Tornados in Oklahoma/Kansas this past weekend

[mitchellfam]

Okay everyone. I promised Tornado pictures in a thread somewhere...and here they are:

here are some tornado pictures from the storm we had here in the Woodward area on Friday evening...me, Kevin, and the girls went to watch the storm, there was a massive wall cloud from where we were sitting at the Vo-Tech parking lot...major hail...but girls got really scared and we ended up taking them to Kevin's office (because its the basement of the courthouse). The actual tornado was not in Woodward, but near Arnett. The sheriff's patrol car got his windshield busted from the large hail while he was out chasing the storm. Our best friend who is a trooper here was on duty and chased it from the time it came down from the sky and the entire 25 or so minutes it was on the ground...he just left our house, he brought the video over...it was really cool. REALLY cool.

The funnel cloud:


The tornado about a 1/2 mile away from his patrol car:


Another view of about the same distance:


A closer view...he actually has video about 200 yards away from it...it crossed the dirt road he was on right in front of him...it was pretty awesome video:


Here is a picture of one of the hailstones that fell...Phillip is by no means a small man, he is over 6ft tall...he said it was about the size of a tennis ball:


That same storm is the storm that blew through Greensburg Kansas on Friday night...

There was a tornado that touched down just south of Sharon, right on hwy 34, moved Northeast on Saturday night. For those that don't know, this is pretty much exactly where we are wanting to move to in September...and is about 15 miles from where we are right now. There were no injuries, the person was in their storm cellar. Amazing, because it was huge, our same trooper buddy that got the pictures above, was following the storm, and were right behind the storm chaser for Channel 9 News...they are about 1 mile behind the tornado, it was huge, at night, they said they would estimate it to be about a half mile or more wide, wedge tornado...and all of a sudden, another storm chaser came rushing up behind them, got beside them, motioning for them to turn around, there was a mini-one right on them, they start backing up in who knows what kind of speed, the storm chaser in front, also backing up....wind starts rocking the patrol car, lifted a bit a couple times, he yells at his wife to get down, he gets on top of her, the storm chaser vehicle in front rams into the push bar on the trooper car, a tree or something just as large hits their windshield and they are not sure how long this lasted, but it stopped, they all get out, the storm chaser in front, been chasing storms for years, finally allowed his teenage kids to come along, two of his windows were busted out...our trooper friend's windshield is almost busted all the way through, everyone is in shock. No injuries...just some pretty good vehicle damage. They get out and check on this house that is in this video, because this is exactly where they were when it happened. The guy was in his cellar. Scary stuff! Channel 5 in OKC did a story on the storm, here is the video coverage of it:
www.koco.com/video/13265633/index.html?taf=okl


No pictures yet from our trooper friend...they didn't get too many because it was dark. He has gone up to Greensburg Kansas today with church friends that lost their homes in the massive destruction that happened Friday night there. Two of our church families lost everything they had, house, cars...everything. Thankfully, no injuries to them, and they are insured, so thats good, however, it will take weeks for them to see any benefits from it. It will likely hit them today the reality, because they are letting residents only back into the community to try to salvage personal items. One of our youth, Jeremiah, was set to be graduating high school this Saturday in Greensburg...his truck went from parked on the road in front of their house to inside of their kitchen. They were under the stairs in the basement when it hit. He had also just gotten paid that Friday and his check was on the bar, along with someone else's paycheck...they have blown away, however, the basket of bills were laying on the exact same bar, untouched. Typical huh? Very scary stuff nonetheless. Please say a prayer for these families, I can only imagine what they all must be experiencing.

[Michael F.]

wow. thanks for the pics and report, Tonya :shock:

[trigger2002]

Great pictures. always been facinated by tornados and other extreme weather can be so devistating but its something i watch in awe.

[Red2PartY]

YIKES! I would have been scared too!!

[TANDG]

scary stuff!!!

[mitchellfam]

thanks.

Yeah, I am facinated by them as well...and I will be riding along with some of the law enforcement around here this Spring just to try and see one up close. Yes, I know I am crazy.

[Michael F.]

I was just two blocks away from the one that hit Fort Worth over four years ago. Saw debris flying horizontally way up next to the skyscrapers, but not the actual funnel (hidden by the tall buildings). Tornados in my dreams always are portents of something radical happening in my life. Don't like the real things, either.

[mitchellfam]

Just got a call from our trooper buddy that went to help out with the cleanup of our church family friends' two houses that got demolished in the tornado in Greensburg Kansas Friday night.

As they got to the house, hanging in the tree was a pair of panty hose...Trooper says to the lady of the house...hey, are these yours? She says nope...definitely not hers...

They go digging through the house rubble...find a very sexy bra....he holds it up and says...HEY...is this yours??? She laughs and says nope...it ain't big enough to hold her stuff. lol

Then as they are digging further, they find a 'For Sale' sign that has apparently blown from a nearby hardware store....inside their house rubble pile....they dig it out....find a sharpie marker...write 'PRICE REDUCED' across it, put it on a stake and place it in the front yard.

At least they are making light of the situation.

Pictures to follow....they are taking them and I should have them posted later tonight or tomorrow at the latest.

[mitchellfam]

Oh, it took them 1.5 hours to get through the 'entrance' to get into town this morning....only residents were allowed in.

[EngineerGuy]

the pics are insane!

[mitchellfam]

Originally Posted by CollegeGuY

the pics are insane!

a funny thing was that on the video, you are looking, and the tornado is right there, on the left hand side of the road....he passes this house...on the left hand side of the road...the guy is in his front yard, looking out across the road in front of his house...apparantly searching for the tornado....trooper has his window down, motions and points behind him, because the tornado is right behind his house, just like in that picture.

Here's your sign....lol

[R.I. GAL]

:shock: :shock: Amazing :shock: :shock:

One trip report I think I could do without though

Hope no one you know was killed

[Michael F.]

Series of slides from this tornado:
http://www.kansas.com/static/slides/...ornadoaerials/

http://www.kansas.com/static/slides/050507tornado/

[carrie77]

I am absolutely fascinated by tornados. I would love to see one in the daylight. I did see one at night in Texas on I-30 like 60 miles east of Dallas back in 2001. I was driving westbound, toward Dallas, and the winds were really pulling from right to left. I guess it would be north to south. I happened to look out my window, and in the field on the other side of the eastbound lanes, just past the fenceline, was a good size tornado. I was actually driving at the time, so I couldn't tell which direction it was going, especially not at 10:00 at night. I must have ran over something... my tire blew out as I was entering the Metroplex, luckily I was quite near a hotel and a 24-hour tire place! (God sure is great!)

Michael, I have had tornado dreams at times in my life. I looked it up in one of those dream books. It says tornado dreams signify your life being beyond your control, which would probably include something radical happening!