May 26, 2008: Handbrake & J
 

I don't know where this picture was taken.
It could be any one of hundreds of places in the United States, lately.
There seems to be a new tornado touch down reported every week, and not just in the traditional locations.

http://cellar.org/2008/detour.jpg

If you see this out your windshield, you have to get the hell out of there... NOW.
So practice your Handbrake Turn and J-Turn, people. It could save your life.

That sucks!

Mother Natures is pissed I tell ya....PISSED!

Killer pic!

At least the photographer had his priorities straight. Picture first, then evasion.

I saw one once in Kansas (I think). It was farther away though and moving off. Scary things.

Hmm... Is it possible to do those turns in an auotmatic car? It would suck to find out you can't when a tornado is starring you down.

:thepain: How do you do those turns???

You have to practice, practice, practice, Waffle.
Oh, and welcome to the Cellar. :D

The links are to instructions, ajaccio.

No, it blows!:D

times like this remind us of blue's signature:

I almost got sucked into one in DE a few years back! Had to hide under an overpass. Very cool & extremely surreal too. They are crazy fast and powerful!

Don't hide under an overpass...the winds can be stronger there than in the open.

Try to hide in a cellar (no pun intended) or something below the level of the ground. Underpasses don't cut it.

The company tells me to park my truck and go lay in a ditch if a tornado shelter isn't available.

If you can make it to an underpass, and have the time, get out of the vehicle and climb the embankment up into the support beams, for protection from debris blowing through.... and hang on.

If you don't have the time, place your head between your legs and... well, you know the rest.;)

I know this is late, but last week a whole slew of tornadoes were loose in Northern Colorado. This one was about 1 mile wide. I knew of at least 7 different tornadoes that touched down that day. I have never seen anything like this so far West in this state. Several people I know had significant damage to their homes (roofs torn off, etc.) One person I know had her child in a daycare there, where all of the kids were shuffled into a vault at a bank. It was quite scary!

Man, if I lived in Tornado Ally I'd live in a reinforced, slip poured, concrete home with 1" thick Lexan windows. If a tornado came I'd just sit in my Barka lounge and watch the show.

Once again tonight, as a couple nights last week, my radio baseball listening is being repeatedly interrupted by weather warnings from both the local station and the National Weather Service. The latter has an automated system, with a woman's computer voice that does not make perfect splices yet is a decided improvement over--to recall other recent posts--either the Jetsons' Rosie or the original Star Trek's usual computers.

The NWS message would give details as to place (what parts of what counties) and how long the warning or watch or alert was in effect. Each message would end with standard recorded advice, like where in the house to take shelter, to contact police or whomever if you see a tornado, and this:
“If driving, do not seek shelter under a highway overpass.”

Bruce, I never heard it recommended that we climb up into the overpass. Is that really safer than lying down in a roadside ditch? You might have a huge beam to block debris (from one direction, maybe), but like Brian's message suggests, aren't you susceptible to the wind dislodging you?

The best part of a ditch would be in a culvert, where you're below ground level, untouchable to the wind, and protected from debris. In the countryside around here, a culvert is usually just a corrugated steel (or concrete) pipe connecting a ditch interrupted by a paved or dirt road.

http://www.americantrails.org/i/reso...s/casings2.jpg

The main downside, besides getting wet, would be if you are sharing the culvert with an animal that has a prior, longstanding claim to it. In nonemergency explorations, I've seen skunks and raccoons living in them.

As I am almost done typing (looking for an illustration), the local tornado watch has just been upgraded to a tornado warning. :eek: It's a storm whose strong rotation, with other atmospheric conditions, is capable of producing a tornado. Wow--tornado sirens are now going off. . . . [Later, after finding image above.] But now the sirens have gone off. http://cellar.org/images/icons/icon14.gif (First "are going off" meaning the opposite of "have gone off. :right: ) See you in Oz!

Really? Nobody is going to do "Handjob and BJ" ???

Jinx - great find.

Although I have to disagree with the father of the two girls - surely all vehicles are fitted with safety glass - the SUV might have been picked up by the tornado (terrifying and probably fatal) but the smashed window is unlikely to have cut them up.

That wasn't a tornado, that was me. lol!!!

Maybe not the broken glass, but the debris that was flying through that glass like it was a cobweb. There have been a ton of pictures of things like a flatware fork driven two inches into a tree, and a piece of straw that went through a 2x4 so fast it didn't have time to bend.

Safety glass in cars will cut you if it is broken and delamminated into tiny razor like pieces. Know from experience.

The windshield is laminated but not the side windows. The side window glass is supposed to be tempered, and break into little cubes that won't cut you. But, I've seen plenty of them break into six inch daggers, plus in a 200+ mph wind, even a feather is dangerous.

Straw driven into a tree after a tornado
http://www.hydrolance.net/common/Str...hroughTree.jpg

The big one. If you see this, Take cover.
http://creoleindc.typepad.com/rantin...07/tornado.jpg

Don't you really mean just bend over and kiss your ass goodbye?

Well, spuck, at least kiss your old stomping grounds goodbye as you're swept up to a different place.
Thanks for the second pic, Merce--something to help remember where I lived up to a couple evenings ago. I hope to find my way back soon.

There's no place like home. There's no place like home. . . .

That's usually how I say HELLO. ;-)

Kansas tornadoes last night
 

Scouts praised for response after tornado hits Iowa camp
By TIMBERLY ROSS, Associated Press Writer 3 minutes ago

". . . Tornadoes also raked Kansas on Wednesday, killing at least two people, destroying much of the small town of Chapman, and causing extensive damage on the Kansas State University campus. . . .

"The tornado that struck Kansas State University's campus in Manhattan destroyed a wind erosion laboratory . . . ." :eyebrow:

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Thursday, June 12, 2008 - 8:21 AM CDT
Damage to K-State estimated at $20M following overnight tornado
Wichita Business Journal

"Among the buildings at K-State sustaining damage were Cardwell Hall, Ward Hall, Burt Hall, and the engineering complex.

"The Wind Erosion Laboratory, which had been located near Weber Hall, was destroyed.

"Ward Hall houses K-State's nuclear reactor. Although Ward [in the heart of campus, just north of the Power Plant] itself was damaged, because of the design of the building, the reactor remains safe and unharmed, said Mo Hosni, head of K-State's department of mechanical and nuclear engineering."

http://www.k-state.edu/maps/manhattan-980.gif

Kansas State University, Manhattan, before last night
At this interactive map page, roll over building with cursor for name to pop up. The Wind Erosion Laboratory is, was, the low-lying cluster almost at the far right (NE).

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http://www.weru.ksu.edu/weru.gif

"Provider of science-based wind erosion technology
for environmnetally, economically, and socially sustainable agriculture"

"2005 Expert Review Panel's Conclusion
"The Wind Erosion Research Unit 'has a long history as the premier agricultural wind erosion research facility … and continues to be the leading agricultural wind erosion laboratory in the world'," before last night.

http://www.weru.ksu.edu/new_weru/mul...big/usda14.jpg

"Large wind tunnel at the WERU, with two soil catchers.
[Left-handed pitcher] Brent Schoeder in the photo." [Elsewhere seen as "Schroeder."]

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Officials Tornadoes kill 2 in northern Kansas

So, it was our public "servants" up to their old tricks again?!
Why can't officials just leave us alone and keep their stupid tornadoes to themselves?