Storms

[Bobby of Tulsa]

Are you folks in the storm areas ok?

[Phillip Allen]

daughter lost a large tree in her yard the other night... it missed everything imortant

[Gerarddm]

...and I just saw Twister again the other night. The CGI effects look bad enough; I hate to think about having to live through a real one. Hope everybody in Tornado Alley is safe.

[Tom Montgomery]

Five confirmed dead in Kentucky and Southern Indiana. Many are still unaccounted for. A 20 month to three year old, blonde blue-eyed girl was found in a field in Salem, Indiana and flown to Kosair Children's hospital in Louisville. She is intubated and so cannot speak. The local media is asking anyone who may know who she is to contact authorities.

[Tom Montgomery]

The death toll is now at eight as emergency workers in Pekin, Indiana found a woman and two babies dead.

A man from Pekin was life-flighted to Louisville University Hospital. As he and his family huddled in their basement he was hit in the head by a cinder block.

[Bobby of Tulsa]

Prayers from Okieland.

[Tom Montgomery]

A strong tornado. They just reported that asphalt was peeled off the roadbed at one location.

[Bobby of Tulsa]

A strong tornado. They just reported that asphalt was peeled off the roadbed at one location. Keep us posted Sir.

[Phillip Allen]

A strong tornado. They just reported that asphalt was peeled off the roadbed at one location.

geeze!

[SMARTINSEN]

Go to the Charleston, WV Doppler radar (http://radar.weather.gov/radar.php?rid=rlx&product=N0R&loop=yes)

[Tom Montgomery]

The Cincinnati Airport in Erlanger, Kentucky was temporarily closed due to debris on the runways. Numerous reports of debris falling from the sky south of Cincinnati.

[Flying Orca]

Wow. Thanks for the thread, this hasn't made the front page of my usual news sites yet... condolences and hope you guys get through this OK.

[Tom Montgomery]

Unconfirmed report of three deaths in Scott County, Kentucky.

Many reports of baseball and softball sized hail. Pics have been broadcasted on local TV.

This is tornado damage as bad as I've ever seen. Buildings completely leveled. Cars, busses, RV's, and semi-trucks tossed and rolled over and over like toys. Some blown off iff streets and driven into buildings. Trees shattered and stripped of bark.

Some good news: the little girl in Kosair Children's Hospital has been identified.

[Wavewacker]

One went north of me and one south! My cabin at Tablerock was across the lake from one that hit Kimberling and went on to hit Branson. about three miles away I guess. Haven't been down to check on it yet, called the Sherriff and they said my main road out was clear....hope all is well and probably is.

Branson got hit pretty good, it went right down the 76 strip on the north side, a few less shows and tourist traps I guess for awhile, but the strip is cleaned up, secured and open for business.

I can tell you that one of hottest new businesses in the area is tornado shelters. These vaults are being put in homes or attached. Joplin is rebuilding (to the west of me) with new construction and vaults are being put in the most modest homes.

We certainly don't want the damage nor to suffer the injury and loss of life these storms bring. On the brite side I guess is all of the construction jobs that will be here and in the surrounding area for some time to come. Haven't heard the total dollar amount of damage yet, but it will be tens of millions.

Joplin is still on our minds, the worst on record. Driving through it was like a war zone, but actually worse as a bomb usually takes out a few buildings and damages many around the blast, Joplin was leveled three and four miles wide for miles, I stood on a hill and saw nothing but rubble.

Hope everyone is all good!

[Donn]

I watched it on wunderground's severe weather map, and local radar out of Lebanon, OH...where my parental units live. They missed most of it, but were all ready. Their house is double-thick brick, and they have a closet under a central staircase which is brick on all 4 sides. Their chairs were set up, water, food, meds, flashlights and laptop on hand.

They're 88 and 89, and I can just see them in that closet. My mother would be knitting, and my father would be playing some silly game on his laptop, while monitoring the local radar. I doubt if either one of them would be able to hear a tornado if it came by.

[Wavewacker]

You stair case closet reminds me, not to make light of these storms or the destruction and loss of life, but in this area many homes have basements while not all. We have storm parties at the neighbors basement (I have a block sub-level room, but anyway) and we have our survival/weather radios, flashlights and all kinds of stuff in a bag. But we sit around and watch TV or played games. I have been in so many tornados before that I'm no longer really concerned, just get out of the way and wait it out. I have also chased them and was a spotter in this area with our National Weather Service and Ham Radio club. So I'm usually outside watching until I see stuff in the air, then it's time to hunker down.

[Tom Montgomery]

I just saw a pic broadcasted on local TV from Henryville, Indiana: a helicopter shot of what used to be a buliding. All that remained was the concrete slab foundation and a pickup truck sitting in the part that used to be the garage. The rest of the building is gone. No debris, no nothing but a concrete slab and a pickup truck.

[Bobby of Tulsa]

I have helped clean up after a few of these storms. They are no respecter of persons. They kill and move on.

[SMARTINSEN]

Tornado warnings in Murfeesboro TN. Isn't that where Dale Hamilton is?

[Bobby of Tulsa]

Tornado warnings in Murfeesboro TN. Isn't that where Dale Hamilton is? Yes

[David G]

I just heard that one of my cousins from Ky. lost everything. House, barn, and shop. She & her husband were trapped under the wreckage of their house for hours, until her younger brother (who owns an earth moving outfit) showed up with some equipment and dug them out. They made it to my Aunt's house about an hour ago, with nothing but the mud-covered clothes on their backs. So it's baths, some old clothes from my Aunt & Uncle, and the spare bedroom for a while. The good news is - they were uninjured. They had a beautiful cedar kit home, and a nifty shop where he restored tractors. All gone. Here's hoping the insurance company doesn't put them thru additional misery.

[skuthorp]

So sorry to read about this, glad your cousin is OK David. We are getting pics on TV.

[seanz]

I just heard that one of my cousins from Ky. lost everything. House, barn, and shop. She & her husband were trapped under the wreckage of their house for hours, until her younger brother (who owns an earth moving outfit) showed up with some equipment and dug them out. They made it to my Aunt's house about an hour ago, with nothing but the mud-covered clothes on their backs. So it's baths, some old clothes from my Aunt & Uncle, and the spare bedroom for a while. The good news is - they were uninjured. They had a beautiful cedar kit home, and a nifty shop where he restored tractors. All gone. Here's hoping the insurance company doesn't put them thru additional misery.

Hurrah for younger brothers with their own earth-moving gear.

[John Smith]

I cannot conceive of such losses as these storms inflict. I also can't conceive of the conservatives/libertarians, thinking the victims are on their own, and the government ought not step in to clean up and help rebuild.

I'm also curious as to how a balanced budget amendment would tie the hands of the government in this type of thing.

[bamamick]

We are still in some wind but the bulk of everything passed two counties north of here. Up near Muscle Shoals and Huntsville yesterday there was a lot of damage. Indiana and Kentucky looked to get the brunt of it. Terrible, terrible stuff. I went to Tuscaloosa two weeks after what happened last April, carrying a load of supplies. It was like having the wind knocked out of you to stand and see what nature can do.

I have lived through a category five hurricane and several cat fours, but I have never seen anything like what one big tornado will do. It is beyond what your mind can comprehend.

Hmm. As I speak it has just begun raining.

Mickey Lake

[P-man]

a couple of tornadoes moved through yesterday morning (one about 3 miles from the house) and several more storms moved through during the evening, but the worst of it was south of us. neighborhoods are still rebuilding from last April 27th. it's incredible to see such wholesale destruction.

[Bobby of Tulsa]

Geno, you ok? Check in.

[Tom Montgomery]

An update on the 20 month-old girl who was found in a field in Salem, Indiana. She has been identified. She remains in critical condition.

The field in which she was found is ten miles east of her home. The rest of her family (father, mother and two young siblings) were killed in the tornado.