Happy "Worst Recorded Tornado Ever" Day

[MyTeamIsOnTheFloor]

Today, in 1925, the worst ever tornado started in Missouri, went all the way across Illinois and ended in Indiana, just north of Princeton.

The Tri-State Tornado stayed on the ground for 235 miles and over 3 hours, killed 695.
Barely missed my family.
I'm lucky to be here.

Mother Nature - she don't play

 

[IUecho87]

My family and I survived a tornado.....

....in 1990. I was 10 and could hear it coming since we had just went to bed. I'll never forget that sound. House was a total loss....I believe they ended up rating it an EF 2.

 

[LuckyIU73]

I know the feeling...

An EF 4 struck Murfreeboro, Tn on Good Friday, 2009. Most of my subdivision was leveled. A mother and child who did everything "right" by hunkering down underneath a mattress in an interior room without windows on the first story were tragically killed just 3 blocks from my residence. One block away, a good friend had to have seven surgeries due to multiple injuries and remains permanently disabled.

My family survived but the sound and memories of such devastation has permanently scarred my wife (and dog) emotionally, which is quite understandable.

 

[MyTeamIsOnTheFloor]

My Mom Survived One

Wrecked her house - had to be torn down.
She got in the bathtub with pillows.
The houses on each side of hers were much worse - one was wiped down to the ground, and the other sort of collapsed.

Hope I never see one real.

 

[McHoop]

Similar experience for me...........

Mid sixties...... we lived in a ranch home with no basement. We rode it out laying in the bathtub.

McHoop

 

[UTFO]

Mine survived...

....the movie "Twister".

Sorta the same thing.

 

[tried&true]

We did, too. Vacationing in RVs on a lake.

Not a lot of safe places to go when that happens. I was pretty young, but I remember the eerie greenish sky, and riding to the hospital in a 70s car of some kind with flat tires.

We were very, very lucky. A broken back and cuts and scratches. Thanks to my dad, I was completely unscathed - he took the brunt of all of the debris.

Every house I've ever lived in has had a basement. I make use of it anytime there is severe weather. Being lucky once doesn't mean I will always be so lucky.

 

[U81Too]

What lake were you at?

We had a camper that slept 8. We used to go camping with another family that had a ski boat. We also had a sail boat. If you weren't skiing you could go sailing. We were at Sullivan Lake with this other family in the 70's.

I don't remember if it was the 4th of July or Memorial Day weekend, but the campground was so busy they mowed a field and parked the overflow in there. I was in the ski boat while my dad was skiing. I saw a tornado off in the distance. I got the attention of the person driving the boat and he made a bee line towards the bank nearest to our truck. My dad had no idea what was going on until we pointed behind him. We beached the boat, tied it to a tree, and rushed back to the camper. We got back to the campsite as the storm hit. All 8 of us sat in the camper playing 2 games of Euchre while the tornado went by.

We probably should have went to the block shower house, but we rode out the storm in the camper. You could feel the trailer lift and slam down on the jacks. I know there were injuries in the park, but we escaped major damage and injury. Curious if we were at the same place, or if it was a different lake on the same day?