Unharmed and with power
We survived the storm unscathed. The sirens first went off 25 minutes before the tornado arrived, even before the rain arrived. We watched the local station with nonstop weather feed going and waited. We watched outside until it started to rain. The rotation of the storm was passing Junction City and the sirens went off again. Though to be fair they could've been Ogden's sirens. Still we watched the weather feed, I started to bring blankets and supplies to the closet under the stairs. The boys slept on. The thunder shook the house we watched the lightning (I was partially hoping for it to hit the water tower, but I suspect it would've been less spectacular that I would imagine it to look).
The new local weather guy who's had trial by fire this past week (The sirens have gone off 3 different days since last monday in Manhattan alone) made the statement if he had to rank tornado warnings this would be the most serious. Came back on immediately to remind us all tornado warnings are serious, but that with so many lately we could easily get complacent. He doesn't support ever not taking shelter but understands if people don't always, but this is a time no one should be unprotected.
We collected the flashlights.
They announced the rotation of the storm was above the Manhattan Airport less than 5 minutes from our house. They couldn't be sure if it was actually a tornado or just rotation at this point but if it wasn't currently a tornado it would be soon. The storm is moving at 42 mph. New weather guy's eyes bugged a bit, he recovered and pointed out the airport is 8 miles from Manhattan if you are not in your basement or there in the next minute you could be seriously hurt.
We snuck into the boys rooms and plucked them from bed to go downstairs. Hunkered in the closet under the stairs we listened to a local radio station and waited. The phone rang, a friend from post called to make sure we were aware, she was out of danger and watching the news and said it was coming straight for our house. The rain picked up and our power went out. I called back to ask her to call when we were all clear as we lost power. She said she would. Our power came back on 5 mintues later. We live on the south west side of Stagg Hill half way up the hill. The tornado veered to the north. Northeast of the hill, Little Apple Honda, less than 1 mile from our house. More impressive than the pictures of the cars crushed and overturned, the hardware store that used to be next door. No one on the news is talking about it because no one who doesn't drive by it everyday would know what was supposed to be there. The trailer park behind the dealership, half is flattened, half is gone. It continued on to KSU, that was also more impressive looking damage. The size of the trees uprooted were shocking to me. Again, our "local" news is based out of Topeka, the don't really know the side roads through campus.
We were the second closest of our group of friends to the damage, the closest live 2 blocks on the opposite side of the street from Little Apple Honda. She said it was really scary for a little bit but they were ok, the apartment is fine but they were without power last night. I don't know if they are back on yet or not.
I don't know about so many sirens making me complacent, monday the grapefruit size hail was pretty scary. Thursday really wasn't anything just lots of wind and a little hail, but it could've been much worse. Last night although it wasn't bad for us it easily could've drifted 1/4 south instead of north and hit us.
The new local weather guy who's had trial by fire this past week (The sirens have gone off 3 different days since last monday in Manhattan alone) made the statement if he had to rank tornado warnings this would be the most serious. Came back on immediately to remind us all tornado warnings are serious, but that with so many lately we could easily get complacent. He doesn't support ever not taking shelter but understands if people don't always, but this is a time no one should be unprotected.
We collected the flashlights.
They announced the rotation of the storm was above the Manhattan Airport less than 5 minutes from our house. They couldn't be sure if it was actually a tornado or just rotation at this point but if it wasn't currently a tornado it would be soon. The storm is moving at 42 mph. New weather guy's eyes bugged a bit, he recovered and pointed out the airport is 8 miles from Manhattan if you are not in your basement or there in the next minute you could be seriously hurt.
We snuck into the boys rooms and plucked them from bed to go downstairs. Hunkered in the closet under the stairs we listened to a local radio station and waited. The phone rang, a friend from post called to make sure we were aware, she was out of danger and watching the news and said it was coming straight for our house. The rain picked up and our power went out. I called back to ask her to call when we were all clear as we lost power. She said she would. Our power came back on 5 mintues later. We live on the south west side of Stagg Hill half way up the hill. The tornado veered to the north. Northeast of the hill, Little Apple Honda, less than 1 mile from our house. More impressive than the pictures of the cars crushed and overturned, the hardware store that used to be next door. No one on the news is talking about it because no one who doesn't drive by it everyday would know what was supposed to be there. The trailer park behind the dealership, half is flattened, half is gone. It continued on to KSU, that was also more impressive looking damage. The size of the trees uprooted were shocking to me. Again, our "local" news is based out of Topeka, the don't really know the side roads through campus.
We were the second closest of our group of friends to the damage, the closest live 2 blocks on the opposite side of the street from Little Apple Honda. She said it was really scary for a little bit but they were ok, the apartment is fine but they were without power last night. I don't know if they are back on yet or not.
I don't know about so many sirens making me complacent, monday the grapefruit size hail was pretty scary. Thursday really wasn't anything just lots of wind and a little hail, but it could've been much worse. Last night although it wasn't bad for us it easily could've drifted 1/4 south instead of north and hit us.