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Fear of tornadoes

Lammchen

Lammchen

One of my biggest fears is of tornadoes.

I remember when I was little and a tornado went through my town but stayed in the air so we didn't have damage, but the fear my mom felt was passed onto me. It's something I haven't gotten over. To this day when conditions are right, I can feel it and that fear ruins what other people enjoy when there is a storm coming. Yes, there are people who enjoy thunderstorms! I cannot.

Does anyone else fear tornadoes?
 
Age of nine on May 11 1970 two tornaders as we call 'em here, ripped through Lubbock Texas while myself, my older sister, older half brother, my little brother and our cousin, cowered under uncle Johnny's brand new pickup truck on Ave Q.

When it was over and we emerged, it looked like pictures I'd seen of Hiroshima. Everything destroyed. Body parts everywhere. Literally guts strewn into what was left of trees which wasn't much. The bed of the brand new truck, filled with debris.

When we finally made it back to uncle Johnny's house in nearby Tahoka, we all got whipped for lying about what happened to the truck. Our wild story about a tornader was all made up and Johnny was gonna whip us all until one of us broke and told the truth.

Finally my mom ran out of the house telling Johnny, "ALL of the Lubbock TV and radio stations are off the air!"

Of course Johnny never apologized.

Anyway the offshoot is, I've never had any fear whatsoever of anything, since then. It had the exact opposite effect, on all of we kids. Ain't skeered a nuthin. And as I've aged, math has come into the equation and I know my odds of ever being in a tornader again approach zero. There's just, no fear of it.

But, I certainly do understand yours. I've seen the absolute worst an EF-5 tornader can do.
 
Pig Hip said:
Age of nine on May 11 1970 two tornaders as we call 'em here, ripped through Lubbock Texas while myself, my older sister, older half brother, my little brother and our cousin, cowered under uncle Johnny's brand new pickup truck on Ave Q.

When it was over and we emerged, it looked like pictures I'd seen of Hiroshima. Everything destroyed. Body parts everywhere. Literally guts strewn into what was left of trees which wasn't much. The bed of the brand new truck, filled with debris.

When we finally made it back to uncle Johnny's house in nearby Tahoka, we all got whipped for lying about what happened to the truck. Our wild story about a tornader was all made up and Johnny was gonna whip us all until one of us broke and told the truth.

Finally my mom ran out of the house telling Johnny, "ALL of the Lubbock TV and radio stations are off the air!"

Of course Johnny never apologized.

Anyway the offshoot is, I've never had any fear whatsoever of anything, since then. It had the exact opposite effect, on all of we kids. Ain't skeered a nuthin. And as I've aged, math has come into the equation and I know my odds of ever being in a tornader again approach zero. There's just, no fear of it.

But, I certainly do understand yours. I've seen the absolute worst an EF-5 tornader can do.
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That was an awful experience! I'm so glad it made you stronger. I haven't seen an EF-5 and hope to never see one. Last summer a tornado came through my town and we were in the basement but never heard it and it was a mile from the house. It scares me that I was actually listening because the conditions were right...but I never heard that sound of a train that people say they hear before it hits. The people whose homes were damaged heard it though.
 
Lammchen said:
.but I never heard that sound of a train that people say they hear before it hits
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Yep that's the sound. Anyone who hears it will never forget it.

Hard to hear anything though when you're real close to the tornader, your hearing fails due to the sudden large drop in barometric pressure! That's what alarmed by older half brother and prompted him to stop the truck and have us all get under it.

Bad idea actually, we would have been a lot safer just driving out of there. But it was dark and already stormy so the urge to just stop is strong.

The other thing that happens right before the train sound - all rain and hail and even wind, stops. All being sucked in toward the forming tornader. A truly eerie silence before all hell breaks loose
 
Pig Hip said:
Yep that's the sound. Anyone who hears it will never forget it.

Hard to hear anything though when you're real close to the tornader, your hearing fails due to the sudden large drop in barometric pressure! That's what alarmed by older half brother and prompted him to stop the truck and have us all get under it.

Bad idea actually, we would have been a lot safer just driving out of there. But it was dark and already stormy so the urge to just stop is strong.

The other thing that happens right before the train sound - all rain and hail and even wind, stops. All being sucked in toward the forming tornader. A truly eerie silence before all hell breaks loose
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Oh yeah! That happened last summer...the stopping of everything and you think you're safe. That's why I started listening hard and all I heard was heavy rain pouring down.

Stupid me forgot how tornadoes can blast all the windows of a home and we were right next to one in the basement. I forget they're there because we keep the blinds closed. I need to go into the furnace room or the utility room instead.
 
Lammchen said:
Oh yeah! That happened last summer...the stopping of everything and you think you're safe. That's why I started listening hard and all I heard was heavy rain pouring down.

Stupid me forgot how tornadoes can blast all the windows of a home and we were right next to one in the basement. I forget they're there because we keep the blinds closed. I need to go into the furnace room or the utility room instead.
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I'd be in the basement. Easement winder or not.
 
Lammchen said:
That was an awful experience! I'm so glad it made you stronger.
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But yeah I'm not going outside in the middle of a thunderstorm yelling up at the sky "IS THIS ALL YOU GOT???" I ain't skeered but I ain't just plain stupid either. I get in the shelter during tornader warnings.
 
In my place, tornadoes are not common. So, far I have heard of only one incident of a tornado in the country. However, earthquakes are common. In 2015, devastating earthquakes struck all parts of the country for weeks. There was a total of 3000 major and minor tremors and aftershocks. However, I do not have any feaar of natural clamities.
 
Nomad said:
In my place, tornadoes are not common. So, far I have heard of only one incident of a tornado in the country. However, earthquakes are common. In 2015, devastating earthquakes struck all parts of the country for weeks. There was a total of 3000 major and minor tremors and aftershocks. However, I do not have any feaar of natural clamities.
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I've only experienced very small earthquakes and wasn't sure what had happened until the news reported on it. The first time I was standing near the refrigerator and thought that it was vibration from the fridge that was causing a slight rumbling. The second time I thought a truck hit our house and drove off!
 
During the last major earthquake, my father and siblings were trapped in the earthquake zone, even though they were perfectly fine, it gives me a shiver thinking about the terrible things that could have happened.
 
Many years ago a pen-friend of mine (long before emails etc lol) lived in Springfield, Illinois, and she related a tornado that hit her home town. After the all clear she emerged from her storm cellar, there was damage in the house, but nothing major, however, when she opened her front door the other side of the street was demolished, and people were coming up from what looked like holes in the ground to find their homes were gone.

We don't normally get tornados in the UK, but there have been recent reports of small tornados happening and even though small, they were incredibly destructive. We're also seeing more floods and even earthquakes, the latter though not massively destructive events. It shows a shifting trend that can be quite alarming.

Storms and high winds are normal events, though they are normally infrequent there has been an increase recently.
 
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