Standing In The Storm
On February 29, 2012 Lebanon got hit with a tornado. After all those years of storm chasing one chased after me. The leap year tornado followed almost the exact same path as the one the tornado which hit Lebanon in 1995.
It was a really windy night and I was laying in bed when the tornado sirens went off. The sirens would come on for a little bit, go off for a little bit and then come back on. I got up a couple times and looked outside and not much was happening. One time it got really calm and then the wind picked up and I headed back to bed again. I got back to my bedroom and I heard what sounded like thunder. Not very loud, just a low rumble up in the clouds, but it didn't stop. I went back out on the porch and I heard it hailing lightely. I didn't see any ice on the ground, but it was dark, I could only hear it. And the low rumbling like thunder continued.
I saw a flash in the sky, it was a beautiful purple and blue, like colored lightning. At first I thought it was the airport search light, but I saw it make a pass in the sky and it was no where even close to being as bright. I saw the tops of the trees going crazy in the distance and I knew a tornado was coming. It was dark so I couldn't see a funnel cloud or anything.
I turned around and ran back inside and yelled for everyone to get in the bathroom. Turned around and the front door got sucked closed. I grabbed my camera from beside the door and watched the storm.
So if you want to know what being inside a tornado is like? It's really windy, didn't get any pictures as there wasn't really anything to get pictures of. Just dark and windy and power flashes all around for lines and transformers going.
Luckily our house was pretty much untouched. Collapsed the front of a house nearby, took off about half the shingles on our neighbors house and snapped two huge pine trees in our neighbors yard which took out the power lines in our backyard. We didn't get power on at our house until about 3:00-4:00pm the next day.
It was a really windy night and I was laying in bed when the tornado sirens went off. The sirens would come on for a little bit, go off for a little bit and then come back on. I got up a couple times and looked outside and not much was happening. One time it got really calm and then the wind picked up and I headed back to bed again. I got back to my bedroom and I heard what sounded like thunder. Not very loud, just a low rumble up in the clouds, but it didn't stop. I went back out on the porch and I heard it hailing lightely. I didn't see any ice on the ground, but it was dark, I could only hear it. And the low rumbling like thunder continued.
I saw a flash in the sky, it was a beautiful purple and blue, like colored lightning. At first I thought it was the airport search light, but I saw it make a pass in the sky and it was no where even close to being as bright. I saw the tops of the trees going crazy in the distance and I knew a tornado was coming. It was dark so I couldn't see a funnel cloud or anything.
I turned around and ran back inside and yelled for everyone to get in the bathroom. Turned around and the front door got sucked closed. I grabbed my camera from beside the door and watched the storm.
So if you want to know what being inside a tornado is like? It's really windy, didn't get any pictures as there wasn't really anything to get pictures of. Just dark and windy and power flashes all around for lines and transformers going.
Luckily our house was pretty much untouched. Collapsed the front of a house nearby, took off about half the shingles on our neighbors house and snapped two huge pine trees in our neighbors yard which took out the power lines in our backyard. We didn't get power on at our house until about 3:00-4:00pm the next day.
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