MY city 1 year later...

darksmoker

Active Member
May 22nd, 2011...i will never, never ever forget that day. it's the day my city was flattened by an EF-5 tornado...today was the 1 year "anniversary" of the tornado...i cant believe its already been 1 year. amazing...and heartbreaking still...

this is what my town looked like last year:
[video=youtube;llfTsF3n2iI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llfTsF3n2iI[/video]

i was at home by myself. my parents and little brother were at MSSU for his high school graduation. i would have gone, but they held it indoors because of the high chance of rain, and the graduates only got 2 tickets. yes, i was high when it hit...we lived near st john's hospital, in a neighborhood a couple blocks away. want to know what's amazing? before the tornado, our neighborhood was green and full of trees and houses...after the tornado, i could see the hospital from my house. i should not have been able to see the hospital from there. i knew it was coming, i've actually always been extremely interested in severe weather, so i smoked a blunt and watched out the front door...

didn't see it coming (visually) at all. it was raining too hard and way too dark. it started out as a storm that just kept getting worse and worse and worse. living in missouri, we are very used to tornado warnings and strong storms, but nothing ever comes of it. thats why i smoked a blunt, i wasnt taking it seriously. until i saw the trees, and then some debris...i was so paranoid, thinking that the weed was just making me think it was coming when nothing really was, cause like i said nothing ever happens...well, i went into a closet in the middle of the hallway, and a few seconds later i hear slamming like crazy, it was all the doors in the house being blown open and closed...then an immense pressure in my head, in my ears, in my chest, i thought i was dying...then the house just literally exploded. i was getting soaking wet, because the roof was gone and so were most of the exterior walls.

man. i dont even know. it was insane. walking out of the closet, i could see st johns...everything as far as my eye could see in every direction was completely destroyed. i just stood there and looked for a minute, then tried to call my parents...couldnt get through, all the phone service was out. they were okay though. they took shelter at a gas station. sirens...so many sirens. it was such a fucking nightmare to have gone through that. everything we owned was ruined. my car ended up upside down in the living room, and the neighbor's car was in our front yard.

jeez. sorry this was so long, i just felt like sharing. i dont think many people realize how significant this tornado was. it can happen to ANYONE at ANY TIME...please take tornado warnings seriously...our city lost 189 people that day. 7,000 houses destroyed. 1,500 businesses gone. includung major businesses like walmart, home depot, academy sports, restaurants, churches, schools, hospitals...fucking everything...gah.

i need a drink.

anyone else go through anything similar? in tuscaloosa or birmingham or something? i know i'm not the only person here who's survived a tornado.
 

smok3h

Well-Known Member
Wow, dude. That is absolutely insane. I can't believe you experienced that. I can't even begin to imagine...

You're fortunate to be alive by the sound of it. Did this experience give you a new outlook on life at all?
 

rocpilefsj

Misguided Angel
Had a dinky F1-F2 tornado travel right by my house and I was scared shitless. I cannot even imagine what you and your family and friends went through...
 

darksmoker

Active Member
Wow, dude. That is absolutely insane. I can't believe you experienced that. I can't even begin to imagine...

You're fortunate to be alive by the sound of it. Did this experience give you a new outlook on life at all?
ohhh yeah man it sure did. i should have died, i cannot believe the tornado didnt suck me out of the closet like it did so many other people. 5 people on my block died. i literally thought i was dying once i felt that pressure in my head, it seriously felt like my head was about to...explode. implode. whatever. i couldnt breathe. i couldnt think. i was getting hit onmy back by all kinds of shit [tucked my head down like they taught us in school tornado drills...]. life is short man, and very very fragile...very fragile. you really only do live once. you never know what will happen...i mean the tornado hit on the HS graduation night, literally right after everyone left the ceremony. you never know...there was so much death around me that day. pickup trucks driving past with dead bodies in the bed, body parts in the street...having to pull critically injured people out of the pile of rubble that was their house...intense. it will change a man.

ahhh... so that explains the avatar... hmmm... sucky situation... :-(
yeah it does...i've been obsessed with tornadoes ever since...

Had a dinky F1-F2 tornado travel right by my house and I was scared shitless. I cannot even imagine what you and your family and friends went through...
just because it wasnt an EF4 or 5 doesnt mean it wasnt significant...EF2's have killed as well.
 

curious2garden

Well-Known Mod
Staff member
Wow and to face that alone and on pot. Ok I'm torn about the pot it could be good or bad. I'm glad you are ok and I thought all the houses in the mid-west had basements for just these emergencies? I'm happy you and your family are ok.
 

darksmoker

Active Member
Wow and to face that alone and on pot. Ok I'm torn about the pot it could be good or bad. I'm glad you are ok and I thought all the houses in the mid-west had basements for just these emergencies? I'm happy you and your family are ok.
the weed was bad when it was coming, my heart was racing and i was so paranoid, trying to decide whether it was the weed making me think it was coming or if it really was. but once i saw the tree in the front yard (full grown large tree) get taken out, i decided it was time to hide. by the time i got out of the closet i wasnt even high anymore, and that was after a good sized blunt to myself. but yeah most of the larger houses do, but we didnt have a very big or expensive house so we just had the hallways. someone a few houses down had a storm cellar but it was too late fo rme to try and make it down there.
 

BA142

Well-Known Member
Damn man that's intense. My biggest scare with a natural disaster was the Nisqually quake in 2001, which is childs play compared to a tornado...only 1 person died and 400 injured.

Of course we have Mt. Rainier just waiting to erupt....whenever that happens, many people will die.
 

darksmoker

Active Member
Damn man that's intense. My biggest scare with a natural disaster was the Nisqually quake in 2001, which is childs play compared to a tornado...only 1 person died and 400 injured.

Of course we have Mt. Rainier just waiting to erupt....whenever that happens, many people will die.
yeah man it was intense...i think that night i got texts from 30 other people asking if i was alright...
 
Top