Clovis tornadoes? (Portales, Tatum, Red River: power lines, house, transfer)

[winnie]

Anyone know the extent of the damage the tornadoes did Friday night? I heard many homes were destroyed and some people were hurt.

Does anyone know exactly where it hit? I heard Mabry Drive mentioned then I heard about damage near the east side of town.

Some of DH's military buddies are still out there and I wondering if they were in the path.

When I was there we came ever so close to these kinds of incidents occasions where a tornado was veery close to Cannon or the town itself. I am sad to hear that their luck did not hold this time and hope for healing and recovery to those in Eastern NM.

[Larry82052]

Winniee,I myself have wonderedc about Clovis,I hope they areall ok,,I heard 13 people got hurt and sent to hospital,,Larry,,,If I hea anything I will report here

[clairz]

Exile in Portales has a blog at http://exileinportales.blogspot.com/
that has links to photos and personal narratives about the tornado(es). You can also get word to/from family and friends who might be in the area through Betty, a blogger linked off the Exile in Portales page, at betty360info-tornado@yahoo.com.

Our thoughts and prayers are certainly with the folks in Clovis.

~clairz

[winnie]

Thanks for the link Clairz. I see that the storm went from South Prince Street up towards the Yucca Jr High. The You tube video of the tornado is pretty wicked. They are saying it was a EF2 (of what probably would have been a "3" on the old Fujita scale) and was half a mile wide at some point before it hit the town.

[MAKT]

This tornado went right over our house. It was me, my husband, my son, 3 step-daughters and another little boy. We were listening to the scanner and heard that the tornado was on the ground 2 miles south of Cortez Gas and we are 1/4 mile north of Cortez Gas. We all went the hallway and had just huddled when it hit. The rumble started and got very loud as the house shook and then just stopped! Silence. Heart stopping silence. The eye of the tornado. I asked my husband if it was gone and no sooner could he say, "No, that was the first side of it", the noise hit again. It must have hovered just above the house because we and our house are still standing. We literally felt the floor lift. The front door flew open and the storm door shattered. A large tree branch came through one of the bedroom windows and we had glass and toys flying through the house over our heads. And of course the power went out so we couldn't see the stuff flying around the house or the doors flapping at mad speed. Maybe seeing it would have been even worse... The roar of the tornado itself was heart wrenching.
Our trampoline was found in somebody's tree a mile up the road. An ironing board hit my car and we still don't know where it came from! lol It was a terrible experience and I'd really rather not do it again.

[clairz]

Funny that this thread resurfaced just now. I was writing from New Hampshire back in March 2007, little realizing that my husband was about to be transferred to Clovis just two months later.

Every Wednesday afternoon the tornado siren goes off, just testing. It reminded me yesterday of how I keep a closet set up, deep inside the house, with a battery-powered radio, cat carriers for the cats, a spot for the dogs, and a chair for me because bad knees prevent me from getting any nearer to the floor. After reading MAKT's harrowing account, I wonder if I would have time to scoop the cats and call the dogs, but we practice anyway during tornado season.

People here have scary tales to tell, although they are quick to tell you that this was a once in fifty years experience. Old ladies at the Senior Center who stood in doorways, holding on, while the roof blew off. A woman who had been remodeling an inherited house south of town and lost the whole thing. Her horses were okay, though.

You can still see crushed and collapsed silos and strange objects stuck in the tops of trees south of town.

For the rest of the year, except for some wicked wind in the spring, we are pretty lucky here, weather-wise. We have some afternoons in the 60s right now, lots of blue skies and sun, while back in New Hampshire my friends are still without power after last week's ice storm.

We always remind ourselves that the real Tornado Alley starts 14 miles to the east of here on the Texas border.

~clairz

[catman]

Actually, the real Tornado Alley is a few hundred miles farther east than that. I live in it! The Fort Worth 2000 tornado missed my house by three miles. As a ham radio operator and RACES (Radio Operator Civil Emergency Service), I went out right after it and saw the destruction. I couldn't get very close in my car because of all the broken glass and downed power lines.

I know Tatum, NM had one close by a couple of years ago. Eastern NM has torandoes occasionally, but there aren't nearly as many as there are here. That is cold comfort to those people who get hit by one, I'm sure. A harrowing story indeed, MAKT. I lost most of my shingles to a little one a few years ago. After that happened, softball-sized hail took care of the rest of it.

[Mark S.]

Originally Posted by catman

Eastern NM has torandoes occasionally, but there aren't nearly as many as there are here.

True. Tornadoes certainly aren't unheard of in the Clovis/Portales area, but they are far more common up in the Texas/Oklahoma panhandle.

[Towanda]

We had our share in Kansas -- I thought WE were in tornado alley!

[catman]

Tornado Alley runs from central Texas, around Austin, up through the DFW Metroplex, Oklahoma, Kansas, and northward. The TX and OK panhandles are a ways west of it, although they are somewhat more likely to get tornadoes than NM. The tornado threat is historically most concentrated in northern OK and southern KS, although it varies from year to year. There are a lot of them along the Red River in northern TX, the most likely part of TX to get them. I saw the aftermath of the 1978 Wichita Falls tornado; it was truly horrifying.