aiki14
08-13-2008, 11:12 AM
I live in the suburbs to the west of Philly in a place not normally subject to really hideous weather, a little warmer than NY and the northeast and not as hot as DC and the south. We don't get Hurricanes or large brush fires, 120deg heat or minus 50deg cold, it doesn't rain every day or not rain for 6 months, I haven't had to stop riding my motorcycle due to high winds. And we abolutely don't get tornadoes.
That is we absolutely didn't get tornadoes until saturday.
It wasn't some F5 crossing the Tarmac at the Des Moines airport like I saw in 1980 (great story there, maybe I can blog about) but I saw the vortex drop out of the wall cloud and quite frankly couldn't believe what I was seeing. If you haven't seen a tornado up close it is a pretty amazing thing to behold, even this little one was impressive. Lightning is striking about every 5 seconds and the wind makes a noise unlike anything outside of a tornadic storm, sort of has a "tune" or "pitch" to it. People talk of tornadoes "speaking" or "roaring", and I think if they did have anything to say you wouldn't want to engage it in conversation.
So I am standing there like an idiot watching it when I remember one should take cover in these circumstances. As I move towards the house I feel my hair standing up on my head and arms. No kidding, I am looking like eraserhead and I dive through the door of the house. I am not 18 anymore so I make it about 2/3rds of the way and land in the dogs waterbowl and scramble the rest of the way in and shut the door.
The next instant there is a bright flash and the loudest sound I have ever heard. I have been to two of the loudest concerts ever held (Dead at Englishtown and The Who at JFK stadium each of which had the largest speaker system ever up til that time) and I have been in the pit's at National speedway when the Funny cars were doing burnouts, and I have seen several launches at Canaveral and Vandenberg so I know loud.
Everything goes dark for a second and then I see small flashes like a welders arc out the window. One of the dogs is peeing in the kitchen in abject terror ( I have the cowardly lion of Alaskan malamutes).
Usually a few seconds after the power goes out the generator kicks in and we get power back. Not this time.
Lightning had hit the power pole where my yard meets the neighbors, around 150ft from the house, and blew the wires off the pole, and run down apparently entering the ground through the generator housing, frying the control panel. Electrician says it is a freak thing, he's never seen before as the things are shielded against "surges", but he'd never seen one hit directly by a bolt of lightning. Repair cost me $1200, and no guarantees it won't recur.
Repairs and power back on, amazingly no other damage to electronics except my cable boxes had to be reset by the home office.
I guess I can't complain too much as nobody was hurt, and no long term damage.
I did go out and saw a few roof tiles in my gutters, turns out it was from the neighbors house 300 feet away.
Pretty amazing thing, glad I don't live where they occur with any regularity.
That is we absolutely didn't get tornadoes until saturday.
It wasn't some F5 crossing the Tarmac at the Des Moines airport like I saw in 1980 (great story there, maybe I can blog about) but I saw the vortex drop out of the wall cloud and quite frankly couldn't believe what I was seeing. If you haven't seen a tornado up close it is a pretty amazing thing to behold, even this little one was impressive. Lightning is striking about every 5 seconds and the wind makes a noise unlike anything outside of a tornadic storm, sort of has a "tune" or "pitch" to it. People talk of tornadoes "speaking" or "roaring", and I think if they did have anything to say you wouldn't want to engage it in conversation.
So I am standing there like an idiot watching it when I remember one should take cover in these circumstances. As I move towards the house I feel my hair standing up on my head and arms. No kidding, I am looking like eraserhead and I dive through the door of the house. I am not 18 anymore so I make it about 2/3rds of the way and land in the dogs waterbowl and scramble the rest of the way in and shut the door.
The next instant there is a bright flash and the loudest sound I have ever heard. I have been to two of the loudest concerts ever held (Dead at Englishtown and The Who at JFK stadium each of which had the largest speaker system ever up til that time) and I have been in the pit's at National speedway when the Funny cars were doing burnouts, and I have seen several launches at Canaveral and Vandenberg so I know loud.
Everything goes dark for a second and then I see small flashes like a welders arc out the window. One of the dogs is peeing in the kitchen in abject terror ( I have the cowardly lion of Alaskan malamutes).
Usually a few seconds after the power goes out the generator kicks in and we get power back. Not this time.
Lightning had hit the power pole where my yard meets the neighbors, around 150ft from the house, and blew the wires off the pole, and run down apparently entering the ground through the generator housing, frying the control panel. Electrician says it is a freak thing, he's never seen before as the things are shielded against "surges", but he'd never seen one hit directly by a bolt of lightning. Repair cost me $1200, and no guarantees it won't recur.
Repairs and power back on, amazingly no other damage to electronics except my cable boxes had to be reset by the home office.
I guess I can't complain too much as nobody was hurt, and no long term damage.
I did go out and saw a few roof tiles in my gutters, turns out it was from the neighbors house 300 feet away.
Pretty amazing thing, glad I don't live where they occur with any regularity.