FishinBC Posted March 13, 2006 Report Share Posted March 13, 2006 Pretty hairy last night. Bill woke me at about 9:30, they were reporting a twister on the ground east of Bentonville. As we were watching, the tornado sirens started going off. Trying to stay calm so that I wouldn?t panic Ryan, we grabbed the futon mattress and all climbed into the tub in our bathroom at the center of the house. Ryan, Bill, me AND the dogs. No time to grab cats, I will have to work out a solution for that next time. Lot?s of wind, noise and sirens. Everything was okay with us but just north of us got the direct hit. A number of homes gone, including a co workers here. Hey, at least we had warning, unlike the ground shaking us out of bed in California right? This was the first tornado to hit Benton County in a very long time. No more thank you very much! Hope everyone else in the OK, MO, AR, etc areas are okay!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrisK Posted March 13, 2006 Report Share Posted March 13, 2006 Glad to hear that you are all okay. I was watching the news last night and wondered about the folks on this board. Living in N. Ontario, tornadoes are a rarity. We do have them on occasion but we're more likely to have microbursts instead. However, I do have a question about living in 'tornado alley'. Since tornadoes are almost a way of life, do most people have storm shelters? Where I live, the majority of homes have basements. Is that the case where you live as well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tammy525 Posted March 13, 2006 Report Share Posted March 13, 2006 Glad you are ok, I was wondering the same thing, why they even build homes without basements in "Tornado Alley". The trailers, too. Maybe the benefit outweighs the risk. I don't know what you would do with the cats, it probably wouldn't be feasible to set them up in your shelter area (bathroom) at night during tornado season or stormy times. We would have a rough time with that, too, as two of the cats sleep in the garage at the opposite ends of the bedrooms and the one cat could be anywhere during the nite!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jo&Tex Posted March 13, 2006 Report Share Posted March 13, 2006 I went throught the Great Barrie Tornado of 1984. I was not home that day but we only lost our roof. The homes on either side of us were leveled. It was an F5, which is a rarity here. Amazing destruction in about 10 minutes time and of course we have no warning systems of any kind. I was across town and the storm wasn't even bad in the north end, just an eerie green sky just before it hit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronHorse Posted March 13, 2006 Report Share Posted March 13, 2006 We had golfball size hail and 1 aloft vortex pass pretty much directly over the house. I have not been into town yet but heard there is conciderable damage to the west and know of at least one death a few miles east where a 1/2 mile wide twister ran on the ground for quite awhile,,apparently a trailor dropped directly on top of her. Last I heard we had no less then 29 confirmed tornados in the 4 county area where I am. As for storm shelters, well when I built this house I did incorperate a storm bunker with a steel and concrete reinforced roof into one corner of the basement (basements alone don't give that much protection from falling debri if a house takes a direct hit) which is where the Wife and our 3 bitchs were during the worst of these storms yesterday and last night,,however TBolt and I rode it out in the truck up on the hill where we have the best visability (not the smartest place to be but oh well its a man thing,what can I say) Unfortunately in the state of Missouri it is not mandatory to have a storm shelter,alot do but alot don't as well. The ones that seem to need shelters the most generally don't have them and those are trailors and modular homes, I know if I was going live in one of those things I would at least invest the few thousand dollars into installing some type of shelter.Trailors in a tornado are like leaves in the wind and they seem to attract tornados like magnets. Cheri, Glad to hear you all are alright,i was watching the coverage and the bentonville area really got hammered as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miztiki Posted March 13, 2006 Report Share Posted March 13, 2006 I'm glad you're ok! I hope everyone else on the board is ok too. I just saw on the news that 10 people lost their lives, 9 from Missouri alone. They are showing video on the news right now and a large area is just destroyed. Terrifying and horribly sad stuff, especially when lives are lost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emmetteabrakai Posted March 13, 2006 Report Share Posted March 13, 2006 we had lots of hail, and lots of high winds, tornados touched down in at least three spots around me. It was interesting to say the least. I don't have a basement, but I do have a room with renforced roof and side walls. I called my neighbor and asked if I could come over there if necessary to the basement.She said sweetie be my guest, but we haven't been in the basemanet for a tornado in 20 years hope all is well with every one else too. Andrea D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smileyzookie Posted March 13, 2006 Report Share Posted March 13, 2006 My mom and dad are from Missouri. She said the tornado alarm went off 3 times during church. I thank God they are ok. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbender Posted March 13, 2006 Report Share Posted March 13, 2006 Glad to hear you're safe. As for the cats, why don't you keep cat-carriers handy for just such an occasion. Do you have a couple you use to transport them to the vet? For the short period of time you'd be in shelter-mode, that should be fine. We're just outside of Chicago and luckily only had a lot of thunderstorms and heard about quite a few downed power lines. Our dog was a mess during the thunderstorms. They seemed to come in waves. Just when I was finally getting her calm, they'd start again, all through the night. She and I only got about an hour sleep. I had to go to work the in am...she got to sleep in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hector Posted March 14, 2006 Report Share Posted March 14, 2006 The Weather Channel has reported that Sunday was the worst single tornado day in US history. It is certainly sad that lives were lost, but considering the extent of the tornados it could have been a lot worse. If I were building a house in a tornado alley location I would definitely want a reinforced storm cellar in the basement. In April 2002 an F4 tornado hit La Plata, Maryland and passed about five miles from our house. A few days later I drove my car through the area to see the damage. Downtown La Plata could not have been destroyed any worse with a big bulldozer. It was just a pile of rubble. There was one residential area where we saw two bare/clean concrete pads where homes had previously stood. Both homes had been cleanly lifted off their pads and deposited in a heap about 200 feet away. Being in a center room or bathroom in one of those houses would not have provided any protection. So I think that having a storm cellar would be good *insurance* in tornado alley. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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