Posted: 4/26/2009 6:58:59 PM EDT
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It's getting to the point that every time there's severe weather, I'll leave the tv off, because I don't want to hear the news people talking about it. It just makes me so nervous and sick to my stomach. I live in a mobile home and the only shelter I have is my neighbors house (if he's home) or a ditch. All my life I've had dreams where there is about a dozen tornadoes coming on the horizon and I'm running for shelter. But until a couple of years ago I was more fasinated by them than terrified. If I had a basement where all I had to do was walk down the stairs to safety it would be a different story, but instead I'm trying to decide if I should call my neighbor and wake him up to let me in his basement, jump in the truck and try and drive around the storm, what about my little friend friskie, she's terrified of riding in my truck but I can't leave her in here.
I think it all started a couple years ago when some bad weather came through. I said hell with it and laid down on the couch and took a nap. I could hear the tornado siren off in the distance in town but just basically ignored it. Pretty soon the telephone rang and it was a buddy down the road. He asked if I had heard about a tornado over on the county road. I said no. About that time I had walked over to the window and looked out. Well there it was, my first tornado. To me it looked like a small one in the pasture behind the barn but actually it was a big one the next road West. I remember just saying "shit, I've gotta go"and hung up the phone. I couldn't get my boots on fast enough. Grabbed the cat, tried to get the dog out of his pen but he wouldn't come. Ran to the neighbors house but he wasn't home. I was going to kick in his back door but it's pretty solid, so I ran over to the fence. There's a deep ravine on the other side of the fence and when I got there I stopped to look at the tornado and it looked like it was angling away so I just stood there and watched it. So I made it through that one alive. Then yesterday on the way home from work, I heard them talking about rotation on a radio station. I get home and didn't even turn the tv on. I'm in the bathroom and can hear my phone ringing. At the same time I can hear that eery siren off in the distance and the thumping of a choppers props coming. I open the back door and it's channel 9 news helicopter coming straight toward the farm. Right before he gets here he whirls around and just stops in mid air like he's looking at something that was chasing him. When I saw him do that I knew I might be in trouble, so I grabbed the cat and put her outside. If she has to, she can hide under the foundation of an old deserted farm house that sits not far from here. I've seen her come from there a lot of times when I pull in. I couldn't see the tornado because of the barn and some trees. I new my neighbor was home because I could see his back door open so I ran over there. My neighbor had seen it and got some pictures on his cell. The tornado was a couple miles to the West and destroyed some homesteads which I'm sure a lot of you saw on the news. As I type this I can hear storms off in the distance coming. I miss Winter! 
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Move?
I will not live in tornado alley (that's a big section of the country) or hurricane prone areas (another one) because of the stress. My folks grew up in southern Indiana and had the tornado fear put into them when a big one ripped up half the city back in the 1940's. We lived in Texas and then Illinois and every advisory or warning was a reason to have the stress pumps cranked up. I remember my mother racing home one day when we saw the funnel clouds forming and the cities sirens were going off. I might live there again and if I do the underground bunker storm shelter will be a must have addition. At least with an earthquake there's no warning and there's not an entire season dedicated to them. 
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Quoted:
I understand freaking out... but you threw your cat outside to fend for himself? It's doubtful he'd have the forethought to run for that shelter... Cats are smart. My cat spends a lot of time outside and a lot of time when it storms and she is inside, she actually begs to go out. She has special places to go for shelter where she feels safe from storms. |
I just drove home from Wichita today ( twelve hour drive  )and saw those storm chaser vans everywhere, just more motivation to increase my speed a little and get back to Louisiana, I know it's not saying much but at least here we know a few days out a hurricanes coming so we can get out the way.
In before the lootie / Katrina bashing posts 
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| When I was in college I did tornado/high wind testing on mobile homes and modular homes using a C-130's propwash. Lets just say I see your concern. Then again I'd never live in such a building in Kansas, that's just asking for it. Build yourself a tornado room or underground storm shelter. |
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When I was in college I did tornado/high wind testing on mobile homes and modular homes using a C-130's propwash. Lets just say I see your concern. Then again I'd never live in such a building in Kansas, that's just asking for it. Build yourself a tornado room or underground storm shelter. I'm just renting the place. only $350 a month. The plan is to buy my own home. I was hoping to be out of here before tornado season but here I am still. |
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Was doing some storm chasing in southwest wisconsin earlier tonight. Was following a tornado warning that came over from iowa and had a spotter reported tornado touch down at a few places. Didnt catch any tornadoes but got some decent wall cloud shots. stupid canon dslr battery was dead before i ran out the door so i had to use my point and shoot canon sd1000.   |
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Although not in "Tornado Alley", I lived in Southern Michigan and were often chased into the basement by tornado warnings. The memory of the tornado that ripped the ass out of Flint was still frash in a lot of memories, and I remember seeing one on the other side of the lake hit my hometown of Pinckney, MI. It is some scary shit'
Unfortunately, I now live on the central east coast of Florida, and have to go through 6 months of hurricane season every year. Tornadoes just show up, but these fucking hurricanes stalk you for days. We were hit by 3 of them in 2004, hit by Faye last year, and at least one a year for all the years I've been here. People freak out, buy-up all the plywood, generators, food, water, and the gas stations run out of gas days before it "might" hit. It's like crying "WOLF" 10 times a year,and you never know which one is actually going to hit you. This shit is nerve-wracking. Being in public safety, I never had the option to evacuate, so we just holed-up wherever we could and rode it out. I've been in 7 hurricanes where the eye actually passed right over us, and it tore the ass out of the city. Now that I'm retired/disabled, I'm going to get the fuck out of here ASAP, but I love the Midwest, so I'm probably going to be a tornado target again. I'll just build me a shelter/vault/storage room in the basement (no basements in Florida). |
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Quoted:
Move? I will not live in tornado alley (that's a big section of the country) or hurricane prone areas (another one) because of the stress. My folks grew up in southern Indiana and had the tornado fear put into them when a big one ripped up half the city back in the 1940's. We lived in Texas and then Illinois and every advisory or warning was a reason to have the stress pumps cranked up. I remember my mother racing home one day when we saw the funnel clouds forming and the cities sirens were going off. I might live there again and if I do the underground bunker storm shelter will be a must have addition. At least with an earthquake there's no warning and there's not an entire season dedicated to them. That sounds like a good plan. Where is the form to transfer in my 50 caliber rifles, machine guns, SBR's, suppressors, and several crates of high cap mags made last year? Can't find it on the CA DOJ website... |
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Rent a backhoe and dig yourself a big deep pit.
Line floor with concreat, wall pit with cinderblocks and cap hole one foot above ground with a metal plate and door. There storm shelter. If you own the property then there is your improvement project. Place here sells storm shelters. Concreate box with entry on roof just plant in the ground around 2grand and they finance. Nothing else get a concreate culvert pipe and barry it in the side of a hill close by for a quit relitively cheap storm shelter. |