My location was Steele County with Freeborn County 1/2 mile away from my home. My family was eating supper when we looked out and saw it doing its destruction. Unforgettable.
view linkThis tornado went !/2 mile from my daughter and son in laws lake cabin.
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I have not been a Tornado but I have been in an area where it was above us but did not touch down. Does that make sense? In 1971 I was living In Hale County TX. In the town of Hale Center. Located North of Lubbock, TX in the Texas Panhandle.
It was in the middle of the night and the warning went off (very loud). I woke up and told my husband we needed to go to the storm shelter. He said "I will in a minute". I left because I needed to get an elderly who was handicapped to the shelter too.
She lived next door and it was her shelter we would be using. Needless to say it was pouring down rain and pitch black. By the time I got my neighbor and myself in the shelter I was soaked. The man across the street was a local firefighter. He and his family came down too. He brought his radio with him. The last one in was my husband. When the all clear sounded it was still pouring now raining.
We were lucky that night, it passed us by.
This at the time was all new to me, I never felt safe living there after that night.
This was not the last episode only the first for me.
Several yeas prior to this, a whole block was wiped out right across my back alley.
My neighbor had told me of this prior to this storm - one reason I was so scared.
I was never so glad to move away from a place. Tornadoes are a common in that area and this gal was not up to that kind of excitement.
In 1996 my daughter called me at work and ask if there was suppose to be bad weather because of the color of the sky, she was 11. I told her to get in the basement after she told me the neighbors lawn chairs were blowing a way and then she said they were blow around in circles heading towards our house. The tornado had just started and it touched down about 1/4 mile east of my house. No damage to me but it stayed on the ground for 25 miles. I met the tornado a mile across the field going in the opposite direction as I was. It was a thin rope whipping back and forth. It was about 200feet wide.
In 1978, we had a tornado headed right for us. Chattanooga OH. I was taking down clothes off the line, I saw the the sky turn green! No sirens then. So I got all 3 of my little ones 5, 2 & 1 yr old, all into the tub, put our mattress over us. I was alone, hubby was at work. We were very lucky 'cause it took the chicken coop (empty) and flung it 1000 ft into the field. Too close for comfort! We got a weather radio that next payday! I have had one every since....
This tornado happened right after we had a blizzard in Jan. terrible floods in March, this in June. A year I will never forget!
The worst one I remember as a kid of 11, was the Palm Sunday Outbreak. We lived in IN. I thought it would never end! We had family killed in these.
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