*sighs* I may have to kill someone.
May. 31st, 2004 05:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
leaveoutalltherestWe all know about the epidemic of storms going on. Multiple tornadoes. And you would think that relatives would tell you when they've been through a rather nasty one.
Especially when said nasty storm drops a FUCKING F4 on their town.
See, our news stations didn't give any names of towns when talking about the F4 that hit DeKalb and Davies counties in Missouri Saturday night, until this morning when they mention that 3 people died in the town of Weatherby.
Greg and the boys live in Weatherby. And the only reason that I know that they are okay is because Greg called yesterday and told me that Val had taken the boys early. (She wasn't suppossed to get them for summer vacation until the second week of June). And he didn't say a damn thing about the tornado.
Then again, what do I expect from the guy who lived in Oklahoma for 3 years.
TWISTERS LEAVE DEATH, HAVOC
Three die, three are critically injured
By MICHAEL MANSUR
The Kansas City Star
DeKALB COUNTY, Mo. — When the tornado hit, Ray Searcy huddled in the basement between a refrigerator and a freezer, shielding family members. His grandson Logan was too young to know what was coming.
“I grabbed a chair and hung on,” Searcy said.
His wife, Marilyn, and daughter Melissa hunkered with Logan on the chair, quilts over them.
“What's that noise?” Logan kept asking.
It sounded like a revving engine. Winds swirled. Then glass flew. Ray Searcy closed his eyes. He thought of his family. He thought of Logan, just 2. He held on.
Saturday night, about 10:30, the forces of the Midwest's most vicious nature came together on these rolling, green hills of north Missouri, producing the deadliest tornado that DeKalb or Daviess counties officials could recall.
Three persons died in the twister near Weatherby, in winds so powerful they ripped giant trees from the ground and stripped bare those it left standing. At least eight persons were injured, including four children. Three of the children were in critical condition Sunday night at Children's Mercy Hospital. The fourth was in serious condition.
The deadly tornado was a quarter-mile wide, packing winds of up to 260 miles per hour, the National Weather Service estimated Sunday. It was one of eight to 12 twisters that struck in seven counties northeast of Kansas City Saturday night.
National Weather Service meteorologist Mike Hudson said that a team of investigators found a path of damage about a mile long and a quarter-mile wide in eastern DeKalb County.
“The damage indicated a tornado of F4 intensity in the fatality area,” Hudson said. A tornado categorized at that strength contains winds ranging from 207 to 260 miles per hour, according to the scale used to measure the storms.
Hudson said it was comparable to the tornadoes that plowed through parts of the Kansas City area a year ago in May.
Teams on Sunday were still surveying affected areas to determine an exact number of tornadoes.
One Daviess County man, identified by neighbors as Cliff “Pete” Bethards, died when the tornado grabbed his mobile home and blew him literally from one county to another, across Santa Rosa Road, which divides DeKalb and Daviess counties, north of Missouri 6.
At least two children were at home with Bethards, neighbors said. The home had no basement or storm shelter.
“The patrolman who found him said he had (two young children) pulled underneath him,” said Daviess County Sheriff Kevin Heldenbrand.
A child's crib, stuffed animals, toys and a copy of the action movie “Armageddon” were in the debris.
Two women died just north of Bethards, in an older frame house, also without a basement. They were found in a field just north of the home. Nothing was left of the home or garage, except concrete blocks that formed part of the foundation. Officials did not release the names of the two.
The storm also scattered debris — from a bathtub to a small bottle of vanilla amid bricks and lumber — across farm fields just north of the house. A car was turned upside down more than 100 yards from the home. A large diesel pickup also was overturned.
The tornado's force also was strong enough to pick up several other trucks, and dump them hundreds of yards away from where they had been parked. It ripped the roofs off at least at least a dozen homes, barns, sheds, garages around Santa Rosa. It killed a colt in John Oaks' horse barn, ripping off the barn's top and toppling a garage and shed.
Relatives visited the Oaks farm on Sunday, hugging and kissing John. He and his son, Johnny, had retreated to a basement cold-storage room lined with insulation. They heard little. But when they came upstairs, lightning illuminated the damage to their horse barn.
“We had storms, and the '93 flood,” Oaks said. “But nothing like this. But we still feel fortunate. We're here and we're healthy.”
After the storm hit, Oaks headed north up Santa Rosa Road looking for his horses. When he got to the Searcy house, he heard that neighbors were searching debris for missing children. One supposedly missing was a girl Oaks knew.
She was Jessica Frazier, who with her parents had made one of the best decisions of their lives on Saturday night. Once they heard that storms were bubbling up south of them, they called a friend with a basement and asked if they could come over.
“We knew we didn't have a chance in a mobile home,” said Jodi Frazier, Jessica's mother.
When the Fraziers returned home early Sunday, they found their home leveled and about 100 people searching their pasture for signs of life. When authorities were unable to locate the Fraziers immediately after the storm, they were worried they had died.
On Sunday, friends and neighbors picked through the debris. Cars and trucks littered the property along with the contents of their home, barn and garage.
“It was so very devastating,” Jodi Frazier said.
The storm that produced the tornado originated in the Plattsburg area about 8:45 p.m., then streaked along Santa Rosa Road and just south along Route EE. It would travel at least 25 miles before it dissipated in Harrison County about 11:05 p.m., Hudson said.
It was the most violent tornado to hit DeKalb County since at least the 1970s, officials said.
Bob Ruehlow, who lives about a quarter-mile south of Missouri 6 off EE, said he and his wife were in bed, listening to the radio. They thought the storms had passed. “Then we heard this huge swirling sound,” he recalled.
They rolled out of bed and headed for the basement. As they descended, the tornado blew out windows and sucked interior doors off their hinges. Ruehlow also lost a barn and numerous large trees that once protected the home.
Melissa Searcy, who lives in a farmhouse just a few hundred yards from her parents, the Searcys, said that she suspected as early as 7:30 p.m. that this would be a disastrous night. She watched the storms approaching on TV. And she headed for her parents' home and its basement.
When Searcy built his home here nearly 30 years ago close to his parents' old farmhouse, he made sure it had a basement. “It was in case of storms,” he said.
Now, he looks at his 2-year-old grandson, Logan, he said, and he thanks God that he made that decision.
The Star's James Hart and Tony Rizzo, and The Associated Press, contributed to this report.
You know, he's lucky I'm not calling him right now to yell at him.
Especially when said nasty storm drops a FUCKING F4 on their town.
See, our news stations didn't give any names of towns when talking about the F4 that hit DeKalb and Davies counties in Missouri Saturday night, until this morning when they mention that 3 people died in the town of Weatherby.
Greg and the boys live in Weatherby. And the only reason that I know that they are okay is because Greg called yesterday and told me that Val had taken the boys early. (She wasn't suppossed to get them for summer vacation until the second week of June). And he didn't say a damn thing about the tornado.
Then again, what do I expect from the guy who lived in Oklahoma for 3 years.
TWISTERS LEAVE DEATH, HAVOC
Three die, three are critically injured
By MICHAEL MANSUR
The Kansas City Star
DeKALB COUNTY, Mo. — When the tornado hit, Ray Searcy huddled in the basement between a refrigerator and a freezer, shielding family members. His grandson Logan was too young to know what was coming.
“I grabbed a chair and hung on,” Searcy said.
His wife, Marilyn, and daughter Melissa hunkered with Logan on the chair, quilts over them.
“What's that noise?” Logan kept asking.
It sounded like a revving engine. Winds swirled. Then glass flew. Ray Searcy closed his eyes. He thought of his family. He thought of Logan, just 2. He held on.
Saturday night, about 10:30, the forces of the Midwest's most vicious nature came together on these rolling, green hills of north Missouri, producing the deadliest tornado that DeKalb or Daviess counties officials could recall.
Three persons died in the twister near Weatherby, in winds so powerful they ripped giant trees from the ground and stripped bare those it left standing. At least eight persons were injured, including four children. Three of the children were in critical condition Sunday night at Children's Mercy Hospital. The fourth was in serious condition.
The deadly tornado was a quarter-mile wide, packing winds of up to 260 miles per hour, the National Weather Service estimated Sunday. It was one of eight to 12 twisters that struck in seven counties northeast of Kansas City Saturday night.
National Weather Service meteorologist Mike Hudson said that a team of investigators found a path of damage about a mile long and a quarter-mile wide in eastern DeKalb County.
“The damage indicated a tornado of F4 intensity in the fatality area,” Hudson said. A tornado categorized at that strength contains winds ranging from 207 to 260 miles per hour, according to the scale used to measure the storms.
Hudson said it was comparable to the tornadoes that plowed through parts of the Kansas City area a year ago in May.
Teams on Sunday were still surveying affected areas to determine an exact number of tornadoes.
One Daviess County man, identified by neighbors as Cliff “Pete” Bethards, died when the tornado grabbed his mobile home and blew him literally from one county to another, across Santa Rosa Road, which divides DeKalb and Daviess counties, north of Missouri 6.
At least two children were at home with Bethards, neighbors said. The home had no basement or storm shelter.
“The patrolman who found him said he had (two young children) pulled underneath him,” said Daviess County Sheriff Kevin Heldenbrand.
A child's crib, stuffed animals, toys and a copy of the action movie “Armageddon” were in the debris.
Two women died just north of Bethards, in an older frame house, also without a basement. They were found in a field just north of the home. Nothing was left of the home or garage, except concrete blocks that formed part of the foundation. Officials did not release the names of the two.
The storm also scattered debris — from a bathtub to a small bottle of vanilla amid bricks and lumber — across farm fields just north of the house. A car was turned upside down more than 100 yards from the home. A large diesel pickup also was overturned.
The tornado's force also was strong enough to pick up several other trucks, and dump them hundreds of yards away from where they had been parked. It ripped the roofs off at least at least a dozen homes, barns, sheds, garages around Santa Rosa. It killed a colt in John Oaks' horse barn, ripping off the barn's top and toppling a garage and shed.
Relatives visited the Oaks farm on Sunday, hugging and kissing John. He and his son, Johnny, had retreated to a basement cold-storage room lined with insulation. They heard little. But when they came upstairs, lightning illuminated the damage to their horse barn.
“We had storms, and the '93 flood,” Oaks said. “But nothing like this. But we still feel fortunate. We're here and we're healthy.”
After the storm hit, Oaks headed north up Santa Rosa Road looking for his horses. When he got to the Searcy house, he heard that neighbors were searching debris for missing children. One supposedly missing was a girl Oaks knew.
She was Jessica Frazier, who with her parents had made one of the best decisions of their lives on Saturday night. Once they heard that storms were bubbling up south of them, they called a friend with a basement and asked if they could come over.
“We knew we didn't have a chance in a mobile home,” said Jodi Frazier, Jessica's mother.
When the Fraziers returned home early Sunday, they found their home leveled and about 100 people searching their pasture for signs of life. When authorities were unable to locate the Fraziers immediately after the storm, they were worried they had died.
On Sunday, friends and neighbors picked through the debris. Cars and trucks littered the property along with the contents of their home, barn and garage.
“It was so very devastating,” Jodi Frazier said.
The storm that produced the tornado originated in the Plattsburg area about 8:45 p.m., then streaked along Santa Rosa Road and just south along Route EE. It would travel at least 25 miles before it dissipated in Harrison County about 11:05 p.m., Hudson said.
It was the most violent tornado to hit DeKalb County since at least the 1970s, officials said.
Bob Ruehlow, who lives about a quarter-mile south of Missouri 6 off EE, said he and his wife were in bed, listening to the radio. They thought the storms had passed. “Then we heard this huge swirling sound,” he recalled.
They rolled out of bed and headed for the basement. As they descended, the tornado blew out windows and sucked interior doors off their hinges. Ruehlow also lost a barn and numerous large trees that once protected the home.
Melissa Searcy, who lives in a farmhouse just a few hundred yards from her parents, the Searcys, said that she suspected as early as 7:30 p.m. that this would be a disastrous night. She watched the storms approaching on TV. And she headed for her parents' home and its basement.
When Searcy built his home here nearly 30 years ago close to his parents' old farmhouse, he made sure it had a basement. “It was in case of storms,” he said.
Now, he looks at his 2-year-old grandson, Logan, he said, and he thanks God that he made that decision.
The Star's James Hart and Tony Rizzo, and The Associated Press, contributed to this report.
You know, he's lucky I'm not calling him right now to yell at him.
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Date: 2004-06-01 03:16 am (UTC)