Real bad weather in the south

I hope and pray that none of our listmembers have been injured or lost in the tornados and snowstorms in the south/ especially Texas areas.

PLEASE let us know that you're ok, ASAP. We're here for you----

Dave Fox

 

Ditto.
Well wishes and thoughts for those in the way of Mother Nature and her fury.
As long as YOU and family are safe, everything else is just 'stuff'.

 

I did hear from Razz, and he's fine---

 

Tennessee had some tornados but my area was unscathed. We did have to listen to sirens all night.
My heart goes out to those less fortunate.

 

Thanks,Ron... Glad to hear from you---

 

Do people in other parts of the country (that don't get tornados) have the sirens (on phone poles)? It's kinda eerie (i.e. nerve-wracking) when they go off, especially at night.......sorta like a WW2 air-raid siren.

 

My hometown in PA used the old air-raid horn for the fire dept. we lived 6 miles out of town ( and back in the hills).... Could hear it easily.

When I moved to NY, we were 5 mi out of town, up on some hills at a remote lake. The town had the same air-raid horn. It felt so much like home.... And sounded like it too---.

I guess i could retrain my brain to hear that as a weather announcement---I've almost always known it as a fire alarm... Except in early grade school when we still had to practice our air-raid drills......

 

We had them when I was growing up in suburban Milwaukee area. They would test them at noon, I can see (hear) how if they were to go off at night, how nerve wracking it would be.

Don't know what they have here in Irma.

Still putting out positive thoughts for anyone caught in the path of Mom Nature and her fury. Record rain falls in lots of places . . .

 

We have them here in PA in some spots. There used to be one on top of the office where I worked just a couple of years ago, but they took that one down. You could barely hear the person on the other end of the phone when it went off (not ideal for a call center). I was told that it was for the fire department because they had Amish volunteers, but I don't know if my leg was just getting pulled.

 

There is a siren at the end of the block, and another 1/4 mile away (ya, I live in the alley). I find them comforting, since they give me half a chance of getting to cover (or grabbing my camera if it's daytime). Some friends live in Centerton, AR and they just got sirens installed there this past summer. They do get tornadoes and prior to the sirens being installed you pretty well had to rely on news reports to get any warning.

 

Growing up in Kentucky we had the duck & cover sirens in our neighborhood. Living in central & south Texas, as well as my current home in south Florida I guess they assume we are smart enough to watch the weather to know when a hurricane is about to blow in.

 

We have old WW2 Air raid sirens for tornado sirens. Tested every Tuesday.

 

When I was growing up in suburban Chicago we did not have sirens, relied on the emergency broadcast system...used to occasionally get some wicked storms there

 

I don't know how bad it is in Chicago but one year here we had like 5 tornadoes criss cross through my city. Those sirens saved a lot of lives. I think that was 1996. 33 tornadoes in IL just in april.

 

We were living in the 'burbs then, Wheaton, about 30 miles west of Chicago. They had that town near Chicago, Plainfield, that was completely destroyed *twice* by tornado's. I was there in 1990 for one of them... scary stuff. Luckily the human toll (when I was there) was always pretty low. Living in tornado alley gives you a pretty healthy respect for mother nature, that is for sure.

 

Oh yeah, Mother Nature can be a scary b***h

 

Yep. A friend's house was pretty well battered by a tornado last year, and the house wasn't directly hit. It took them most of a year to get it back into habitable condition. I ride through Greensburg, KS regularly. It's been almost 9 years and it still isn't the same.

 

As bad as IL can be, I'm glad it's not Kansas in tornado season.