SEVERE WEATHER ALERT - Tornado Outbreak Possible in Midwest U.S

reply to post by Lunette


Yes I we all have, it was horrific and I think that one of the MODS here did a whole thread on it as he and his family were affected. You can never be prepared enough when nature turns in your direction. It is like Russian roulette.

Lunette
reply to post by antar

 

Yeah, have you heard of the Henryville, IN tornado? I was out on that day as well. It was mighty scary, hail and everything. I was heading home from college classes when we got the warning on the radio.

No new thing, but still scary. I hate tornados. :/

I remember the Henryville tornado. I am about 20 miles south of there. It tore that place up!

TWC Breaking ‏@TWCBreaking 14m

8:43pm EST: Non-thunderstorm wind gusts as high as 68mph reported in downtown Grand Rapids, Mich. in the past 30 min.

TWC Breaking ‏@TWCBreaking 20m

Death toll from tornadoes in Illinois today has reached 5, tying Nov. 9, 1864 for the deadliest November tornado day in Illinois history.

#Severe t'storm watch until 1am EST: western NY, western PA, northern WV, far western MD. This includes Buffalo and Pittsburgh.

twitter.com...

News has reported at least 5 have been killed.

My heart goes out to all those in the path of this monster storm.

I have to go stretch out, will try to check back later.

Be well and stay safe tonight everyone.

Thank you to all who have kept us informed and who have shared their experiences, thoughts and ideas on this tremendous event. This is history in the making.

My thoughts are with you tonight!!

Stay safe, watch out for you and yours and PLEASE CHECK BACK INTO ATS WHEN YOU CAN!

A help page has been set up for the Diamond/Coal City, IL area.

Diamond Tornado Victims Help Page

We had the sirens go off, but everything was west of me, about 5 miles away. The sky turned greenish to the northwest.

KawRider9
reply to post by cosmicexplorer

 

My Mom and two of my sisters are there(all nurses) but I can't help...

Washington is 8 miles from me and I can do nothing...

My sisters said help is needed, but we're not allowed in... WTF over?

I am from Oklahoma, it was 3 days before the public could get into the hardest hit areas this spring because they had to do a systematic door to door search, mark each house, and do it silently so that they could listen for survivors caught in the rubble. By the end of those 3 days, supplies were overwhelming, volunteers were out in the thousands, and an army of good people got to work cleaning up, finding cats, handing out food and water.

But keeping non Police/fire/SAR/EMT out of the chaos of the immediate emergency isn't a conspiracy, there are professionals who need to do their work. (unless it is katrina, then it is a conspiracy, but even then, not on day 1.)

ETA: Live downed power lines, gas leaks, huge chunks of twisted metal everywhere, terrified injured horses and dogs running loose and in a state to cause injury out of sheer panic, and large chunks of debris dangling precariously from every direction.

reply to post by antar


I am 20 miles north of Flint MI. This has been some kind of storm. It got black as night here at 3:45 pm and did not get light again. The wind is really something. It's just keeps blowing steady, not gusty, just a steady blow. Sure strange for Nov. 17th. It's 10:21 pm now and I can hardly open my door to the south because of wind. Guess if it hasn't blowen away by now, it won't !

my gosh - I'm in Ohio - the wind is crazy scary.

A lot of the "warnings" on the television are over, but now the wind is relentless. It just keeps roaring and is so strong and steady that it's bizarre. Not gusts as much as non-stop wind.

I'm more nervous now than before when we had tornado warnings / watches and storm warnings.

So sorry for those who've had tornados.

Today, I realized how unprepared for things I am. One flashlight, a couple candles. Two gallons of bottled water.

I live in Kokomo, Indiana. I went to work a little early today, so I didn't have to be stuck in the weather. As soon as I got there, we were about to have our daily meeting, and all hell broke loose. I work in the back of the Chrysler casting plant(Remelt). The air and the noise changed in a split second. We all sprinted to the basement. Everyone was safe, but when we came back up and looked outside, roofs had been torn off, water lines busted, and when I went to the front by the clock in gates I could see houses in the middle of the road, huge trees uprooted Semi's flipped over, and just chaos. A tornado scooped a path one block over and parallel to the plant. I called my wife, because we live close, and everything was ok. Kokomo got hit pretty good. I don't think there were any fatalities here, thank God. Just a very crazy day.

My wife and I were in Bloomington, Illinois this morning when my daughter called to say there was a tornado warning and the news said it was heading toward Illinois Wesleyan University (IWU) and Illinois State University (ISU). We were only a few blocks from IWU, so we and the others around us headed to the basement of the building we were in.

I don't think any tornadoes went through Bloomington-Normal (twin cities with just a dividing line on a map), but after the warning was over we headed north out of town. There were quite a few utility poles and fairly large trees snapped like twigs. We were detoured due to downed power lines.

The tornado was apparently the one that hit Washington, Illinois hard. But it went northeast from Washington and passed to the north of Bloomington-Normal, passing about 10 or 12 miles from our home which is also north of there.

In addition to Washington and Coal City, I think it hit several small towns nearby. Rutland, Dana, and Long Point were mentioned, but I'm not sure how badly they were hit.

Judging from the path this tornado was sighted along, it must have narrowly missed the nuclear power plant at Braidwood. If it was really an F4, I wonder what would have happened if there was a direct hit of the power plant.

Hope all the the other ATS'er's in the area (or other affected areas) and your loved ones are safe.

ikonoklastJudging from the path this tornado was sighted along, it must have narrowly missed the nuclear power plant at Braidwood. If it was really an F4, I wonder what would have happened if there was a direct hit of the power plant.

The Braidwood nuclear plant is about 1 mile east of I-55 and Diamond is just west of the highway. I don't think the phrase 'missed it by a mile' means much when the tornado is about a tenth to a quarter mile wide. I doubt it would have been good if it was a direct hit. The same with Dresden a couple of miles to the west.

reply to post by iunlimited491


Just checking in, I haven't read through the whole thread yet. I'm south of Cincinnati, our electric has been out for the last 5 hours. It hit us around 7:30 and the wind was crazy scary!! The tornado sirens sounded for 30 minutes then the rain came down by the buckets and buckets!

antar
reply to post by Lunette

 

Yes I we all have, it was horrific and I think that one of the MODS here did a whole thread on it as he and his family were affected. You can never be prepared enough when nature turns in your direction. It is like Russian roulette.

Oh My i just read this thread and feel so sad..Hope Everyone Okay Back there..

reply to post by iunlimited491


this is not really severe weather seeing in the 60's and early 70's we had tornadoes in that area all the way to Chicago just like what took place today.

Those who want to label this severe weather are climate change fear mongers like Al Gore.

I live in the middle of Lake County of northwest Indiana. Thank goodness we just got the damaging winds and not the tornado. We don't get tornados here. However, I have not seen such a bad storm in my life. It started raining really hard, it got extremely windy, and there were loud shrieking whistle noises. Tons of trees fell in my area. One could have landed on one of our cars too, but it fell in the other direction. I'm hoping those in Illinois get through worse than me.

reply to post by KawRider9


Sadly....I was a cop for several years and after Katrina all the looting I think really changed the perception of volunteers.

We sat around, I was with several nurses there and we mostly just helped organize supplies and carried in tons of donation items. They wouldnt let us into town yet for fear of looting I am gathering. I can only assume they have enough people searching for the wounded.

If anyone has family in the area and needs me to check on them for lack of communication send me a pm and we can link up and Ill do what I can.

reply to post by CryHavoc


Ya my sister lives in braidwood...we grew up there near that power plant....that would have been awful! Diamond and Coal City got hit from what Im hearing...im sure its already been mentioned.

When a disaster is in your area you feel very thankful for when it misses your house, but then you soon realize that if it missed you, it had to hit someone else... Today, I'm thankful that I still have a roof over my head, but I feel extreme sadness for those who lost everything in a blink of an eye.. My happiness here, is someone else's sadness, I find that a little messed up, which means its not really happiness at all.