Tornadoes in the South.

[flatbutt]

https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation-world/ct-aud-nw-us-storm-deaths-20221214-kd2gfecg4ref3c6ixbkuojdme4-story.html

Is there anything more terrifying than a tornado? It can drop on you in a heartbeat and erase an entire town in minutes.

All the best for the recovery of those effected.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation-world/ct-aud-nw-us-storm-deaths-20221214-kd2gfecg4ref3c6ixbkuojdme4-story.html

Is there anything more terrifying than a tornado? It can drop on you in a heartbeat and erase an entire town in minutes.

All the best for the recovery of those effected.

Tornados are kind of like earthquakes, but worse. Rogue waves would be up there with them. Volcanos would be similar.

I think I find tornados a bit scarier than the rest, because they are essentially impossible to predict. They can behave in unexpected ways. And other than having a storm cellar, I don't really think that there's much that you can do to protect yourself. The fact that a tornado can erase buildings right down to the foundation is scary. Or it can destroy your neighbors homes, but leave yours standing (hopefully, you're not one of the "neighbors"). Finding unexpected items embedded in other items because they've been turned into projectiles is also terrifying.

Earthquakes, I lived in Japan and lived through several. We had a couple/few larger ones, but nothing that was ever that dangerous for us (my parents did lose all of their china that had been wedding gifts). I assume if I was in Cali, where there have been some that were huge and cost lives and property damage, I would probably find them scarier. We often had tremors, so my experience says that 99% are a little shaking and that's it.

Rogue waves are pretty scary, but really only if you're near the coast and low-lying.

Volcanos are pretty scary, but also only if you live near one.

Wild Fires are scary, but there's usually more warning/notification.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation-world/ct-aud-nw-us-storm-deaths-20221214-kd2gfecg4ref3c6ixbkuojdme4-story.html

Is there anything more terrifying than a tornado? It can drop on you in a heartbeat and erase an entire town in minutes.

All the best for the recovery of those effected.

Tornadoes usually don't just appear from nowhere. We had several days of warnings about the potential tornado risk. In the end, it was a couple of wimpy F0 and F1 and one house was hit with a F2 that lasted a few seconds and was gone in Wayne, OK. They won the negative lottery.

So one house and some street signs and trees were torn up in Oklahoma and the news shoots close ups of the damage and makes it sound like entire counties were leveled.

The biggest baddest meanest tornados ever recorded hit Moore, OK. With 300+ MPH winds. It killed many, and devastated a 1/2 mile wide strip for a few miles. Bad as it gets, yet 1/2 a mile away is full civilization. Electricity, water, food, gasoline and medical care. In the hurricanes and earthquakes, floods, forest fires, mud slides, entire communities are devastated and it only with other states helping that the recovery can begin. Tornadoes are a very very localized event. Bad pookie if that is your area. My mom lived to be late 70s and she never once even saw a tornado and never had any damage from one. They really are rare for any location, well except Moore, OK.

[IROC]

I lived in North Alabama for 21 years. Tornadoes were a very real threat, but the chances of any one individual being adversely affected by one was very small. So...no big deal. I have seen EF4 and 5 damage, though (was within a mile of the 1989 F4 in Huntsville when it happened) and it is truly shocking.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

Tornadoes usually don't just appear from nowhere. We had several days of warnings about the potential tornado risk. In the end, it was a couple of wimpy F0 and F1 and one house was hit with a F2 that lasted a few seconds and was gone in Wayne, OK. They won the negative lottery.

So one house and some street signs and trees were torn up in Oklahoma and the news shoots close ups of the damage and makes it sound like entire counties were leveled.

The biggest baddest meanest tornados ever recorded hit Moore, OK. With 300+ MPH winds. It killed many, and devastated a 1/2 mile wide strip for a few miles. Bad as it gets, yet 1/2 a mile away is full civilization. Electricity, water, food, gasoline and medical care. In the hurricanes and earthquakes, floods, forest fires, mud slides, entire communities are devastated and it only with other states helping that the recovery can begin. Tornadoes are a very very localized event. Bad pookie if that is your area. My mom lived to be late 70s and she never once even saw a tornado and never had any damage from one. They really are rare for any location, well except Moore, OK.

there's a big difference between "conditions may be right when the storm gets here" and "we see one, it's headed down the road and will be here in 24 hours." And when conditions are right there might be one, or none, or 20.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by IROC

I lived in North Alabama for 21 years. Tornadoes were a very real threat, but the chances of any one individual being adversely affected by one was very small. So...no big deal. I have seen EF4 and 5 damage, though (was within a mile of the 1989 F4 in Huntsville when it happened) and it is truly shocking.

I'm from Florida, although I've only lived there about 17 years total. In that 17 years, I was never personally impacted by a tornado, and I think I've seen water spouts maybe a handful of times.

Here in the Houston area (I've been here 27 years now), Tornados are a thing (not like tornado alley, more like FL). I've heard of them hitting various places around Houston, but never experienced one. I think I may have seen one try to form in the clouds (form, start toward the ground and then dissipate, but never touchdown) maybe a handful of times. (knock on wood).

I have been through a couple of hurricanes, although I was far enough inland where they weren't too bad. I was without power for 5 days once. I had a tree come down in the back yard and just miss destroying the outdoor AC unit and roof over the back porch.

I've been lucky during flood events to have always just escaped flooding.

[flatbutt]

Maybe experience has taught some of you to live with the potential of a tornado, or earthquake and so more power to you. While there are things that suck about jersey I'm grateful that tornadoes here are as rare as an honest politician and our earthquakes barely register. My greatest threat given where I live is forest fire. Still, tornadoes seem terrifying to me.

[mattdavis11]

There were a few tornadoes that came through here (DFW) on Tuesday morning. While DFW is not my home, I grew up here, and never have seen one except on the news.

You don't think about them happening much, so there is very little to fear. Now if I lived in a trailer park, I probably be shyttin my pants every time there was a tornado warning.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by masraum

there's a big difference between "conditions may be right when the storm gets here" and "we see one, it's headed down the road and will be here in 24 hours." And when conditions are right there might be one, or none, or 20.

Very true. The warning that the conditions will be right is just a warning to intelligent people to make sure the tornado or storm preparations are in ready. Get the bug out bag ready to head to the shelter or the center room in the house, long pants, long sleeve shirts, dog collars and leashes if you have dogs. All medicines and the insurance papers and ID and an purses and wallets all ready.

If the storm sirens go off, turn on TV and see just where the storm is and if it is not in your area, go back to bed. The three network stations of ABC, CBS, and NBC all compete for best coverage of storms. The CBS station has THE largest storm center in the nation, state of the art million watt next gen radar, better then the National weather service has, and close to 30 storm chasers in the field tracking circulations and super cells precisely.

You never want to see Val Caster and his truck in your neighborhood. If he is there the storm is close and it is time to be in the shelter. The sirens will be blaring, cell phones will be alerting, my home alarm system is alerting, and the wind up storm radio is going off.

Hurricanes give weeks of warnings, and yet people ignore the warning at their own peril. Same for tornado warnings. Just be weather aware and be safe. Ignorant people ignore it and risk their life.

[The Synergizer]

The story I heard that bothered me was the mom who was killed, and then they found her tiny young son's body a mile away. Was it like a movie only real life, was the boy alive while swept into the sky until dumped a mile away? Was he alive the whole time?