Where I live we had a tornado warning and the sighting of funnel clouds, no actual tornado touched ground. For those of you who might not be familiar with this general part of the country we have many severe thunderstorms each season but tornado warnings are very rare, and you could tell this storm was a bit different. We had very high winds, almost constant lightning/thunder, hail and the greenish sky that you hear about being associated with tornado activity. It was definitely surreal preparing to go into the basement if need be.
In other areas near me it was a very different story. The city 20 minutes south of me (the third largest in the state), two more surrounding cities, parts of the town both my mother and mother-in-law live in 45 minutes away, and two more communities next to them were all hit and the devastation is like nothing I've seen around here before.
Thankfully our mom's are ok. Luckily there town wasn't too badly damaged compared to the others. And the most they personally experienced was scary weather, a long worrisome night and no power. However parts of towns just minutes away from where I grew up look completely destroyed and the parts of the downtown area in that city 20 minutes away from me are reduced to rubble. The tornado even crossed I-91 (our major interstate running from CT, MA,VT and NH) at the beginning of rush hour.
It's really amazing that more people weren't hurt or killed. My thoughts go out to the people who lost lives, homes and businesses. It's certainly been a terrible season for tornado's. Even the areas most commonly associated with these weather conditions have been hit unusually hard. It's something I never thought I'd experience so close to home. Today's bright sunny breezy day seems a like a jolting contrast to yesterday's powerful display of nature's force.
Here are a few video clips from the news coverage.
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I'm so sorry to hear about that. We've had some terrible storms, too, lately. I can't imagine the suffering of those in the path of the tornadoes! Glad you are ok.
ReplyDeleteThank You Jane!
ReplyDeleteThe video was really something to see - watching the funnel forming and getting larger. I am very glad to know you and all your loved ones are safe.
ReplyDeleteMy son and grandson just barely missed being in one of the tornadoes that hit Oklahoma City - their only option was the bathtub with a mattress over them. Thankfully, the tornado turned just before getting to their area of town.
I guess none of us are really safe from them - I just heard on the news a couple days ago that tornadic activity can occur in every state!
I hope we are at the end of the season for everyone's sakes.
Wow Pam, how scary for your family! They were very lucky.
ReplyDeleteI think it's true that tornados can occur just about anywhere- the thing I keep hearing here is about how many people weren't sure what to do or never even knew that we had a tornado warning. In fact I read in a news story that at one major university near me tornado sirens went off (who knew that actually had sirens around here) and when it happened people actually went outside to see what was happening because they weren't sure what those sirens meant. I guess most of us could stand to be better informed about what to do in events like this.