"Marysville, Indiana 'completely gone'
A wave of tornadoes hit Indiana, Alabama and Tennessee,"

Just saw the news - you guys OK?

I hope everyone is OK.

When I saw your post we had Thunder and Lightening roll thru, then it started to rain like hell. Still is and the thunder is still making noise.

We have a winter storm warning in effect till 1pm tomorrow that could put 8+" on the ground. Probably won't happen tho.

We don't get many Tornado's, but we get Straight Line Winds, that in a matter of seconds, can be very destructive over many miles. No warning on those things.

I was out cutting some trees, and saw the overcast day get VERY bright (lightening). I finished dropping that tree, then shut off the saw and headed for the car. I no sooner got everything put away and the sky opened up.

It just poured here, with 1/2" sized hail.

They are calling for severe weather later on this evening. Those storms rolled thru Southern Indiana.

Here's a link to another forum that I'm on, and members there are in that area. Terrible.....

http://huntingindiana.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=campfire&action=display&thread=41450

Sure is goofy weather.

When the storms came thru, it was coming out of the east. It is all blowing from the west right now. Rain and Thunder ceased, and Ducks are splashing down.

Pretty calm out right now.

Just watching the weather, and that was a pretty stout line going through lower states from me.

Call me goofy or what, but I just sleep better when God is "adjusting parameters" on His Creation.

Feel free to delete.

We are in Indiana and we got hit pretty hard about 10 miles north of us. There was a tornado touched down that killed one and destroyed the town. There was another tornado about a mile from my other 10 acres as well.

Under a T warning right now. Will pass just north of us.

Nothing up here in northern Indiana but post frontal high winds. I live up on a hill with open farm land to the south. When the high winds comes in from the south it vibrates the house.

My niece and her husband live and teach in Jeffersonville, IN just south of the worst damage. I hear there is some damage in Jeffersonville too but we can't get through on the phone lines. But that's par for the course for them. They don't return calls unless they want to.

It all went South of me by a good bit, 40-50 miles. I've talked to friends down there, a couple small towns are basically gone.

I hear Marysville, IN is gone.

My daughter was in the Louisville area heading home to southern Indiana in all of the bad weather. She kept calling us that all of the roads she tried to drive on were blocked by fallen trees and utility poles. The last call from her, she was in a convoy of 4 banded together trying to get through.

I was walking up the lane from the mail box when a sound like a big bird was flying just above my head. The sound kept moving away from me off in the distance and ended in a thunder rumble. I never heard anything like that before and wondered if I might have come close to getting hit.

You hear St Elmo's fire in the treetops, and yes, not many people get to hear that! Very close to getting hit, though when you hear that it is as random as the lotto where exactly in your area will make the bolt.

So sad about these tornadoes and storms! All we got is a ton of constant wind in the 40-50mph range and a little rain. Sometimes it is nice to suffer long winters to stay well out of range of tornado alley.

It sure is sad about the Tornado's, but we live on this planet and this stuff happens.

I've been in lightening storms that you could smell and taste. Very clean smell, and it tasted like putting a new 9 volt battery on your tongue, but it lingers a bit longer.

Having a 45 mile ride on my scooter after leaving work during a heck of a storm, I could have probably lit a light bulb when I got home.

I always feel better after getting electrocuted

JKB,

Does it make you feel more alive?

That clean smell and taste after a lightening storm is activated oxygen, also know as Ozone.

I've been around a lot of thunderstorms and never smelled the ozone.

I must say so on that one

Getting zapped once in a while from low current AC voltage seems to clear the cobwebs, and your awareness increases quite dramatically

Is electroshock therapy right for me?

I usually lock out the disconnect switches now. Too much of a good thing can be bad

Just drove from Pekin to Henryville in Indiana. Tornado passed about 2 miles south of a piece of property we have in between Pekin and Henryville. There saying it was an EF-4. The Damage is devastating Not only houses damaged but some are literally gone. Parts of the Clark State Forestry reminded me of Mt. St. Helens. Our Prayers go out to those in need.

R & R,

My niece's husband drove up to Henryville to see if he could help people he knows there. This is some of the hail that fell in the area:

I once got trapped on a large lake in a rowboat in a fast approaching lightning storm. The storm took me by surprise as it came from the east. Anyway, after taking refuge in a mosquito infested shoreline treeless area I decided to skirt the shoreline and see if I could take refuge in a cottage until it let up, and I could row back to the access site and my car. Needless to say the cottage owners were suspicious of me and initially wanted me to go back out into the lightning storm! They finally relented though and all was well.

Starting to get a little scared here in Newburgh, Indiana. In the past 8 years we have had 3 tornados hit. The first was south east 2 blocks down and 2 blocks over. The second which took 22 lives was a half mile to the north west. This last one a F-1 was half mile south. Must be living right.

I wonder if there was a map that showed touch downs over the last several hundred years if there would be any ground that was untouched here in the Midwest? It would be interesting to see if certain small areas got hit over and over and some that never did.

Sadly it makes sense that as temps moderate some years, that tornado alley could move north -- at least briefly. Could this be the earliest on record for a tornado outbreak of this magnitude this far north?

I think it's more of a warm front followed by a cold front thing than anything else. The temps this winter have seemed to really bounce around from warmer than normal to normal temps every few days to every other week.

Of course it is, but if winters are mild as in this winter, the chances of clashes of a warm and cold front of significant differences in temperature are greater.

Allegedly the theory is, back during the last ice age there were some hefty temperature differentials that produced some very wicked storms where temps really varied significantly.

Has anybody ever volunteered in situations like this? My family and
I would like to head down to offer some help, but we're not sure on who to contact, we don't want to get in the way. I would imagine they could use some help in organizing and handing out supplies, though. Anyone have any advice?

Red Cross might be a good place to start.

Maybe get in touch with the American Red Cross.

Call the police force of the town, or whoever has jurisdiction. The more local the better. Some municipalities are (were) keeping people out unless they could prove they lived there, or owned property there. To keep out lookey-loos and looters.

I heard that a lady drove over from Cincy with a cooler full of hamburgers and another cooler full of soda. It was much appreciated.

A town close by had straight line wind's come thru. They were not letting anyone in unless you lived there. The first couple day's, you were either in or out. After that it was relaxed a bit. It was still 3-4 weeks of detours while cleanup was in progress. A minute or so and it is all over with. No warning!

A tornado, you have a warning period to take shelter. Straight line, nothing.

When the tornados hit Newburgh volunteers would go to a designated church and they were told where to go and help.

Posted on the Hunting Indiana forum:

If you're wanting to help with tornado clean up in SE Indiana, here is the info for volunteers just released by the IN Dept of Homeland Security:
Volunteer Reception Site (those who want to volunteer should report here)
723 Spring Street, Jeffersonville
Hours 9:00AM – 4:30PM Starting Tomorrow. 211 has information and registration until then.
For more information (812) 287-0519

Thanks for the suggestions. We won't be able to make it down there until next week, so in the meantime we are going to try contacting our local food pantry, too, and see if they are putting any food drive together.

http://web2.airmail.net/danb1/usrecords.htm