Replies

1. 
   TomW | May 08, 2007 10:25pm | #1

   speechless....

2. 
   RW | May 08, 2007 11:46pm | #2

   Call me crazy

   Thats remarkably clean already. They got busy in a hurry making streets passable. I've not had a twister over my head and blowing down the house I'm in, but I've watched them from not far, saw the one that blew through Grand Island in 80, saw Hallam (about a year ago, same size, just gone) . . . One of the hardest things to do in cleaning up is just get started. You cant go anywhere, do anything. Cant get materials to you or garbage away from you until you can make traffic move. Kind of nice to see them on top of things.

   Real trucks dont have sparkplugs

1. 
   TomT226 | May 09, 2007 02:45am | #5

   Saw the Jerrell area here (Texas) when the F5 hit, and it cleaned everything out.  Took the asphalt and the grass off the suface, and deposited everything a few hundred yards away.  Clean slabs and lots.  Just a little debris scattered.  Killed many. 

1. 
   stevent1 | May 09, 2007 04:36am | #6

   How are some structures partially standing and the others are splinters?

   Better built?  Fasteners?  Would Hurricane codes ( Post Andrew-165 winds) have  helped?

    

   Chuck S

   live, work, build, ...better with wood

   Edited 5/8/2007 9:39 pm ET by stevent1

1. 
   alwaysoverbudget | May 09, 2007 05:53am | #7

   i live about  125 miles from there so i have seen what tornados do. they cannot be explained.they will blow one house completely away and the house next door might have the windows blown out. type of const. does matter some,but if it hits you right it's going down.

   the strangest thing i have seen was a 6x16 support beam had a drinking straw stuck straight through it .just like someone had drill a hole and stuck this plastic straw in the hole.

   the difference with this twister is it dead hit the whole town,there is no commerce or infra structure left to work from,i suppose they will build again ,but it will be a long haul.

   next week i think i'm going out with the bobcat and see if there is something i could help with,but from pics it looks like a d9 dozer and start at one end and push it all north of town and burn.   larryhand me the chainsaw, i need to trim the casing just a hair.

1. 
   stevent1 | May 09, 2007 06:43am | #8

   Larry,

   We had an F4 here in North Columbus that wiped out a High School in Neighboring AL.  Nature is more powerful than we are.

    

   Chuck Slive, work, build, ...better with wood

2. 
   alwaysoverbudget | May 09, 2007 07:30am | #9

   i think it is interesting that a concrete silo standing 100' into the air in the middle of a f5 took the hit pretty well. but your right when we think we have mother nature figured out she will just come along and spank us a little bit  to show who is really in control. larryhand me the chainsaw, i need to trim the casing just a hair.

3. 
   JohnT8 | May 09, 2007 06:33pm | #11

   i think it is interesting that a concrete silo standing 100' into the air in the middle of a f5 took the hit pretty well.

   Reinforced concrete and it is probably full of grain too.  I'd be inclined to think it would take an earthquake or explosives to bring that thing down, unless the tornado managed to find a weak point.

   An F5 tornado is 261-318mph winds.  In theory you could make a tornado proof structure, but it would likely look like... well, a grain silo or bank vault or something.  In actuality, I think it would really depend on the type of missiles being thrown at the structure and for how long. 

    

    jt8

   "One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency." -- Arnold H. Glasgow

4. 
   Stuart | May 09, 2007 08:41pm | #13

   The walls in those grain silos are really thick as well, since they're built to withstand dust explosions from the inside.  There are some old grain silos close to my house that were converted into high rise condominimums - it took them forever to cut the holes for the doors and windows in those things, I think the concrete was about two feet thick.  The condos ended up really nice, though; with those thick walls, they're really quiet and comfortable.

5. 
   JohnT8 | May 09, 2007 08:59pm | #14

   A small town near here turned one into a climbing tower.

    jt8

   "One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency." -- Arnold H. Glasgow

6. 
   TomT226 | May 09, 2007 10:08pm | #15

   So...they're called "corndos."

   I know, I'm sorry, it won't happen again.

   <choke> 

7. 
   gotcha | May 09, 2007 10:30pm | #16

   Last year a grain elevator and the office and storage building was for sale at the end of main street in Goodland, KS. $100,000.Told wife that would make a different retirement home.
   Just think, sit on top and see miles in every direction. She, of course could see nothing exciting about that.
   Oh wellPete

8. 
   JohnT8 | May 09, 2007 10:53pm | #17

   With a little work, maybe you could make it look like a medieval tower. Maybe she would think it was romantic then  :)

   But I can see it... man, got the grill up there and a cooler of beer.  See for miles.  And I want some kind of elevator or lift, cuz I don't wanna climb a bunch of stairs to take a leak (although I guess I could rent a trackhoe for a weekend and put a moat in...then you just have to fire off the top of the tower into the moat)  ;)

    jt8

   "One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency." -- Arnold H. Glasgow

9. 
   gotcha | May 09, 2007 11:22pm | #18

   If you've been in an elevator, they have a "leg" that is basically large cups grain is scooped in to haul to top of bins.
   Might be a little dangerous, but you could ride to the top, don't know how to get down??The old galvanized covered, wood elevators always intrigued me. They are built out of large wooden beams. Lots of heavy wood to hold heavy grain would make them hold up well in storms. If you could build a home in one of those, it would be hell for stout. You also would always know when the trains go by...Several homes have been built inside steel grain bins.Pete

2. 
   TomT226 | May 09, 2007 01:28pm | #10

   Hell, if I lived any closer to "tornado alley," my house would be 2' thick RE concrete, a flat poured RE concrete roof, and 1/4" plate shutters that slide into the walls.  Have a basement/bomb shelter too...with a beer keg... 

3. 
   FatRoman | May 09, 2007 06:45pm | #12

   It seemed strange to me, too, that the only thing seemingly left untouched was that grain silo. Sort of spooky.Texas Tech has a great program on building to withstand tornadoes. I've seen some video from there where they are firing a 2x4 out of a cannon-like apparatus to test wall strengths. Most houses wouldn't stand a chance at the debris field that gets whipped up.http://www.wind.ttu.edu/Shelters/Shelters.php

3. 
   Gene_Davis | May 09, 2007 12:02am | #3

   Holy Wizard of Oz!

   In the cattle-drive days of the Great Plains, IIRC, a cowboy was most likely to meet an untimely death via drowning (first) or lightning (second).  I wonder where, down the list, twisters fall.

   I recall driving up through NW PA after a bunch of killer twisters went through the Allegheny National Forest a number of years ago.  Looked like a lawnmower had been run through the mountainous, hardwood-treed terrain, the swaths a quarter mile wide.  Nothing was left.

1. 
   TomT226 | May 09, 2007 02:40am | #4

   Don't forget gettin' mashed in a stampede when the hoss stumbles, or when he's on a "cow hunt" and a moss back gets his mount...and then him.

   Saw the path of a twister that ran perpendicular to the Perdenales and Hwy 281 here in central Texas.  About a 1/4 mile wide.  Took all the cedars and everything else in that area.  You could stand on the highway and it'd look like a lawnmower whent through...