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Florida Tornadoes
Topic Started: Feb 2 2007, 10:00 AM (156 Views)
countrymouse
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dawg, thanks for the heads up on this...prayers goin' up!!!

Tornadoes
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swanj
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YeP! Thats bad news! I usually check out the news on the internet first thing each morning before browsing. I didn't do that this morn, and didn't know till I turned on the TV news! Tornados are worse when they happen during darkness, cuz you can't see them comming! After seeing the Mother Nature disasters that happen in various parts of the Nation, I think I'll take Calif with its Earthquakes,etc. No Kidding! Of course I'm not gonna live in the coastal regions either, where most of them happen. Of course we did live on the coast south of SF for 20 some yrs right on the San Andreas fault, and I never did really have any piece of Mind either. Especially when working on High Rise downtown San Fran. Didn't like that at all! :sick:

But, you surely couldn't pay me enough to live anywhere along Tornado Alley! No Way!! I don't know for sure if Flordia is right in the middle of Tornado Alley, but Mother Nature sure changed course last night anyway, Didn't she!?

Ta Ta

swanJ
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countrymouse
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swan j,

florida's actually called lightning alley...tornadoes aren't that typical...i've seen many waterspouts and wind funnels, had a small tornado touch down near our house and watched a big 'un dancin' right up biscayne bay in the middle of downtown miami, but still no serious damage and they weren't that common...

hurricanes are usually the worst weather ya' deal with in fl, but with modern techno, ya' know they're comin' and got plenty of time to clear off grocery store shelves :) ...tornadoes, earthquakes, no warning...yup, that's spooky...

ya' know lifers in places like that too, get so used to inclimate weather that they don't often heed warnings...personally, we used to go out storm chasin'...went through hurricane andrew back in 92....take 'em a little more seriously now...

as much as i hate to see people suffer as a result of the forces of nature, think sometimes we need those experiences to humble us and remind us who's really in charge...
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Sunshine
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My dad ( haven't seen him in 14 years) is 40 miles from the storm. I called him this evening and asked him if he was ok. He told me he was fine and it didn't hit where he is. He just said that he was 40 miles from it. I feel for those people .
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Condor
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Fate has a way of being kind even when things are bad. In the one area, the church that was trusted to stand was destroyed. Some of the media is making big of there not being any sirens. If there had been sirens in that area, people would have gathered in the church if they had had time and would have been killed. The other way of seeing it is if people had started for the chruch or other shelter, they may have been out when the tornadoes struck and more may have been killed. If the sirens had sounded, the ones near the church may have made and the release of pressure when the doors of the church opened may have saved it and them. We will never know.
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countrymouse
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condor,

i like yer brain... :)
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Condor
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countrymouse,Feb 2 2007
11:13 PM
condor,

i like yer brain... :)

I always attempt to look at things from every perspective. It is pretty eye opening when you do. On the other hand, it gets me into a lot of arguments with people who don't. Liberals come immediately to mind.
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countrymouse
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condor,

i often think there's 2 sides to everything and then there's 2 sides to each of those 2 sides, etc...no wonder my goggles get fogged up sometimes! but then comin' out o' the fog...yup, eyes wide open... :)
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terrorhertz
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Hi ,
I'm from Tampa. good to see a fellow Floridian Country Mouse.
I was just south of some of the tornadoes. I was up since I work the 2nd shift. I saw the warnings but they where for counties north of me. So I didn't pay it much attention but I know that tornadoes can pop up here with no warning. Our tornadoes here are not like the ones in the breadbasket. ours rarely ever make the F scale.

I went to Treasure Island for about 4 hours to visit with some friend from VA one time and came back to Tampa to find that one had just went down the street I live on.
The same people came to visit again later and while I was in Treasure Islan with one of them a tornado started coming down on the street I was driveing on. I noticed all other cars pull of the road and I wondered why. I looked up and saw it. I had passed the last bridge and the last turn off so we where sitting ducks if I just pulled off and waited for it. so I said" I think I can make it under it" . He held his breath, slid down in his seat and said nothing. I punched my IROC-Z with all she had. Don't ask me the speed because I wasn't looking down and I had 2 lanes with absolutely NO traffic! A dream come true except for that tornado. I came around a bend in the road and there was a toll station! they where stopping everyone at the toll booths. So I was stuck like a sitting duck anways only closer to it.
Everyone was getting out of their cars and watching. I thought" Well if this is it then I might as well watch it too!!. I can't go anywhere. We less than 100yds from it watching as it came down. It was the widest one I had ever seen. and I saw many of them when I worked on Treasure Island in the '80s in a Hurricane resistant restaurant. They would come straight at the building and go over it, shake it a lot and move on. Technically I've been inside of a tornado. But this one was wide. As it came down I watched it reach the tree tops (palm trees) and start throughing leaves around and other debree. then all of a sudden it was like it was just suckked up into the clouds. it dissapeared. everyone got in their cars and drove on.
The storm that followed was much worse. the water got so deep that when I pulled into my motel the waterlevel was over the top of the hood of my car. My electric locks still don't work since then.

I'll take tornados and hurricanes anyday over earthquakes though. at least we have some warning and we can run.


P.S. Tampa is the lightnin capital of the country. We get more lightnin than any other city in the states( it's on the bullentin board at work). I know pople that have been hit and I don't like to go out in it but in the summer we get 2 electrical stroms each day.
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countrymouse
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terrorhertz,

smiley-welcome-sign to the mountain! i'm glad y'all were spared from the path of the tornadoes! i like your descriptions, they bring back many fond memories! i simply love the wild wonder of florida weather! you can just 'bout set your watch by the summer storms...i grew up on the east coast and every afternoon at 3 o'clock you could count on a show...

it would be hot, sunny, calm sticky air and the next thing ya know the sky goes black , the ice cold winds chill to the bone, the electricity in the air saying, "get yo' butt to the house!" :) it's scary and exciting all at the same time...

yeah, tornadoes in florida are different...we used to go out to the sugar cane fields and watch for them...saw many like the one you described...think the biggest one i saw was the one in biscayne bay, but only got to watch that one on tv...

had many close calls with lightning strikes...i tell ya' even though i don't live in florida any more, i still won't go out in a storm with an umbrella and people playin' golf during the onset of a florida storm, well, now, huh? :huh:

had a tree get struck once as we were driving under it, had a billboard get struck and burst into flames right next to us on the highway, but the best was a driving rainstorm that had caused some flashflooding (typical since you're basically at sea level)...couldn't see hardly anything and everyone was drivin' real slow...this bolt of lightning came down right in front of us and when it hit, it traveled through the water in the road, wrapped all around our car, then continued back to the car behind us and engulfed it as well...that was an awesome experience!

there's not a lot that i miss about florida life as it just ain't what it used to be, but those are the little things that make me homesick...so i got 3 words for ya' (ok make that 8 words :) ) ...ybor city, peace river, exit 13, route 666 (that was tough gettin' the car to go down that ramp!)...thanks for the memories :) ...
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Condor
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terrorhertz, welcome to the mountain. I lived in Moore Oklahoma for a couple of years. The tornadoes used to hit thei ridge behind the house and jump over the house. One storm actually rained red mud as it went over. They landed in a vacant field and never did much damage. They have since built a subdivision in the vacant field. Haven't had any tornadoes there since they built the houses. When the tornadoes come back, everyone will act all surprised. Some places should be left natural!
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swimmer
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Condor,Feb 3 2007
09:48 AM
Some places should be left natural!

I definitely agree with you on that one, Condor.
I also agree with you about the idea of looking at all sides of something.
Your diverse scenarios reminded me of an accounting of many people who were not in the World Trade center during the bombing for one bazaar reason or another. Can't remember where I read about that, but it was so strange...some of the weird reasons people just missed being there. Like you say, fate has a way of being kind even when things seem bad. Silver lining and all that, right?
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