« B&B on GWB | Main | Statusticular Update »
God Gave Me the Bird and I Took a Picture of It
by blank at 10:58 PM on May 12, 2003
After helping my brother move out of his dorm on Saturday, my parents and I headed back to Palmyra, Missouri for the rest of the weekend. In between us and home there were several large storm cells, so we took a southern route home below the storms and tried to beat them home.
It caught up with us at Hannibal. As we headed north on Highway 61 a funnel cloud appeared. Rather than drive straight at, it we turned onto a blacktop road and went the back way home. When I was about five miles from home I stopped and took a picture of the tornado. (It was with my old point-and-shoot, the digital was in the trunk.) At the very same moment, unaware to me, there was an F-3 tearing up things twenty miles north.
The rest of the way home the sun came out and illuminated the tornado. I would have taken a picture of that fucked up sight but I thought it unwise to stop on a curvy blacktop and wait for a house to drop on me. I made it home fine and found the weather strangely calm, although the sky above was really active.
Later I saw on the news that Canton Missouri was a mess from the F-3. It took out everything good about that town: the new County Market, the new motel and the college.
comments (4)
Wow, I can't imagine living with stuff like that, although I suppose a lot of people wonder why West-Coasters put up with earthquakes. Really reminds you how varied things are across the U.S. Glad to hear that you and your family are OK.
by jean at May 12, 2003 11:38 PM
Amen. The people who fascinate me are those storm-chasers. While everyone else is either bolting or cowering under their beds, they're out there chasing twisters for the hell of it. Very strange.
by Anna at May 13, 2003 7:55 AM
That is so cool!! Nice pics.
There were tornados in Georgia last week & the curious science nerd in me really wants to see one... I was so bent on it that I had a dream the other night that I was making out in a sunny field with Pheobe from Friends and suddenly a tornado came out of nowhere and we had to run for cover. It was just getting good too...
Wait, what was I saying? Shit, sorry...
by Linz at May 13, 2003 8:30 AM
I wasn't chasing. I was running away. I'm not crazy.
by MrBlank at May 13, 2003 11:07 AM