Recent tornados and hail

Bill Myrick · Post by **Bill Myrick** » 14 Mar 2006 3:10 am

My wife and I returned home from Dallas sunday evening just in time to have her towncar totaled in a giant hail storm. Tornado passed 4 miles south of here destroying several homes, etc. I understand the storm extended up through Missouri and Illinois. Anyone have news of this ?? (At least we did get 3 1/3 inches of much needed moisture.)

Fred Justice · Post by **Fred Justice** » 14 Mar 2006 5:05 am

Hey Bill, good to hear you and your wife are safe, sorry about the Town Car buddy.

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Fred Justice,
Fred's Music www.fredjusticemusic.com
Rains Steel Guitars

DeWitt Scott · Post by **DeWitt Scott** » 14 Mar 2006 9:22 am

Mary and I was on our way home and the weather looked fine. That was Sunday evening and as we were tired we stopped in Springfield, MO for the night. The motel manager woke us up and had us go to the basement part of the motel as there was a tornado approaching. That was quite an experience. All the people were sitting on the floor in the hallway just like you see in the movies. Nothing happened and we returned to our room. Only to to be called again as another tornado was approaching. Nothing happened on that one either. But we always think of what could have happened. We came on home to St. Louis the next day in beautiful sunshine. "What A Difference A Day Makes". Scotty & Mary

Post by **Joey Ace** » 14 Mar 2006 9:27 am

Due to weather problems, my connecting filght in Chicago was canceled, I ended up having to spend the night at the airport, encountering a 17 hour delay, and very bumpy plane rides.

My luggage was lost in the confusion, and did not arrive at my destination. The airlines seem to belive they'll find it and deliver it, as many are in the same situation. Of course, my bars, picks, and the toys I purchased at the show had to be in checked bagage.

Still, I arived home safe, a day late, and goods can be replaced. The show was great. I was honered to play at the Internation Jam in the Peavey room.

[This message was edited by Joey Ace on 14 March 2006 at 09:29 AM.]

Gene Jones · Post by **Gene Jones** » 14 Mar 2006 9:48 am

Tornado Alley is real!

On one of our trips, we were traveling through the same southeastern Nebraska (Northwestern Missouri)area and were caught in one of those storms.

Just in the nick of time we found a car wash with an empty stall and parked my wife's Cadilac Barritz in time to avoid the hail damage....and fortunately the wind didn't blow us away!

It's always a "crap shoot" in our geographical area, but I think that we are better off than the natural disasters that regularly occur in other parts of the USA! Katrina comes to mind!

www.genejones.com

Keith Hilton · Post by **Keith Hilton** » 14 Mar 2006 9:59 am

It tore up everything around us, but missed us by 4 miles north in Ozark. It missed my barns and tractors in Lawrence County by 4 miles south. Killed one man south of my Farm.
This storm took the exact same route the storm 3 years ago took. The track was just a few hundred yards from 3 years ago. Some of the houses that were totaled 3 years ago and rebuilt were leveled again. I saw a picture on T.V. where it drove a plastic spoon into a
piece of wood and out the other side. The plastic spoon was not broken, and was sticking out both sides of the wood. Try driving a plastic spoon through a piece of wood and see how far you get. How can wind do that?[This message was edited by Keith Hilton on 14 March 2006 at 10:00 AM.]

Marc Friedland · Post by **Marc Friedland** » 14 Mar 2006 10:05 am

Here's a related story that took place almost exactly 20 years ago to the day.
If you wish to view the entire story of Menage, visit my website, click the "Bands" link, and then click on Menage.
www.marcfriedland.com
Thanks, Marc

“The Tornado Story:”
This story tells how Lorilee’s pillows literally saved our lives!
The trio, Ménage had concluded its final road gig in Youngstown Ohio, and we were on our way back home. We could have taken some gigs on the way home, but everyone was pretty burnt out and just looking forward to getting home. We had stayed at a motel one night somewhere in Indiana. After leaving the motel and traveling for about a ½ hour, Lorilee realized that she left her pillows back at the motel room. These pillows were important, not because of their financial value, but because of the large part they played in our comfort factor. So naturally, we turned around to go back and get the pillows. Once on our way again, we’re traveling down the road towing a trailer behind our 1982 red Subaru. The trailer contained most of our worldly possessions, music equipment and personal belongings. It was a gorgeous day in the middle of March, 1986. All of a sudden, the beautiful sunny day turned almost as dark as night within a minute. The wind was blowing so hard that I had to slow down from 55 to 25 immediately or I would not have been able to control the car. We saw a large billboard on the other side of the highway get blown apart and go flying in front of our car as though it wasn’t heavier than a piece of paper. We got off the very next exit that was available to us. As we’re going down the exit ramp we can see a little diner near by, and as we get closer we see all of its lights go off. We pull on the side of the diner and attempt to get out, but the wind was so strong, that it was difficult to open the doors. We get inside the café, and the owner greets us. She says: “four twisters just touched down over the hill and may be on their way here – you can get in the walk-in cooler with us, or stay out here in the dining room, it’s your lives!” I turned to Lorilee and said “WHAT!!!!!!” I couldn’t believe I just heard those words. I wasn’t ready to accept the fact that our car & trailer and all of its contents will probably be blown away like that billboard I saw, and that we’d be lucky to escape with our lives. We brought in flashlights, a radio, blankets, and of course, pillows, and figured we’d wait there in the dining room to see what would happen next. Oddly enough, the pay phones were working, so I called my parents who were in Florida at the time, to let them know what was happening. A call came in also from someone to inform us that 2 more twisters touched down and appeared to be on their way towards us. We anxiously waited, looking out the windows expecting to see one of Mother Nature’s most lethal forces coming right at us. We wondered if we too, would run to the cooler with the others. But the tornado was a no-show! None of the many twisters that actually touched down ever came over the hill where this little café sat at the end of the exit ramp. We had to remain in the diner for about another hour until the State Police indicated that was it was safe to resume travel on the highway. Eventually we got moving again. We had been traveling about an hour when we passed the area on the highway where there was a tremendous amount of damage and semi trucks turned over. If we had not gone back to get Lorilee’s pillows, we could have ended up in that area where the worst damage was done, right at the same time the twisters crossed over that section of the highway.

Bob Smith · Post by **Bob Smith** » 14 Mar 2006 10:19 am

I always wondered? Do most people have an underground room to duck into if you see it coming? Or is it actually more rare than it seems to take a direct hit? Its looks the scariest thing on earth ,someone could experience , on TV. bob

Colm Chomicky · Post by **Colm Chomicky** » 14 Mar 2006 11:14 am

We were spared but folks in nearby areas to the north, east, west, and south were hit. Besides strong straight-line winds, tornados and microbursts, a few areas had up to baseball size hail. The tornado sirens went off briefly Sunday morning, but there was no nearby threatening weather. Fortunately our house has a basement but plenty of areas the folks are just slab on grade.

Bill Myrick · Post by **Bill Myrick** » 14 Mar 2006 11:44 am

I just talked with my PLYCO truck driver enroute here from Wisconsin and he said "Springfield, Illinois was hurt big time". Got hit with two differant tornados while he was traveling sunday night !! This was more wide spred than I imagined.

Lawrence Sullivan · Post by **Lawrence Sullivan** » 14 Mar 2006 1:37 pm

Bill we had unseasonably warm weather for a couple days and that usually terminates with storms There were numerous storms over Missouri and Illinois, possibly the largest loss of life was at Sedalia, Mo with appx 10 killed, that is about 180 miles west of St Louis
It wasn't uncommon years ago to see storm cellars but you seldom see one now
They showed one picture on TV of a family that took refuge in their basement and good thing they did, their cars ended up on the living room floor when the house blew away
Tornados are terrible but so are the range fires folks in West Texas are experiencing
Respectfully Larry

Gene Jones · Post by **Gene Jones** » 14 Mar 2006 1:39 pm

I always wondered? Do most people have an underground room to duck into if you see it coming? Or is it actually more rare than it seems to take a direct hit? Its looks the scariest thing on earth

Bob, most of us in tornado alley just don't think about the danger of a tornado...it's like the odds of being in an automobile accident on the Interstate. We know the danger, but we assume it will probably not happen to us personally.

Since most tornados occur during the hours of darkness we usually just sleep through the danger period since there's nowhere to hide anyway.

Once in the past we had a home with a tornado shelter, but we never bothered to go to it more than once or twice while we lived there. We worry more about hail damage to our roof and automobiles than we do about personal injury.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 14 Mar 2006 3:14 pm

I talked to our daughter in Kansas City, Mo, North (about 3 miles SE of KCI Airport) and all they got was pea and nickel size hail. But about 10 blocks south of them they got softball size hail.

Our son lives in Lansing, KS - just a little north and east of Lawrence in a mobile home but they only got some rain and a couple of wind gusts.

When we lived in Kansas City, Mo the spring severe weather and tornado watches and warnings are just part of the "territory". We had a corner in our basement that was our "tornado shelter". We now live in Florida and instead of Tornados, we now have Hurricanes to contend with.

Lyle Clary · Post by **Lyle Clary** » 14 Mar 2006 3:39 pm

I live 35 miles east of Springfield, Illinois. Two or three tornadoes touched down Sunday night in various parts of the town and did extensive damage, such as taking a roof off a Walmart and downing a radio tower which was erected in 1949. Most of the town of 120 thousand people were withoutpower for at least 24 hours. Then I read in the paper that one touched down 15 miles northwest of where I live and tore down a pole barn full of antique John Deere tractors and a house. The same twister leveled a 400 foot ATT micro-wave communication tower which was built in the 1950's. I know you have seen them, they used to be all over the USA. The big red ones built like they could withstand anything. By the way the family who lost the pole barn and home is a cousin of a cousin. The tower missed this house by a few hundred feet.

Scott Henderson · Post by **Scott Henderson** » 14 Mar 2006 8:48 pm

we spent part of the night in the crawl space of the club i was playing in. but fortunately it went to the north of us. We also didnt want to go home as we heard via phone a tornado was coming thru our home town of Eldon. I have head Moberly Mo was hit extensively and am curious if anyone has heard from forum member SR Penton. Ralph lives in the moberly area. I thoughts and prayers are with all effected by this outbreak of storms

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Steelin' away in the ozarks and life,
Scott
www.scottyhenderson.com

Jody Sanders · Post by **Jody Sanders** » 14 Mar 2006 8:55 pm

Sure glad all you guys made it safely. Thank you JESUS. Jody.

Norma Jean Lucas · Post by **Norma Jean Lucas** » 15 Mar 2006 3:46 am

Bill, Twin Oaks is litterally gone. You still can't travel on the scenic route through there. Also one of our nurse's lost their trailor house but fortunately they got out in time. Gentry, Centerton and Bentonville also was hit randomly. Thank the good Lord that the injuries were not as many as there could have been. No deaths in our area. See ya tuesday nite.

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 15 Mar 2006 11:30 am

What hailstones do to an automobile is absolutely unbelievable. Slow, painful demolition...