The stars at night are big and bright...

The stars at night are big and bright...
The stars at night are big and bright...

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

This is not a drill... Abandon Ship!


Wow. That was one mean and ugly storm that blew through here yesterday afternoon. I was watching it on radar and saw it was heading straight for the South 40 proper. For the first time in my life I said "F**K THIS!", got in my truck, left the house and headed for a safer area.

I got lucky. The worst part of the storm skirted just north of me. All I got was high wind and rain, but a few miles North of me in Sunset is where the video was shot.

Here's some pics I took before I abandoned ship. You can click them to enlarge.
 Looking North
 Looking West
Those birds were SOL
 Looking Northwest
North for the last time when I decided to GTFO

That wall cloud had quite a bit of rotation going on. You may notice how dark it is to the left. That's what really bothered me because it was heading straight toward me. Luckily, as I said before it skirted just North of my house. 

I rode out a tornado here in '03. I watched my ceiling move up and down 3-4 inches. I honestly thought it was going to rip off. It uprooted my steel wellhouse and flew it 400 yards across the pasture. I'm not sure exactly how much it weighed, but it took 3 grown men to tip it over onto a utility trailer and put it back in place. Tipping it was all we could do, there was no lifting it off the ground. I'm guessing it was close to 800lbs.

Anyway after that, I decided no more riding the storm out. Cue REO Speedwagon.

3 comments:

an Donalbane said...

Don't blame you for making a run for (from) it.

Time to call one of those Oklahoma companies to put in a storm shelter? Actually, does BIL have a backhoe...could probably drop one in yourself.

RPM said...

I'm on the waiting list with the North Central Texas Council of Governments for a grant to have a storm shelter installed. I'm getting pretty close to the top, too. If I put one in before the grant is given, they won't pay. BIL does have a backhoe, but it's at his Missouri place and I don't see it coming back to Texas any time soon.

Denney Crane said...

From the radar and reports, I would have hauled ass too! I would rather be a live coward than a dead hero...