Tornadoes are quick and even though can be detected soon enough to give warnings, you still don’t know where to go as they are twisting here and there and are so unpredictable in changing course, they are sometime hard to escape.
A tornado warning is an eerie sound with the skies dark as night and you know a tornado has touched down somewhere, that it will lift off the ground with what it has collected and either dissipate or touch down again, picking up houses or people and doing more damage.
We are told that if driving and a tornado approaches, get out of the car and jump in a ditch if one is available. If one isn’t then, lay flat on the ground. If you are home, pull a mattress into the hall with you and get under it. Stay away from windows.
I don’t know how fast a tornado spins or travels but, I do know they are so strong that a single pine needle was detected driven through a tree so they have to be mighty powerful.
A hurricane can be reported several days before it hits land, if it does. This gives people who want to and can, time to evacuate. Since they originated as tropical storms in the ocean, it’s hard to tell if it will develop into a full fledge hurricane but if it does, it brings with it the ocean water and powerful wind.
My aunt and uncle have lived in Biloxi, MS for years now. Prior to that, they were in Key West where they sat through many hurricanes. When in Biloxi, though, Hurricane Camille hit and the last words my mother heard my aunt say before they lost connection was that “I think this time, this is it.” However, that wasn’t enough to scare them into evacuating when Katrina hit. They sat through that one, too, had only a few downed trees and that was the only damage done to them. My niece lived in Pascagoula, though, and she lost her house, car and everything.
Tornadoes can leave you without electricity but not like a hurricane can. Tornadoes don’t cause flooding – hurricanes do. Tornadoes are spawned from hurricanes and it seems they just work together.
When Camille hit the Gulf Coast, some apartment dwellers decided to stay and have a hurricane party. When the hurricane and party were over, the bodies of these people were found floating in the Gulf. You think that is not bad? There were around three hundred of these young people.
Years ago, we had no sirens or warnings when we saw the skies turning black. My grandfather just knew that we all had to get in the storm pit. So, we all did that, with the toads and spiders until the weather had blown over.
My brother-in-law had a modern storm room built on his land where you could enjoy sleeping, watching TV, reading a book, eat or whatever while the storm carried on above. It was condensation free and was just like a home away from home. In fact, sometimes, he would go out at night, when the stars were shining brightly and go down in it and spend the night just for the hell of it. Maybe, just to get away for a while.
It is hard to say if a hurricane or tornado is the deadliest. One is as deadly as the other but you would have a chance to escape a hurricane but the tornadoes that follow, I don’t know.
I just hope you never have to.
