Dodged a bullet today

[WA1GFZ]

Page is a bit north of downtown. It hit the South end so I suspect Page is ok.
I'm told a number of people could see the action from our town.  I got off RT91 as soon as I crossed the river so was traveling parallel with the Tornado.
The two lane road has lots of trees so could not see north very well except for dark clouds.
One guy we work with told us a car landed in his daughter's front yard. Another friend lost the roof off his kid's school. A guy who sits about 20 feet away just lost a few branches but could see destroyed houses across his neighborhood.

[KM1H]

I wonder how many of you guys are ready to contribute to emergency communications with a mobile BC-610 and SX-28A?

A Hummer version of the SCR-299 would be neat

[W2PFY]

I have my JUMP TEAM activated !!!

[KM1H]

The big un that nailed Springfield was officially called a Cat 3 and the others were 1's. A 3 is big in anybodys book.

[WA1GFZ]

1/2 mile wide is a "no place like home"r
We also had a small earth quake  Thursday night around 8:00PM

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

WOW, I've never heard of one that far north! ! !   

We used to get 'em in VT from time to time too, Frank. Generally nothing big, F0-F1 ripping tin roofs off barns and uprooting a few trees. I clearly recall one hitting the Malletts Bay area back in '84 when I had my old ChrisCraft moored there. First time I'd ever seen those lumpy purple mammantus clouds. Quite a sight.

They just had several reports in VT a couple weeks ago, though I'm not sure if they were ever verified. One near Roxbury and another near Stillwater State Park. Some very nasty storms and flooding that did a lot of damage.

The big un that nailed Springfield was officially called a Cat 3 and the others were 1's. A 3 is big in anybodys book.

I'm surprised no one mentioned the F4 that hit Windsor Locks back in October 1979. Just down the road from 'GFZ. Wasn't on the ground long but it did a lot of damage. 3 people killed IIRC, and the air museum at Bradley Field got trashed pretty badly. 15 or 20 aircraft destroyed, others damaged. Was ranked in the top ten costliest tornados, though that may have changed with recent storms.

They're still cleaning up around Raleigh and surrounding areas from the April twisters. Nat Geo has a progam showing those and others from the April outbreaks. The footage of the Springfield twister forming over the river is quite amazing.

[WA1GFZ]

That one in W.L. took the second floor of my Step Brother's building. He is about 100 yards off RT75.
I was  in South Windsor at the time and the sky was green. I never saw rain come down so hard.

[The Slab Bacon]

I remember the aftermath of one that came through here around 35 years ago.
We had just had the mother of all rainstorms up where i live, it came down so hard you couldn't even see out the windows of the house!! After it ler up a little, I decided it best to take a run down to the marina and check my boat. (I hadn't been there for a week or so)

When I got down to Sparrows Point, I saw that a path had been cleared through the woods right in front of the driveway to the marina. I didnt think much of it and walked out the long pier to check my boat. All seemed OK, so I cranked it up to charge the battery up. (the automatic bilge pump must have run non stop)

I asked one of the boys down there if they had cut a new road into there form Lodge Farm road? Hw started giggling and told me that I had just missed all of the commotion by about a half hour or so. A tornado had formed and cut a path about 100yds wide by 5 or 600 yds long through the woods, came down right through the driveway of the marina (doing no damage), sucked most of the water up out of the creek, and crapped out right in the middle of the creek dropping the water back on them!! The path that it cut through the woods was as clean and straight, it looked like it was done with a bulldozer and a surveyor! ! ! !

Glad I "Just Missed" that one! ! ! ! ! ! ! !    

[KM1H]

I'm surprised no one mentioned the F4 that hit Windsor Locks back in October 1979. Just down the road from 'GFZ.

I somewhat remember that one. I was doing an install at B-F that got done early and I had time to kill so went cross country on some 2 lane road heading to I-84 checking out old cars for sale and antique shops. I stopped at some Podunk gas station and the guy asks me if I saw the tornado....what tornado says I ??

[K1JJ]

Ah yes, the Poquonock / Windsor Locks tornado  of Oct 3, 1979. I have a certain familiarity with it.

In Glastonbury, at 3PM,  the sky started turning a dark green – more focused towards Windsor,  about eight miles away.

The next day, 24 hours later, I didn't know it was "forbidden" - but took the family for a four mile walk right thru the tornado damage.  What an adventure to see. We parked the car far away and just walked into the area.  The devastation was incredible. I took pictures - one that stands out is a bed mattress wrapped around a large cemetery statue. The statue had its arms broken off. On the main drag we saw a line of about 15  houses wrecked - some with foundations only. There was every conceivable rubbish littered on the ground, everywhere we walked.

Near RT 20, there was a path cut thru an area of woods that looked like a road going thru.

On the way back out, a state cop came over and axed us why we were walking the other way. We told him we were just looking. He got POed and said he thought we were residents earlier - that's why he let us pass before...

We felt privileged to have seen what most people never see.  I should scan the damage pictures for historical reasons since these have never been seen by any “general pubics.”


T

[WA1GFZ]

Well, we got nailed tonight. Power just came back on after 6 hours. A number of trees down. Power was only out a couple square miles. I was in home depot when it hit and they locked down the store for about 20 minutes. the roof was pounded with rain and quite the light show  for lightning.
I bet this is the first time we lost power in a storm since Gloria.

[KM1H]

It was weird around here. The storms came from the NW and the first one started with a raging black front and high winds. Then the sky lightened and the lightning started. There were about 2 hours of some very close flash-bangs as different cells moved thru; the towers were ignored as they usually are. No damage here or loss of power but I could hear several alarms blaring away on the back side of the hill where a yuppie development destroyed what was a nice apple orchard.

[K1JJ]

the towers were ignored as they usually are.

Over 20 years, I can't remember the towers being hit here either, ever since they went up.  We are exposed on a hill too.  I'm cornvinced the towers and extensive ground system bleed off the ground charge and make things neutral.

Before the towers, I was always losing small electronic gadgets to lightning strikes.

The trees in the far surrounding area seem to take the strikes.  


T

[WA1GFZ]

Come to think of it my tower has not been hit since I added the 3 AWG#2 radials to the legs. Before that it was hit twice without damage.
I remember when the South Windsor Police put up a new tower. A couple weeks later it took a good one and twisted and bent over.
Knock on wood..

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Got a report that a lightning strike took down one of the big trees below the house in VT, landing it across Rte 12. I'm thinking it was more likely a dying/dead tree with rot and a wind gust just finished it off. Hard to tell from here.

Saw folks in CT sleeping in the cars on the evening news. They couldn't get to their houses due to downed trees and power lines.