Tonight's tornados (Coon Rapids, Northfield, Hugo: houses, neighborhood, contractors)

[Simple Living]

I hope everyone here is safe and didn't sustain any damage in the tornados that struck Hugo and Coon Rapids tonight. The poor family of that 2 year old who died in Hugo! I hope the 20 missing people are accounted for.

Between the increase in the number (and intensity) of earthquakes, fires, tornados, cyclones and higher than average predicted hurricane season, one has to wonder if this isn't part of the labor pains spoken about the Bible.

[asitshouldbe]

I live in Coon Rapids and the Tornado hit 2 blocks in front of us with it blowing over our house. It was really strange, where we were sitting outside and the sirens went off. It was not raining and the sky was blue to the back of us where we sitting. We went in and turned on the weather station and saw Tornado Watch, so thats what we did , watch. A few minutes later the wind started to blow pretty hard and our lawn swing blew over in the front yard, my husband went out to pick it up and he came running in the house, screaming (get downstairs) we had company and we all went downstairs. The wind blew so hard you could hear the whole house shudder, we were only downstairs about 2 minutes when the blowing just stopped. We went outside and OMG what damage that 2 minute wind caused was unbelievable, trees uprooted everywhere, wood fences knocked over, siding and trim everywhere basketball hoops tipped over up and down the block, kids toys down the street from there homes. The tornado hit just 2 parellel blocks ahead of us which is maybe 400-500 feet away. Roofs ripped off, windows blown out plywood sticking out of one persons picture window. There were 2 cars tipped over, there was at least 7 houses where the roofs were partially ripped off and one house is missing half the roof and the side of their house. Trees lying across streets completely uprooted, the neighbor hood 3 blocks to the east of us lost almost every tree on the block, the park lost every tree which was heavily wooded, the trees are lying across the equipment. It is a really a mess up here. The sad thing is all the contractors were driving through the neighborhood within minutes.

[punkerdunker]

Originally Posted by Simple Living

Between the increase in the number (and intensity) of earthquakes, fires, tornados, cyclones and higher than average predicted hurricane season, one has to wonder if this isn't part of the labor pains spoken about the Bible.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Or maybe it's just because we keep burning nasty stuff in our cars and our factories and ruining the planet's sense of equillibrium.

Either way, I think God is unlikely to be impressed ...

[moving123456]

Originally Posted by Simple Living

Between the increase in the number (and intensity) of earthquakes, fires, tornados, cyclones and higher than average predicted hurricane season

Are you serious?

Originally Posted by Simple Living

one has to wonder if this isn't part of the labor pains spoken about the Bible.

Originally Posted by punkerdunker

Either way, I think God is unlikely to be impressed ...

Did I accidently wander into the religion subforum?

[golfgal]

The pictures are just horrible. The Trib has one picture of 2 houses completely knocked off their foundations, they were pushed back about 30 feet. There was a mile wide tornado in Iowa last night too, killing 7 people. YIKES.

We didn't know anything about the tornadoes until we heard it on the radio-we had blue skies and not a drop of rain yesterday.

[asitshouldbe]

We had blue skies until the siren went off, that was our indicator that there was anything coming. I am very impressed with those sirens. Those storms came out of nowhere, it was windy for about 2 minutes total, the very serious burst of wind that shook our house,that was the tornado moving over was only about 30 seconds and that was the part that caused all the damage. 30 seconds, I can't believe it. By 5:00 we had completely blue skies again. I am NEVER going to ignore those sirens again. Over the years we have had sirens and usually looked out and it was nothing just a thunder storm, not this time. WOW, this storm was just crazy, it wasn't raining before or anything, the sky to the north, where the storm came from was a bit overcast ,but nothing to even think rain was coming. My daughter and son in law had just pulled up with their boat not more then 5 minutes before the tornado. They were coming to pick up my 10 yr old to go fishing, and I was going to babysit the baby. We were sitting out on the deck, it was nice, then the sirens went off, we all said whats that about, and were going to ignore it. I said we better go check it out, tornado watch. My daughter kept reading the bottom scroll that was saying, seek shelter, this is a dangerous situation. When I looked at the tv, the scroll was done,so I thought she was messing around, she started reading it again, then I looked and it was done again. I started laughing thinking she was making fun that the siren was going off for no reason. She was like, no ma I'm serious. Then it got REALLY windy, and started to rain , I shut the windows and said oh its just a thunderstorm. We were watching the neighbors tree blow across the street it was almost bending over, I said look at all the blossoms being blown off the tree, then the wind just stopped, it was calm, I said thats weird, isn't that what a tornado does, my husband went out to pick up our lawn swing that blew over and came running back in screaming GET DOWNSTAIRS, I thought oh $hit, so I started screaming get downstairs NOW! we got down stairs, the house shudddered, you could here the windows and furnace vibrate. This lasted about 30 seconds, then it completely stopped. I thought my husband was being a bit dramatic, I said that was it, and I went upstairs. The neighbors tree that I was just watching have the blossoms blown off was now uprooted. We went outside, it wasn't even raining, that was the strange thing we were out looking at all the damage and then it started to pour, not a sprinkle to let you know it was going to start raining. It was like there was a lake above us that just opened up and dropped 2 inches of rain in 20 seconds. My son and son in law said they saw what looked like a wall of rain moving over the houses towards us, (ha funny funny) me and my daughter were in the front yard with our backs facing that direction. The rain hit us so fast , we were soaked, we were only 20 feet from the front door. I screeched out of shock, it was like someone just literally dumped a lake on on us with no warning. My son thought it was sooo funny, I asked them why they didn't tell us that rain was coming, they said they were kind of mesmerized , they never seen something like that, a wall of rain moving so fast coming from behind the neighbors house. (They all got a great laugh from it). Very odd, but then they say after a tornado it pours really hard. I asked my husband what made him tell us to get downstairs, he said when he went out to pick up the swing, the sky back behind our neighbors,(who lost the tree) had swirling debri in the air. Thats because the tornado hit 2 blocks ahead of us and was moving our way, Thank God it lifted off the ground before going over our house. If I had a map of our town I could draw a straight line from where the tornado touched down , moving over us and touching down and going up and coming down again. That tornado was (jumping up and down) there is 3 spots all along the same path that got hit really hard. Thank God noone was hurt up here. Our hearts go out to the family of the 2 yr old.

[tdiannec]

I live in Hugo about 5 miles from the tornado touch down. I had wind, rain & hail. Thank God no damage other than minor clean up. Where can I go to volunteer to help with the clean up or any other way to help? My prayers are with the family that lost their 2 year old son. There is nothing worse than losing a child.

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by tdiannec

I live in Hugo about 5 miles from the tornado touch down. I had wind, rain & hail. Thank God no damage other than minor clean up. Where can I go to volunteer to help with the clean up or any other way to help? My prayers are with the family that lost their 2 year old son. There is nothing worse than losing a child.

They will post information on either the Red Cross site or in one of the newspapers. Often they don't want help the first day or two so they can get emergency crews in there to take care of down powerlines and whatnot.

asitshouldbe--in Dakota County they sound the sirens for EVERYTHING. There can be a tornado warning in Northfield yet they sound them all over the county. We have had blue skies, no wind, and then the sirens go off. I think it is a very dangerous practice personally for your exact example. People ignore the sirens because of that.

[Bongopercylou]

Originally Posted by Simple Living

Between the increase in the number (and intensity) of earthquakes, fires, tornados, cyclones and higher than average predicted hurricane season, one has to wonder if this isn't part of the labor pains spoken about the Bible.

Oh, never even thought of that! I thought it had to do with the Earth being flat. Umph.

Good Grief! It makes me a little sick to even make jokes about such an ignorant post since it is probably not just the opinion of this one person.

[Jammie]

I just wanted to to let those of you in our neighboring state know that you have our sympathy over the loss of a life and the devastation that the tornados caused.