Tornado warning

[M.D. Holloway]

Hold On!

[singpilot]

Tonight should be quite a ride in the I-35 corridor tonight.

[legion]

Glad it's not us for once.

[Rob Channell]

Hope you guys make it through alright. It sounds like the weather is going to get stalled in from moving East for a day or two.

Oh, yeah, and what legion said....+1

[legion]

Sorry, just to clarify, I don't wish this kind of weather on anyone.

[Rob Channell]

Originally posted by legion
Sorry, just to clarify, I don't wish this kind of weather on anyone.

Me neither, with the possible exception of certain terrorist groups.

[onewhippedpuppy]

For once we only had nice rain all day. Should help keep the prarie from combusting like match sticks for a while. I think we're under the gun for tomorrow. On the plus side, I got out of class on Monday night when we had a tornado warning. Hard to hold class with those pesky sirens. Downside, the 540 got some new dents from hail.

[RoninLB]

I have no idea of what a tornado is like.. although I have followed them around hitting a few areas days later. Actually talking to someone who was standing only a few feet away was amazing..

[red-beard]

I went to Oklahoma on Monday and was greeted with 3 tornados and 1/2 dollar sized hail.

[M.D. Holloway]

Stalled out - the wife made me stay up to moitor it on the weather channel.

[Joeaksa]

Originally posted by RoninLB
I have no idea of what a tornado is like.. although I have followed them around hitting a few areas days later. Actually talking to someone who was standing only a few feet away was amazing..

I have been in several in my life and its one of the most helpless feelings I have ever had.

Grew up and lived in "tornado alley" and made the move to AZ to get out of these wonderful things. They pop up with little or no warning at times and can simply level a house, town or whole area.

Will say a prayer for all you guys, this is one thing that I do not miss about this part of the country.

JoeA

[Noah930]

Grew up and lived in "tornado alley" and made the move to AZ to get out of these wonderful things. They pop up with little or no warning at times and can simply level a house, town or whole area.

Slight threadjack: When people hear that I grew up in California, one commonly mentioned fear is "Oh, all those earthquakes--I could never live there." But almost no matter whereever you live, there's some sort of natural disaster: earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, floods, volcanos, mega-tsunamis (I've been watching too much Discovery channel). Sheesh, about 40 of the 50 states are geographic timebombs. How's an earthquake "scary," but a tornado/hurricane/flood/etc not?


Disclaimer: this reply was in sense meant as a critique of AZ or you, Joe--just that you reminded me of something I find a bit ironic.

[onewhippedpuppy]

On the plus side, a tornado is more of a local occurance, while a hurricane or earthquake can do serious damage to an entire region. I've lived in KS all of my 26 years, and have yet to see one on the ground. I've seen more wall and funnel clounds than I can count, but never one actually on the ground doing damage. The other plus is that thanks to modern weather technology, warning times are consistently increasing. The people that die are typically the ones that disregard the warnings, or that simply don't make an effort to check the weather.

I have seen the aftermath, and it is chilling. I went through Hoisington, KS a week after much of the town was leveled by a large tornado. Pictures, they're nothing compared to seeing it in person. It's simply unbelievable. Even the little things, such as the town having to remove the first 2' of topsoil from the football field to sufficiently remove debris. Even today, I believe 4 years later, it just doesn't look right. Cleared lots everywhere, no trees, it's just strange.

[Noah930]

Good point, puppy. But there are earthquake building codes that make homes/offices/etc. pretty stable and strong enough to withstand most earthquakes. I haven't lived in LA for the past 7 years, but my parents and extended family still live in California. I have yet to know anyone who's ever sustained loss of life or significant loss/damage of property due to an earthquake. Are there equivalent tornado building codes that similarly protect buildings from major structural damage and collapse?

[onewhippedpuppy]

We have regional codes requiring "hurricane straps" as they're called on rafters, trusses, etc. Reinforced steel plates attached with heavy joist hanger nails. This only is good to a point, a direct hit from a powerful tornado is enough to destoy most buildings. Several popular options are a foam block filled with concrete for houses, said to be tornado proof and awesome for insulation. My in-laws just built a house out of it, great stuff. Also, most new homes have "safe rooms", ie a room in the basement with 12" or so thick concrete walls and ceiling, as well as a reinforced steel door. It's just hard to build a "tornado proof" house without spending a fortune. Most homes around here have basements, very rarely do you hear about someone being killed when they're hiding downstairs like they're supposed to. It's always the idiots that go have a look outside that get it.

It's not the danger of an earthquake, it's the psychological. Just seems like it would be a creepy sensation.