Pacrat
Old and Cranky
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-10
Cortland, OH
 ·RoadRunner Cable
2 edits | reply to Jtmo
Re: 35 years ago today.
I witnessed that one. Closest I've ever been to a tornado... and never want to be that close again. My wife and daughter and I were heading for a local eatery near the Eastwood Mall. Was driving south and became enveloped in a sudden monster hail storm. Parked under an overpass(along with about a dozen other cars) and waited it out. Sun came out and we proceded to continue southward. As we were driving down the road, my wife looked up and made a comment, "Look at all those birds!!!". Birds, my ass, that was debris whirling in front of us. The opportunity arose to make a right turn and I made it. I know the path of a tornado can be very erratic, but they rarely reverse themselves, so I made the turn to get behind it. The devastation was something else. I figure I was about half a mile from it when we first saw it. I never want to be that close again. To this day, hail makes me very nervous.
My oldest daughter was attending Youngstown State Univ. and had to drive down Rte.11 to get to school. She was all excited when she got home from school the following week... where the tornado crossed the road (on both sides) it looked a like a fleet of D-9 Cats had just bull-dozed the ground bare. There was a distinct lane through the trees. Almost as if someone had a cut a fire lane through the trees.
Even though we are about 7 miles from where that storm passed, we were without power for several days. The storm took out a main power sub-station in Niles. Nope... not an experience I care to repeat in my lifetime.
--
I was born at night... but not last night! |
