Tonight I feel lucky to be alive. I don't know how close I actually was to any true harm, but tonight I laid in a ditch <1/4 mile from a tornado touching down. Probably a low category on EF scale, but it was scary as f*k, and I watched it destroy a house/barn as I lay in the ditch, feeling as helpless as I've ever felt. Like a true dumbf*k, I was driving right into the storm.


Anyone else ever witness any crazy natural disasters?


Pic 1 - You can see the house (in pic 2) in the left center of this photo. As soon as I took this picture, I realized I needed to get the f*k out ASAP.





Pic 2 - Destruction

Saw Antwerp was crushed (along with Kokomo). Glad your safe.

How did this thing miss Ft. Wayne? Wow.

Started south of Ft. Wayne. Missed Antwerp. Went just south of Antwerp. Here are some pics from around the area:

http://wane.com/2016/08/24/tornadoes-ravage-ne-indiana-nw-ohio/

ETB-

Glad you're alive tho

...tornados are fucking crazy! I had a friend's house blown apart some years ago, the roof, walls contents...GONE except for the front door which was still in it's frame and sticking through the door was one of his belt buckles which had been hanging in the closet upstairs.

Sonofanump;1808523 wrote:Saw Antwerp was crushed (along with Kokomo). Glad your safe.

Kokomo got fucked up. We've got a project at work that is supposed to be delivered to Kokomo next month, and they're a longtime customer, so once they make sure that their plant and employees are doing ok I'm sure we will hear from them on how they're doing.

Was in St Paris playing golf and a storm rolled in. It was a nasty looking storm and we were trying to finish before it hit. The guy I was golfing with was joking about seeing a tornado. He looked to the north of us just in time to see one touch down. It was not very big but it was crazy to see. It Just bounced around in a field for a minute or so and it was gone. The corn was just blowing around like crazy every time it touched down. It was kind of like a small explosion each time. Was just glad no houses were damaged.

Wow

a lot of good pics and video from northern Mercer Co and Van Wert Co. It was for sure interesting last night.

Glad you're ok ETB.

As for me I've been near 2 Tornado's and 1 Hurricane that I can remember. Hurricane Erin was the worst... I remember boarding up windows and everything but my family didn't leave our house. The hurricane went about a 1/2 of a mile from my house and caused a lot of damaged. My parents weren't the smartest and let me go outside once it got calm and it was right there (at least as a 9 year old it seemed like it was right there).The other times were I was in Cygnet/Jerry City when a tornado went through there and did a lot of damage and then I had a similar experience that you did ETB just not as bad. A friend and I followed one for a bit because it was traveling the same direction we were as we were going back to his house. It was ahead of us and we didn't know about it until we saw it. We eventually wised up and stopped and just let it go away. I don't think we ever got particularly close but it was just stupid to do what we did.

I was driving on 75N from BG to Perrysburg when the Lake HS Tornado hit. You could see it off to the right, about a mile away and half mile behind us. Was hauling ass to get to my parents house and into the basement.

[video=youtube;DNfUbxpUswE][/video]

[video=youtubeDXhDOPstEE][/video]

[video=youtube;UkB18ADUU4g][/video]

salto;1808586 wrote:[video=youtubeDXhDOPstEE][/video]

At the end of this video it shows the same house that ETB took a picture of.

CenterBHSFan;1808605 wrote:At the end of this video it shows the same house that ETB took a picture of.

Yep. When they come up to the cross roads (house off to right in vid), I was laying in a ditch to the left.

4 funnel clouds in Van Wert County. The tornado capital of Ohio.

I had a good view of two tornados in May 1973 in the south end of Columbus. I was watching with several other people from our high school just below the outerbelt.

The first one never came down, but it was clear what it was before it disappeared. Then another one formed behind it and lasted about 20 minutes. Came down, danced on the ground a while, then lifted up and disappeared. Took out a gas station and a drive-in screen on U.S. 23 (S. High St), and destroyed 4 homes behind the drive-in. Incredibly, no was killed, and there were no injuries.

The next day, it was all my classmates talked about in school. Almost everyone had seen it. It was a taller funnel cloud than the one ernest_t photographed, and more easily visible.

But, this was back when dinosaurs walked the earth, and apparently before cameras were invented. The Columbus Dispatch had an article the day after about storms rolling thru the city, then said there " there were unconfirmed reports that a funnel cloud was spotted in the South Side", almost as if it were hardly worth mentioning.

ETB, that is some crazy shit, glad you're alright.

Was with family out near Continental OH back int he day during a tornado as a kid. Saw it couple if miles in the distance, but didn't really feel it for say. Been in 3 earthquakes, worst one was when I lived on the East Coast (2011?), and was in Florida for 2 hurricanes (dad lived in Florida). Earthquake was a weird/scariest of the experiences.

I was not a witness to it, but I was on vacation with my family in Florida and left the day before Katrina hit. I had no clue what was coming and thought everyone was over reacting. (I fucking hate when they have tornado watches in Ohio and people act like there is a tornado outside) I remember watching the palm trees bend in the wind and the waitress asked if we were getting out before the storm hit.