline on the web "St Louis Airport hit by tornado and shut down". My office is on the north-east side of the airport, right at the edge, with an unobstructed view of the runways and terminals. Later as I left I could see all sorts of flashing lights on vehicles moving around the airport, with no planes coming or going. The last time I had heard the airport so quiet was on the afternoon of 9-11 and the days after. As I drove home about a block from where I had parked my car I saw a large tree down at the edge of the high-way on-ramp. I purposely passed just south of the airport. Lots of areas had lost power. There the highway was closed and all traffic had to get off, but not before I saw an 18-wheeler trailer still on it’s side and another that had just been righted by a monster wrecker. What a mess. Happily, I haven’t heard of any deaths.
To make things even more fun, the storms continue for the next few days. Last I checked Thursday of next week is our first day without thunderstorms or rain. What a messy spring. At least it hasn't been as bad as what the southeast endured a few days ago.