I quite literally was almost killed last night. Pictures inside.
 

Yesterday, I was out of town in business, in Muscatine, IA. If you paid close attention to the national news programs last night, or happen to be a weather junkie, you probably saw some coverage of the tornado that went through that area.

I was LITERALLY right at groundzero when it hit..............outside in my vehicle. I'm very fortunate to even be alive.


I had just checked into the Holiday Inn, and was preparing to meet someone to go out to lunch. I knew it was storming out, and there was a tornado warning, but it wasn't too bad out where I was. Living in the Midwest my entire life, I didn't think too much about it, warnings and watches are a regular occurence all summer long.

I went out in my company SUV to wait for the guy I was meeting. Within about 3-4 minutes of going outside, I saw off in the Southeast a funnel cloud drop. This is the second time in about a month I've seen one firsthand.

These pictures are the best I could get with my cameraphone, taken from the Holiday Inn parking lot.


http://picsorban.com/upload/tornado.jpg

http://picsorban.com/upload/tornado13.jpg

http://picsorban.com/upload/tornado14.jpg



After maybe 45 seconds or so, the funnel cloud lifted. As you can probably tell from those pictures, there was not much rain or wind where I was at during that time. However, I know that one of my customers lives that direction. I thought it was too far away to be near her house, but I also knew that she had left work early that day and would've been home. So I immediately called her to make sure that everything was ok.

She had heard sirens go off, but didn't realize a tornado had actually touched down. I was on the phone with her, when, in a matter of less than 10-15 seconds, everything went insane.

You can see the car dealership across the street in the pictures......I started seeing all kinds of debris swirling around in the parking lot there. I saw BIG, BIG chunks of metal, poles, signs, and sheeting start FLYING through the air at probably 50+mph. The wind went from almost nothing, to being so intense it was rocking my SUV so hard that I was afraid it would be literally lifted off the ground and thrown who knows where, all within probably 5 seconds. So, as I'm watching swirling winds and debris heading for me, I gun the vehicle across the parking lot heading for the carport and relative shelter.

At the same time I am talking to her, all of sudden I hear what sounds like a very severe hailstorm slamming into the vehicle...........but it's not hail, it's debris flying through the air. I make it about 2/3rds the way to the carport, the vehicle rocking still like it's going to be tipped over, when I hear a sharp crack, and the driver's side window implodes all over me. I didn't realize it at the time, but the rearmost window on my side also had a large hole blasted in it.

The SUV also has scattered dings and dents covering the entire driver's side. The last picture is where something very solid must've hit the pillar on the rear-driver's side corner, it left a sizable dent, and spiderwebbed the paint pretty good.

Here are pictures of the shattered out windows, and the worst dent. It's not terribly clear in the picture, but there are actually gauges in the dash from debris and glass being embedded in it after the window broke.

And all of this damage happened WHILE your's truly was in the driver's seat. I never made it to the carport until after it swept through. The entire time I was still talking to her on the phone too.





http://picsorban.com/upload/tornado11.jpg


http://picsorban.com/upload/tornado12.jpg


http://picsorban.com/upload/tornado10.jpg


http://picsorban.com/upload/tornado3.jpg


http://picsorban.com/upload/tornado9.jpg



To give you a breakdown of just how much I was actually in the very middle of some of the worst of it, here is a map of the area.

The green area is the Holiday Inn, whose parking lot I was in.

The lowest red mark to the left, is a McDonald's who had half of it's roof sheeting ripped off. There is also a picture of some of the shattered glass in the play area.

Moving towards the hotel, directly across the street from it is the car dealership you can see in the first pictures. Where that red mark is, a Ford Taurus was literally picked up and set on top of a Mustang.

The trees you see in the last couple of pictures are snapped off and knocked down right on the edge of the hotel parking lot. I was racing right next to those trees at the same time my windows shattered.






http://picsorban.com/upload/map1.jpg


http://picsorban.com/upload/tornado16.jpg


http://picsorban.com/upload/tornado2.jpg


http://picsorban.com/upload/tornado5.jpg


http://picsorban.com/upload/tornado7.jpg


Now, on the largest red mark, to the upper right, is a Walmart. Here are pictures of what happened in that parking lot around the same time my windows were shattering. The trees you see behind the trucks? Those are part of the same lot of trees you saw in my picture. I was probably 200-300 yards behind those trucks when they were turned over.


Talk about a freaky experience.



Here is a link to view some other pictures from the town, from the tornado last night.

http://www.muscatinejournal.com/mult...slideshow&id=4




http://picsorban.com/upload/tornado17.jpg

Damn...

Did you have an umbrella? :D

Intense. :eek:

I am rightly glad to hear that you are okay and got out of the area safely.

Seriously, though, you should heed tornado warnings more often, and you must take them seriously because they can really form in almost no time flat.

Once again, glad to hear that you came out okay. Though the same cannot be said about your car. Yikes!

Good to know you're okay. I had a few close calls when I lived in St. Louis myself. Tornadoes are nothing to sneeze at. I'll take earthquakes over twisters any way.

jesus christ!!!!!!!!!!!! that's a hell of a story. glad you're ok. The fact that you made it out safely means you'll always have an awesome story to tell, but the opposite side is a 2x4 could have went through your face.

The pictures make it 10 times better. :thumbsup:

Wow dude, nice to see you still have all your limbs :) It's pretty amazing that it seemed to develop so quickly, and you didn't notice mortal danger until it was already coming down on your head, haha.

Glad to see you made it to tell this awesome tale.

Im so glad that you're ok!!!

I've been in experiences like that when I was little and we lived in Alabama, it always seemed like the tornados touched down in our back yard and throw my dad's utility bldg from the back part of the property over the house to the front yard. After the 4th time the insurance company told my daddy he needed to relocate the location of the bldg or they wouldnt cover it anymore hehehehe

I know its scary.....again, glad you're okay

That last one should be your avatar. That or your next album cover. :)

Holy crap that is insane! Talk about a story (with pictures) to last forever.

Where are the pictures from inside the twister? You really need to try harder ...

;)

I'll keep that in mind next time. :lol:

Consider one of your nine lives spent - you were damn lucky...

damn, and you lived to tell it ;)

stay safe man!

Borla, I'm so glad you came through it OK. What's gonna happen about the SUV though?

Sweet Jesus, Borla! I'm glad to hear you're okay. That's an incredible story to have though.

Geez, this brings home why they tell you not to try to wait out a tornado in your car! Safer in a ditch, it would seem. Glad you're okay, and thanks for sharing the amazing pictures!

If you want to see some more freaky pictures that other people took of the same tornado, check out this link:


http://www.muscatinejournal.com/mult...slideshow&id=5







Well, about 90 seconds after the winds died, my practical side kicked in. :D I realized that literally across the street was an autoglass repair. I drove the vehicle over there, gave them my company's insurance info, and was the second in line to get my glass fixed. :D They literally brought in crews to work all night through from all the vehicles with damage, but fortunately mine was nearly the first in there, so I was able to have it by 10-11AM the next day. Also fortunately for me, the car dearlership that you see in the first few pictures rents cars, so after dropping my vehicle off I was able to rent another car, finish out what I needed to do while I was in town, and then head back the next day as planned. :)

The vehicle has a ton of dents and pockmarks down the driver's side from debris hitting it, but like I said, it is a company vehicle. They will probably just file it against the insurance and get it fixed I assume.

Did you have a few bricks in your drawers?? I'd of had a few.