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Author Topic: SHTF in Kansas!!!
Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7

Icon 1 posted May 27, 2016 08:15 PM      Profile for Cdog911   Author's Homepage   Email Cdog911         Edit/Delete Post 
Damn! Wednesday night was a real barn burner hereabouts. If you've watched the Weather Channel at all, you've been seeing some of the weather here in Kansas, specifically here in Dickinson County, where I live.

Thought I'd share a few pics and videos with you guys.

Things kicked off around 7 pm. Small thunderstorm - the only one in the state - kicked up and spawned a tornado. That sumbitch didn't die until it had totally traversed my county, traveling 26 miles, and taking 90 minutes to do it. AT times, it was anywhere from a quarter- to a half-mile wide at the ground. According to the NWS, it was an EF4 with winds up to 180 mph and is presently the most powerful tornado to occur in the US this year. Not an award we wanted.

25 homes were severely damaged or destroyed, most of them people I know and whose property I hunt on, but there were only a very few minor injuries and no fatalities.

This first pic is from my backyard. I was looking to the northwest and the tornado is below the wall cloud above that light tan colored building. At this point it was about five miles away, yet so powerful that it was already drafting air into it causing a stiff breeze from the SE. Prior to this pic, I'd been watching and gauging the wall cloud as it trekked directly at us. Figuring my shit was done, I had the wife, daughter and dogs already in the basement. Like any good Kansan, I was in the backyard with the neighbors recording our impending demise.

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Shortly after it dropped from the clouds, it was over a section of ground I frequently write and comment about called "the Big Draw". The tornado dropped and almost immediately did this to the home of lifelong friends and landowners of mine. They survived in the basement, but all their outbuildings and machinery were destroyed. There used to be a back porch addition on the right side. Gone now.

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It was only an EF0-1 at this point. The damage got much worse.

Once it got cooking, it traveled a nearly straight line to the east down 2700 Avenue, which pretty much bisects my hunting area. Sadly, I know almost everyone on that road that took damage. Some only had light damage, while others lost everything. When I say everything, I mean that their homes were literally wiped off the face of the earth along with everything inside.

Just north of Abilene, it crossed K-15 highway just after it destroyed the home of another landowners named Sam. He and his wife were in the basement. All that was left of their ranch style home was two interior walls attached at a right angle. The rest of the home, the trees around is and all their cars were gone. A half-mile east of them, their son's new house - less than a year old - lost half of its roof and most all the siding on the west side. Three big machine sheds ended up wrapped around trees in a creek 700 yards to the east.

After crossing the highway, it hit several other homes, including one where the resident had his new pickup attached to his boat and trailer in the front yard. Their home was obliterated, but when the came out of their shelter, the boat was a quart-mile away, his son's car was on the trailer, beat all to hell, and the pickup didn't have a scratch on it. Bear in mind that this truck was totally exposed to forces that vaporized their house and threw an entire combine over the house and into their backyard.

???????

Another landowner took a direct hit at his home. He and his wife sought shelter under a staircase in their finished basement. At this point, the tornado was huge and just grinding slowly along. They are lucky to be alive. When it hit, he threw his arms around his wife and laid on top of her. They had their frontyard landscaped with those big fist- to cantaloupe-sized river rocks and the tornado pummeled him in the back with those after it tore the house, flooring and subflooring off the foundation. At some point, a big sliver of wood was driven through his hand. They survived.

Continuing to destroy houses and outbuildings, it traveled on east eating trees and wheatfields until it crossed I-70 just west of Chapman, where over 100 homes were destroyed in a tornado in '08.

I went east today on business and you couldn't miss where it crossed the interstate. Trees everywhere twisted in bizarre shaped and the grass alongside and between the highways was bare ground, having been stripped of the very grass by the tornado.

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Once across the highway, it zeroed in on several other farms, totally obliterating one alongside US40 highway. All that was left were the concrete slabs and the basement. No buildings, no house, no nothing. Here is a picture of their almost new car that was in their garage. All the shit you see on the ground used to be their house.

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and this was their newer model truck that was sitting in the driveway out front.
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This picture speaks for itself, and yes, it does happen...

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In the spirit of the movie Twister, here is a video of the actual tornado being recorded by one of those devices they plant ahead of it. This was taken as it crossed K-15 highway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpzlHwbk3XA&app=desktop

And some others...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=ZRrmaIMEILM&app=desktop

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFc8FLk3RAk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEAmPfoW6PQ

I hope these links work. If you have Facebook, I have a ton of pics shared on there from different sources.

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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.

Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003  |  IP: Logged
booger
TOO BIG TO FAIL
Member # 3602

Icon 1 posted May 28, 2016 04:03 AM      Profile for booger   Email booger         Edit/Delete Post 
Thought about you, Lance, during that crap!

Keep your head down and your powder dry!
Tim

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If we ever forget we are one Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under--Ronald Reagan

Posts: 911 | From: Bob Dole Country | Registered: Apr 2010  |  IP: Logged
Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7

Icon 1 posted May 28, 2016 07:41 AM      Profile for Cdog911   Author's Homepage   Email Cdog911         Edit/Delete Post 
Thanks, Tim. We're finer than frog's hair here at the ranch. If anything, I feel a bit of survivor's guilt. Drove as much of the damage area as barricades and sheriff's deputies would let me and saw enough to feel viscerally just how lucky we are to have been spared. The tornado was heading straight toward Abilene when, at about three miles out, it made a rare left hand turn causing it to parallel I-70 until it got about three miles east of town.

As I posted above, when it was five miles out, it was sucking in air from the SE. As it passed by to the north, the wind direction slowly followed it, from the south and then from the SW. It's the biggest one I've ever seen firsthand and the most powerful by far.

I had to work Thursday and, in the tradition of your typical Kansas community, by the time I got off work, so many volunteers, family, and friends had responded through the night Wednesday and Thursday, that the clean up was pretty much done. Lots of debris scattered across miles of wheatfields that will need to be walked and removed, but other than that, everyone's waiting for the insurance adjusters to do their thing. Not much I can do either way, which makes me feel guilty as hell. Herniated disc in my neck and my good knee went bad about two months ago. Both doctors on those are asking me when they can cut me, and my answer is the same. Got no money so it'll have to wait. These people who lost so much have been so generous to me in allowing me to hunt their ground for decades and now all I can offer them is my prayers. Doesn't seem like enough.

On a tangent, don't those pics of the car and truck make you second guess riding one out in your car? This thing moved so slowly at first that there was ample opportunity for residents to flee from its path rather than getting in a hole. Saved one family's lives for sure when the dad looked out the window and told his wife to grab her shit and get in the car - that there was no way they were gonna ride it out in their basement. Their house no longer exists.

Watch that 360-degree video and imagine being in your storm shelter for the entirety of the time that thing is over that camera. Many of these people went through this. Ears popping, air being pulled from your lungs, debris flying around you with mud, fiberglass insulation and splintered wood and a roar so loud you can't even hear yourself screaming.

Scary stuff. Standing in your yard watching something like that coming really forces you to quickly start taking stock of what you have, what you'd do if it was all taken from you, and most of all, how much a real bad ass you aren't in the face of real power when it comes to protecting those you love from harm. We were doing everything we could, should, and needed to do, but it still leaves you feeling helpless and at nature's mercy.

Some of the stories coming out are riveting. A buddy of mine who is an insurance man was on scene right after it hit. That night, our local Middle School had an end of the year formal bash for the kids. After dark, he turned a corner entering the disaster zone and found two young teenaged girls walking down a muddy road in fancy dresses and heels toward a home that no longer existed wearing outfits that were now the only clothes they owned. What was supposed to be one of the most memorable nights of their lives had turned into just that, for all the wrong reasons.

[ May 28, 2016, 07:46 AM: Message edited by: Cdog911 ]

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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.

Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003  |  IP: Logged
Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2

Icon 1 posted May 28, 2016 07:58 AM      Profile for Leonard   Author's Homepage   Email Leonard         Edit/Delete Post 
I sometimes wonder why anybody chooses to live in tornado alley? But, damned near every one of them is deathly afraid of earthquakes in Kalifornia? Or frets about our fires and subsequent mudslides. But they have that violent weather going on every year and keep coming back for more.

I mean, really? Yes there are hurricanes in Florida, floods in Mississippi, ice storms in New Yawk, and maybe it seems like there is no safe place? But there are safer places than Abilene, Kansas; get the hell out while the gettin' is good!

In comparison, our quakes are NOTHING! Where might be the safest part of the country to be protected from natural disasters? Right here is one of them; except for the political situation, of course.

Good hunting. El Bee

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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!

Posts: 31462 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003  |  IP: Logged
Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7

Icon 1 posted May 28, 2016 06:55 PM      Profile for Cdog911   Author's Homepage   Email Cdog911         Edit/Delete Post 
I'd rather risk a tornado than fight a hippy over my guns.

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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.

Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003  |  IP: Logged
Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7

Icon 1 posted May 30, 2016 06:16 AM      Profile for Cdog911   Author's Homepage   Email Cdog911         Edit/Delete Post 
Drove the track of the tornado yesterday and was able to confirm that yes, it did go from one hunting spot to the next. Saw some things worth sharing.

First, this is Sam's house. Actually, it's Sam's kitchen. Until Wednesday, it was a 3-bedroom ranch style hole with pale yellow hardiboard siding. I've hunted his ground for about fifteen years - he owns the only pasture for 100 miles with prairie dogs in it that I'm aware of. Every time I ask him if I can hunt coyotes on his ground, he says the same thing, "Kill 'em all, and the deer and turkeys with 'em."

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This is Sam's neighbor, the Fosters. They run an excavating business building terraces, waterways, etc.. That mangled mess in the center right of the picture was their car that used to be sitting next to the other mangled mess in the picture, their house.

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This is one of the Fosters' dump trucks. It appears to have been blown UP that hill, out the back of the tornado, to the west of the storage building that used to be behind their house.

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That dark-colored thing you see in the distance, if you're able to zoom into it, is the overturned frame of a tandem axle grain truck - essentially a dump truck. The Morton (steel) building it and several other pieces of farm equipment had been stored in was wiped from the face of the earth. Another tandem-axle truck in the building remains at the building site, twisted like an old beer can. This truck was picked up and thrown between 1/4- and 3/8-mile to the east of the building, across the road. Just the frame and axles remain. Despite everyone looking, by air, drone, and on foot, they still have not located the box bed, the cab or the entire engine.

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This last picture shows what, to me, is the bittersweet aspect of this event. On one hand, the places where this tornado struck cover, such as treelines, creeks, and timbers, it completely changed the lay of the land. Eliminated park points where I have hidden my pickup for as long as I've been calling. Those trees are gone and it will be decades before they return. On the other, as fucked up as things are, all that vertical cover and structure is now nothing short of a tangled mess of brush and debris - a veritable haven for rodents and other prey items, which means good cover for bobcats and hiding/ loafing cover for coyotes. This first picture is off the side of a creek bridge I hunt further out beyond the top of the picture. You'll not be able to walk through this mess for many years, it's so thick and gnarly.

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Spoke with my neighbor yesterday. Her brother-in-law who lives down the street from me had just finished rounding up and moving cattle from a pasture that was struck Wednesday night. Dickinson County ha nearly 76,000 cattle, at last count, before Wednesday night. Quite a few were killed. He ended up losing twelve and still cannot account for one more that simply disappeared. He found one full grown cow - about 1,500 pounds, wedged in the fork of a tree about ten feet off the ground, all the skin stripped off both side of her body and her guts hanging out, dead (of course).

That's something that makes you say, "Holy shit!"

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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.

Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003  |  IP: Logged
TRnCO
FUTURE HALL OF FAMER
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Icon 1 posted May 30, 2016 07:39 AM      Profile for TRnCO   Email TRnCO         Edit/Delete Post 
not too mention all the rain, that just won't stop falling back in those parts, you guys are having it rough this spring.

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Is it hunting season yet? I hate summer!

Posts: 996 | From: Elizabeth, CO | Registered: Aug 2005  |  IP: Logged
Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7

Icon 1 posted May 30, 2016 09:05 AM      Profile for Cdog911   Author's Homepage   Email Cdog911         Edit/Delete Post 
The rain here is a good thing. When it started, we were needing it to help the wheat finish out. Corn's being planted and it's coming up really nicely. Rivers are slightly out of their banks, but this is the first time I've seen all the area ponds and lakes full in years. If it slows or stops now, and the field dry out enough for us to get in there with side by sides and trailers to get debris picked up, things should be good. Away from the damage track, they're predicting a great harvest. But, less rain now would be good.

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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.

Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003  |  IP: Logged
TRnCO
FUTURE HALL OF FAMER
Member # 690

Icon 1 posted May 31, 2016 04:53 AM      Profile for TRnCO   Email TRnCO         Edit/Delete Post 
Rain is a good thing for the farmers that have all their crops in the ground, but I know my family and several around them still don't have all the beans planted and haven't gotten started getting milo planted. So a dry period long enough to get that done would be a good thing. Probably dry up and stay dry, like has done many times in the past.
Amazing the damage mother nature can do sometimes. A couple of those vehicles are darn near un-recognizable.

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Is it hunting season yet? I hate summer!

Posts: 996 | From: Elizabeth, CO | Registered: Aug 2005  |  IP: Logged
Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2

Icon 1 posted May 31, 2016 05:08 AM      Profile for Leonard   Author's Homepage   Email Leonard         Edit/Delete Post 
quote:
A couple of those vehicles are darn near un-recognizable.

Besides that, I have to say UNBELIEVABLE. Sure, you can tell me that this "nader" blew through town and did this, but I have a hard time understanding how "wind" can do that to a car, much less a dump truck? Throw a 1500 pound animal and wedge it in the fork of a tree?

Then, you have people making a living by chasing and photographing these funnel clouds. That's really playing with fire. I know, bad metaphor.

Good hunting. El Bee

edit: somebody has to do something about GLOBAL WARMING!

[ May 31, 2016, 05:09 AM: Message edited by: Leonard ]

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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!

Posts: 31462 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003  |  IP: Logged
TRnCO
FUTURE HALL OF FAMER
Member # 690

Icon 1 posted May 31, 2016 06:53 AM      Profile for TRnCO   Email TRnCO         Edit/Delete Post 
Believe it or not, there are a few people that believe that a giant/tall wall could be built that would prevent tornados, and if you don't believe me do a search on "tall wall to prevent tornado" and see for yourself.
Proof that there are still people that believe we mere mortals can prevent mother nature from taking her natural coarse.
From building a wall to prevent tornado's to cloud seeding to cause more snow, to calling all people to drive a Prius to prevent global warming. WE CAN DO IT [Eek!]

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Is it hunting season yet? I hate summer!

Posts: 996 | From: Elizabeth, CO | Registered: Aug 2005  |  IP: Logged
knockemdown
Our staff photo editing Guru, par excellence
Member # 3588

Icon 1 posted May 31, 2016 07:04 AM      Profile for knockemdown   Author's Homepage           Edit/Delete Post 
Man, its terrible to see families' homes/lives battered like that...

All I know is, if I owned 76,000 cows, I'd sell a couple thousand and build a big house out of poured friggin' cement to live in. With lotsa round exterior edges and lexan windows!

Posts: 2202 | From: behind fascist lines | Registered: Mar 2010  |  IP: Logged
Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2

Icon 6 posted May 31, 2016 01:08 PM      Profile for Leonard   Author's Homepage   Email Leonard         Edit/Delete Post 
Your chances of survival would be better if you built this Lexan and concrete edifice in peaceful, bucolic Arizona. I might even rent a room from you.

Good hunting El Bee

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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!

Posts: 31462 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003  |  IP: Logged
Kokopelli
SENIOR DISCOUNT & Dispenser of Sage Advice
Member # 633

Icon 1 posted May 31, 2016 01:44 PM      Profile for Kokopelli   Author's Homepage           Edit/Delete Post 
Or build the entire thing underground.

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And lo, the Light of the Trump shown upon the Darkness and the Darkness could not comprehend it.

Posts: 7580 | From: Under a wandering star | Registered: Apr 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frank
CAN START A FIRE WITH A BUCK KNIFE AND A ROCK
Member # 6

Icon 1 posted May 31, 2016 08:17 PM      Profile for Frank   Author's Homepage   Email Frank         Edit/Delete Post 
Damn, you guys have as many tornadoes as they have dust devils out west. Ever consider building your home underground?

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"Truth is no prostitute, that throws herself away upon those who do not desire her; she is rather so coy a beauty that he who sacrifices everything to her cannot even then be sure of her favor".

Posts: 644 | From: North Dakota | Registered: Jan 2003  |  IP: Logged
Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7

Icon 1 posted June 02, 2016 06:31 PM      Profile for Cdog911   Author's Homepage   Email Cdog911         Edit/Delete Post 
More homes are being built into the sides of hills, but not underground. And many of the new homes are being built with safe rooms - solid, reinforced concrete bunkers. Our new hospital was built with a safe room at the end of each wing. Many new schools are being built with large safe rooms. You don't really see them because they are purposed for other activities normally, but in the event of a tornado, they do the trick.

I did see one safe room of the type that is sunk into the ground. The approach side is slanted and has a steel door that takes you about six feet down into the actual room itself. Two people took shelter in it and their home was leveled. This was down by Dodge City the night before ours. The one thing I noticed, that I did not like, was that the steel door on theirs opened outward. My buddy Kent rebuilt his house after the first one was destroyed in a tornado and his safe room door opens inward. His reasoning? In the even that debris is across the door frame on the outside, you wouldn't be able to open it by pushing outward.

At the same time, tornadoes suck. Literally. If a door opens to the outside, one like we had could pull it open despite multiple locks or bolts, and that's just what happened down in Dodge. The inside was full of debris and mud. With a door inside opening into the structure, the force of the tornado would pull the door tighter into its frame. Just thinking out loud.

Our basement is fully finished. The basement itself is a big rectangular shaped hole with concrete block spur walls coming in from both ends with an opening between them to accommodate the walk through at the landing that turns left into a bedroom, right into the bath, and straight ahead into the family room. My family knows to shelter in the corner of the spur wall and the west family room wall. There, we keep four formerly used motorcycle helmets, complete with eye protection, a four foot pry bar, and a whistle along with a pair of shoes or boots for every member of the family. The lamp table nearest to there has a drawer full of flashlights and batteries. My old turnout coat and helmet from when I was a firefighter are nearby in my office as a static display of dad's hero days but I keep them there for use of this kind as well. Each of us has responsibilities when the warning is issued. My wife and I grab our wallets, purses, and anything with our ID's, and the checkbook. I'm usually busy getting everyone downstairs and monitoring the computer and radio, so Lisa grabs all our prescription meds. Each of us is responsible for our own cell phones. As soon as we are in shelter, I text someone outside that we are in and where we are at. One word of advice - cell phones are "iffy" after a disaster. Assuming you actually have service (this tornado passed within a mile of our cable transmission towers, upon which are the cell phone antennae, so we would have lost both had they been hit), rather than trying to call out, send a text. Making a call requires that you stay committed to that task. Dialing, getting a "no service" beep. Again, and again. Send a text. Even if the system is down at the moment, your outgoing text is placed in a queue where, the very second the system reconnects, even if for just one second, that package of texts is transmitted and your message goes through.

I have to publicly praise our local officials. The Chapman, Kansas tornado in '08 and the '12 tornado to the northwest of us provided a wealth of experience for local emergency preparedness officials, firefighters, law enforcement and rescue. When the tornado crossed into our county, there was a line of fire units, state troopers, deputy sheriffs and first responder/ EMT's waiting for it. They literally watched it chew through homes as it traveled east and were clearing debris from roads and accessing those damaged homes to rescue people from their basement within minutes, if not seconds. Those needing medical attention - of which there were very few - got it on scene immediately. Our 911 center did a stellar job of proactively calling the two different power companies that serve the disaster zone and they were right there in the middle of things shutting down downed live power lines. Firefighters were there to secure damaged propane tanks and natural gas lines and render first aid. By the time the sun set, less than an hour later, hundreds of local volunteers were accessing the damaged sites to help salvage personal belongings. In a lot of the pictures, you see large steel shipping containers. We have a company locally that sells those for storage buildings. He immediately began loading his transport semis and having those dropped at each farm for them to use in securing what could be saved. Farmers from all around began arriving with front end loaders and tractors to bulldoze roads and driveways clear of downed trees and debris. By afternoon the next day, a huge amount of work had been done. Every home along the tornado's path had undergone a primary and secondary search and each was clearly marked with the large orange X's like you saw after Katrina. I may work for the post office now, but it makes me proud to see how effective and efficient that response was knowing that during my tenure, I helped build a little bit of that.

I'm gonna try and load up one last pic so you can get an idea how wide this thing was when it crossed into my county -a little perspective. Hope we never have another like it ever again.

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Having traveled most of the track this thing took, I now know exactly where this pic was taken from. A mile east of Solomon, just west of Abilene, and just north of Interstate-70, looking north. The camera is about 1/2 miles from a farm at the corner of Barn Road and 2450 Avenue. Those trees you see are fifty-foot tall cottonwood trees. The tornado itself is still 2 miles further north of those trees. Barn Road is 1 mile into Dickinson County. At this point, it was a half- to 3/4-mile wide at the ground and probably 1.5 - 3 miles wide at the top. Thinking about that for moment, imagine how big that thing looked if you were watching it bear down on your home or farm since the base of the clouds is probably 3,000 up. I can assure you they sound just like they say they do. Somewhere between a thousand trains or jet engines all screaming at one time. The real stinker is that they are surreal to watch. You almost can't take your eyes off one. You just stand there with your mouth hanging open thinking, "Hooolllyyy shiiiiit!"

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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.

Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003  |  IP: Logged
Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2

Icon 1 posted June 03, 2016 05:44 AM      Profile for Leonard   Author's Homepage   Email Leonard         Edit/Delete Post 
Thanks, Lance.

Interesting stuff.

I remember, as a kid living in Minneapolis. We were out somewhere? And, it was night time. And, my dad was driving many detours to get home. All I remember about it was how many trees were down, everywhere.

I'm thinking I was probably nine or so? But, that event brought serious changes to the part of southern Minneapolis where we lived. There was a golf course a block away that became a swamp/lake for the rest of the time we lived there before moving to California. I hated the idea of moving, but I didn't get a vote.

I had never seen a seagull before this, (whatever it was?) a hurricane? The golf course became a very cool place for a kid, flooded, with all the critters you expect in a swamp, frogs, toads, garter snakes and lots of birds.

I used to walk around that golf course which was transformed into a wilderness with a kinda cheap knife and hatchet holster set strapped on my waist that my uncle gave me, utilitarian, nothing fancy, but very handy for my exploring, like Huck Finn, actually. Back in those days, I guess parents didn't worry where their kids were and what they were doing?

I used to keep frogs for bait in my dad's minnow bucket. Fishing wasn't as good as you might expect because they were spawning on the flooded fairways, and I imagine the sand traps were dominated by bass, but the bullheads were everywhere and they stood out, being black in the clear water.

Anyway, this was in about 1952/1954 timeframe. It was a major deal for that area. These days they might have broke out the pumps and you'd never know the difference by the weekend? But, it sure put the skids to my caddie days. The thing is, even though we lived in the city, I could ride my bike completely out of town in an hour, so the net result was that it was like I grew up between 10-12 yr old like I was a country boy.

Good memories caused by a freak weather event.

Good hunting. El Bee

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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!

Posts: 31462 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003  |  IP: Logged
Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7

Icon 1 posted June 07, 2016 03:01 PM      Profile for Cdog911   Author's Homepage   Email Cdog911         Edit/Delete Post 
Couple more cool stories from last week's tornadoes to bore you with. Heard them this morning. Had to just say, "wow"

From the guy whose cow was found wedged in the tall tree, he actually had to shoot six others that were so entangled with trees and brush from the woodlot they ran to for shelter that they couldn't cut them free. As they began, they realized they were all punctured full of holes from branches and limbs still attached to the trees that buried them.

Same guy came up short two cows. One they still haven't found. The other, for all appearances, appears to have been crushed by a cottonwood tree. Except, it looked like the tornado pulled this huge cottonwood tree straight up out of the ground, root ball and all, leaving a giant crater into which this cow was tossed by the tornado before is slammed the cottonwood root ball back into the hole, on top of the cow.

Another guy whose house was obliterated from the face of the earth found out this morning that all his machinery is totaled. Two newer combines, three tractors, over a million bucks right there. He had a few cows in the pens he uses to hold his herd in winter right behind the house. They were checking them over the day after the tornado when they noticed something shiny attached to one of them. Upon closer inspection, they found one of their good butter knives sticking out of her hindquarter, it had impaled her right up to the handle and stayed there.

Absolutely amazing shit, if you ask me.

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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.

Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003  |  IP: Logged


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