It's Tornado Season

[Guest]

Well folks, it's that time of year again when the atmosphere makes its changes, pushing warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico and the cooler, dry air from the north. The mixture makes for some spectacular thunderstorms, some producing heavy rains, hail, deadly lightning and of course, tornados. Tornados can hit at any time of the year, but the times of season when they make most of their appearances is during March-June. I hope to see one sometime this season.

In November of last year we had a front come thru, bringing with it a massive violent, cyclical, tornadic supercell. In the span of just 8 hours, it spawned seven tornados of varying windspeed in an area stretching from Wimberley, Texas up to Round Rock, Texas from Taylor to as far west as Leander. One of them came within 4 miles of my apartment complex. Austin was already in trouble from the torrential rains we'd had for the past day and a half and flash floods created chaos. Fortunately, there were no deaths caused by the twisters, but the flash floods claimed three lives.

Keep your eyes on the skies.

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Peace,

Captain Kundalini

[eliza_nightvoice]

I'm not in the normal twister area, but have traveled to the "Alley" often on business. The fabriction shop that I visited had a sign on the ladies' room door that it was a designated tornado shelter area. (Only the ladies' room )

It's amazing how many people around here don't know how to handle a twister warning. Had one while at work and everyone rushed into the all-glass lobby to see the show. I shut down my computer, closed my window blinds and headed for the first floor of the stairwell. People thought I was nuts.

[Guest]

(Politely snipped)

I know what you mean, maryals. Severe weather fascinates me, too. I was able to see one of the tornados (the one that hit closest to me) back in November. It was the second one I'd seen in real life. Immediate danger from lightning, high winds and debris was over. I assisted in getting stalled cars out of the intersection of Stassney and the street that I live on. What a mess!

I have 4 hours of tornado videos on one video tape capped with the movie "Twister".
So, I am pumped when a severe storm hits bringing the lightning, the rain and the threat of tornados. The only think I hate about them is the damage they cause and the threat to life and limb.

In short, I may be crazy, but I ain't no fool.

[Cherry Kelly]

When I was younger (pre-teen) my dad and I would sit in our back yard and watch mini tornadoes across the road out in a field. (Rural type community.) These would run across part of this farmers field - reach a "ridge" and disappear. It was a strange phenomena. The ridge caused all kinds of oddities - take listening to radio stations - on one side you could listen at oh say 97.1 but on the other side it would be 97.2 -- that kind of oddity.

When I was in college, I was driving home one Fri afternoon. It was a clear day. Of a sudden my passenger and I spotted a fairly large twister. I stopped my car under an overhead railroad pass. The twister jumped the pass, and while there was some minor debris - nothing serious happened. By the time I got home, my mom was frantic. It seems that the tornado had wiped out a town (a couple miles off the highway) I had just passed (prior to stopping). When I returned to the campus that Sunday, I joined a group of students who went to help clean up the devastation. The things we saw - pretty strange. (this was up in eastern Iowa)

Tornadoes are wicked - they can happen on clear days as well as heavy storm days.
A few years back, my husband was just leaving a town in KS (he was out repairing some x-ray equipment at one of the hospitals). Behind him a tornado ripped through the community destroying a mobile home park and causing considerable damage. A reporter crew that was in the area filmed some of this tornado from under a road overpass area.

[Guest]

Tornado kills 2 in Happy
Deadly twister sends four to hospital
From staff reports
A deadly tornado ripped through the tiny town of Happy on Sunday, killing two and sending four to the hospital on a day when strong thunderstorms and violent weather struck throughout the region.
Eduardo Joven Castillo, 37, and his wife, Yolanda Castillo, were confirmed dead shortly after the tornado struck about 6:45 p.m. Sunday, according to Department of Public Safety spokesman Trooper Wayne Beighle.
The couple's 10-year-old son was transported to Northwest Texas Hospital in critical condition, Beighle said. The family lived in a trailer on the east side of town.
Beighle said four people were transported to the Amarillo hospital, two with critical injuries and two with non-life-threatening injuries.


An initial report of 10 people missing had authorities concerned, but they were later found in the homes of friends.
"It was just a relief," he said upon finding the people. "That's your biggest fear that puts everybody at another stage of stress."
At least 20 structures were damaged by the tornado, including First Baptist Church and the school's bus barn, Beighle said. Multiple structures were damaged and destroyed in the southwest, south and extreme eastern part of town.
Ted Payne, a Happy firefighter, said when the tornado formed, he was watching the weather from his house while he cooked on the grill.
"It came down and then kind of dissipated, and then it came back down," Payne said. "It looked like it was about a half-mile wide when it first came down."
"It was just chaos" after that, Payne said. "We saw the roof going off the church (Baptist), and it was just a bunch of debris."
Troy Ducheneaux, the incident commander with Canyon Fire Department, said they had fire units at various buildings. Tulia, Happy, Randall and Canyon fire departments responded as well as ambulances from AMS, BSA in Canyon, Happy and Tule Creek.
Main Street was filled with dozens of personnel taking assignments as access to the city was controlled by law enforcement. Beighle said they would continue working through the night.
Swisher County Sheriff Larry Stewart said security is well-covered in Happy, with law enforcement officers at all roads going into the town.
He said only emergency personnel and residents will be allowed into the town. Authorities set up generators and floodlights at the command post so they can work through the night.
Happy Fire Chief Jerry Sims said volunteers should call city hall at 558-2121 before coming to the town.
The Happy Community Center is set up for families, and Sims estimated there were about 30 families without homes. Some supplies are needed, but people need to call the Red Cross and channel supplies through them, because it is hard to tell what is needed.
"It's been pretty amazing. We've got people from Friona, Hereford, Wayside, Dawn, Tulia - all over," Sims said. "That's the way it is out here, when you need help, they're going to come."
He said they will be applying for federal disaster aid.

Amarillo Globe-News Regional Staff Writers Greg Cunningham and Rick Storm and Assistant Regional Editor Kay Ledbetter contributed to this report.
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They are not happy up in Happy.