So I Lived Through An EF4 Tornado

Wow. I have watched tornados tear abart fields and maybe a shack, but have never seen anything like that.

I got kind of upset when acorns put fifty one dents in the aluminum hood of the Subaru during a windstorm. Looks like you got the whole Oak tree really pissed at your car.

How much damage to your own house?

Thanks for sharing your story. That is wild, and so sad. Nature is a cruel bitch. I am glad you and yours are okay. Stay well and I hope the town gets all the support it needs.

Were you indoors on the bottom floor when it hit? You got so lucky.

a reply to: Hefficide

a reply to: Hefficide

Ngl I was ready for you to write "I went out on the porch and got every nerve wracking minute on video, here's my neighbors livestock doing a cartwheel" Imagine my disappointment.

Good to see you are still vertical and kicking ass. My condolences to your community, I know they'll pull it together and build back better.

Followed an F3 Tornado into a town in Texas.

Pulled a couple people out of the rubble.

Finally the road was blocked.

I’m glad you made it thru. It’s so random.

OMG Heff, that's crazy!!

I'm so glad you're ok. Tornado's absolutely terrify me, I am glad I live where they are extremely rare.

I don't even know what else to say man but you and all the folks down there have been and are in my prayers.

Thanks for all the replies y'all.

Fun story: I spent a fair bit of my day in a FEMA medical center - an armory, a big empty building like you might walk into to watch a medium size concert or to attend a flea market - except this one has about ten biohazard type tents with generators and air filtration set up in it - and are being used as hospital rooms here.

Why? That's also fun.

We have a boil water advisory here. The water is not safe. I've been using bottled water for almost everything except bathing and rinsing out my toothbrush after brushing.

I woke up this morning with a jaw and cheek that looked like an over-inflated monster truck tire and feeling like someone was jabbing a few thousand hot needles into my face.

The going assumption is that I had a nick inside my cheek or gum and some of that "not safe to drink" water I'd been rinsing my toothbrush with Trojan horsed some nastiness into my blood stream.

Thankfully I am now on enough antibiotics to cure a herd of syphilitic rhinos so it should be better rapidly.

With that out of the way, I promised pictures and while I haven't yet had a chance to filter through many of them, I did manage a few before having to leave for the hospital today.

This is a slightly better view of what I walked out into just after the storm:



This is a good example of the sorts of damage that the house I live in received. This is not the house itself but one of two exterior apartment buildings built directly next to the house:



Because this is ATS and I know what y'all really like, this is the small FEMA camp that's been basically in my front yard since a day or two after the storm:



And this: This is the trampoline from our yard that we ultimately discovered a few blocks away - several days after the storm.



Again, thank you all so much for the kind words and supportive comments. They are sincerely appreciated.

Revisiting this because today, after two months and 6 days ( I believe ) the final puzzle piece in returning to normalcy fell into place and I was able to take a hot shower at home - in my own bathroom.

They ( a broad spectrum of companies and agencies ) are still working on getting gas service back to the town. As I understand it, it would have been nearly impossible to cap and secure all of the compromised gas lines in all of the destroyed buildings - so they're slowly putting in an entirely new gas system for the entire town.

That said, my house opted to replace our gas water heaters with electric ones - as we've had electricity back on for about a month.

As of last night the contractor got my water hooked up to the new system ( It's a very large house and we previously had multiple water heaters and multiple, separate, systems running from them ).

The vast majority of the town is still as the news stories and drone videos showed it to be. The cleanup is happening and making progress - but there are still lots that are nothing but foundations with piles of rubble and debris upon them. What's been cleaned up is nearly as bad - simply street upon street of cement foundations and nothing else. It's like a graveyard with flat markers in a way.

For me, personally, most of it seems very distant. Like it happened years ago or like it was a dream that I woke from and that's already fading from memory.

Again, thank you, ATS, for your concerns and moral support. It honestly helped. A lot.

a reply to: Hefficide
Thank you for the update Heff.
Blessings to you and your family.
Rainbows after the storm
Jane