Tornado in Iowa

[Stephanie Brim]

There were at least two tornados in Iowa this weekend and both of them hit houses of people I know. One house was my boyfriend's mother and stepfather's and the other was the house of my boyfriend's stepbrother's girlfriend. Cars were totaled and the windows were blown out of the houses in addition to other damage and I'll probably be gone for a few days yet again. I'll try and get some photos for you. I'm only 20 miles from Stratford, which is one of the towns that got hit. Where I am we seldom get tornados that touch down.

 

[jlw]

Good grief, Stephanie, you ARE having a few emotionally strenuous weeks lately, aren't you?!?

We got lucky on the Nebraska side of the river and avoided all the rough weather, but I remember looking across at Iowa and seeing those big thunderheads forming up -- very photogenic, but I didn't take any pictures -- and thinking, "Boy, somebody's gonna get it." Sorry it turned out to be people you know; hope they're ok.

PS -- You going to answer my PMs someday? They are very mild-mannered, I promise...

 

[jan normandale]

Very strange ; there was amateur video footage of this on the Toronto/Canadian Televison Network news tonite. One of the residents was standing on the street with a videocam shooting the funnel as it approached thru some trees in a field and headed towards houses. Which were shown subsequently in additional footage after the funnel had passed and someone took photos. Damage as you described Stephanie.

You could see planks and boards being sucked towards the funnel in the video and trees of 20 - 30 feet in height being sucked towards the funnel. I have seen footage of tornadoes before but never where you could see the power from a camera's lens a few feet away

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Sorry about your predicament, Stephanie. I heard the news this morning and thought about Iowa City (with which, for some reason, I tend to associate you). In any case, I hope the rest of your family is doing fine.

Keep in touch whichever way you can! 🙂

 

[jlw]

One of the residents was standing on the street with a videocam shooting the funnel as it approached thru some trees in a field and headed towards houses.

Weird, isn't it? All of us who grew up in the Midwest have heard stories or seen actual evidence of the damage a tornado can do. (The motel where my high school prom was held was destroyed the following year by a tornado -- looked like someone had driven a 100-foot-wide bulldozer through it. Couldn't help thinking it was a good thing it hadn't happened prom night.)

And yet when the sirens go off, people act as if the official emergency instructions were, "When a tornado approaches, grab your video camera and run outside"!

 

[jan normandale]

Weird, isn't it? All of us who grew up in the Midwest have heard stories or seen actual evidence of the damage a tornado can do. (The motel where my high school prom was held was destroyed the following year by a tornado -- looked like someone had driven a 100-foot-wide bulldozer through it. Couldn't help thinking it was a good thing it hadn't happened prom night.)

And yet when the sirens go off, people act as if the official emergency instructions were, "When a tornado approaches, grab your video camera and run outside"!

that was what was surprising to me. Grabbing a camera might be on the list but I would be shooting over my shoulder as I went for cover. This man/woman just stood there and it was 'lites, camera, action' . I was amazed.

 

[Heath]

I hope all ends well for your friends and family Stephanie. Being with an emergency services organisation I know the force at which nature can strike. But at the same time I am awed by the power and continuously stunned by it.

I can assure you that I would be out there filming and snapping off a few frames if a tornado were to pass here, as I bet a few others from the forum would.

Heath

 

[Frank Granovski]

I had 2 co-workers killed by a twister 15 miles east of Winnipeg some time back. Another time a twister shaved off the 2 top floors of an arpartment building 1/2 a block up my dad's street. Manitoba has lots of twisters.

 

[Socke]

And in the caribbean sea they have tropical depression No. 27 which is expected to become a hurican on saturday.

When I returned home from Cuba on November 10th last year I have had no hurican and here we had the first snow. This year we had 20°C on Nov. 10th.

Lets hope next year everything is back to normal and that this in not something we have to get used to.

If the polar ice caps melt, I'll have to look for a new place to live at as my current location is at sea level :-(

 

[Solinar]

I saw the amateur video of this tornado. It looked terrifying.