Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - Dodged a bullet last night

I'm not one to be "afraid" of tornadoes but last night had me worried. A friend that lives about 300 miles away texted me and said "Have you seen the weather? Kankakee, Illinois just got smacked by a tornado and it's headed your way. Watch your butt.". Now Kankakee is about 90 miles and 1.5 hours away so I finished what I was doing in the pole barn and headed inside. We were on the border of zone 3 and 4 of severe weather yesterday but it was cloudy all day so the energy didn't build like it could have. This was around 8pm. In the next 30 minutes I had probably 10 different friends and customers text me saying that I needed to watch my butt.

I looked at my local weather guy that I trust and he said there was s supercell moving NE from there that DID have a tornado in it. I kept watching as it got closer and closer. As it got closer and closer I got a wee bit more concerned and started putting things away for safekeeping that should have been put away. The house has a 9' deep basement, but when they said it was 10 minutes away I chickened out, threw the dog in the truck and hit the highway, driving away from it. My thoughts were that I could replace material things, but if I got hurt, that would not be a good thing.

It previously was staying on a pretty straight SW to NE track, so I knew if I drove SE I'd be OK. I heard was that the tornado hit Knox, then Hamlet, then the rotation was showing at Koontz Lake, which is NNE of Grovertown, instead of heading further E like it was going towards this house when I hit the road. Grovertown is directly between Hamlet and Koontz Lake.

Unfortunately, Grovertown is where the other house is and where the office/business is. I texted the neighbor but got no reply. I stopped in Bourbon, about 20-25 miles SSE of the house, topped off the fuel tank in the truck and looked at the radar. Radar showed the storm past me, so I headed home. The neighbor texted me and said that as they were heading to the basement the tornado lifted and they had no damage. I drove past the other house in 1/2 hr and he was correct, I didn't see any branches down on the road. WHEW.

Today the weather guy I trust said 2 were killed in Lake City, just over the border into Indiana and he also said that the tornado was 1/2 mile wide when it was in Starke County, where the office is. Tomorrow I have to visit a customer in Knox, he said they were missed, but it looks like it was about 4 miles North of them. I will do some driving around on the way there to see where the damage stopped and it actually lifted up.

I think I dodged a big bullet; if it would have hit the office, the fish hauling trailer, tanks, holding tanks, and house/barn would have been flat out gone.

Esshup I can relate, we had one about 5 miles from my house last week. 2 people were killed and there was lots of property damaged.

We live about 10 miles from Wakita Oklahoma where the move Twister was filmed. There's a reason it was filmed there. LOL

Thank God we were out of the danger zone!

Last night there was a front coming in, me and the 3 year old Grandson were fishing before it hit and he caught 15 BG/HBG. We only got 3 tenths of rain. Thankfully the neighbors ponds upstream leak and it keeps my pond full.

The 2 largest fish were an 11" LMB, 130 % RW and at least 4 HBG weighing 3/4 pounds.

Nothing like Theo's trophy HBG but great fun for a 3 year old.

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I know of 3 people that have tornado shelters. One in Oklahoma is built above ground but tied to the slab and is to Fed specs, another is in the basement with a 100% concrete room (+ a door and escape door that both open inward) and one had one put in the ground right next to the house.

I'm thinking of seeing what I need to do to add one here. In the basement. There is an area that is 6' wide where it wouldn't take much excavation to add it, and it wouldn't take away from the basement space.

Scott, we did an add-on to our cabin about 3 years ago. I asked the builder if while he is here pouring concrete, if he could build a small "bait-house" to keep all the fishing stuff. He said "no problem, but if you want I can build a solid concrete room with concrete top with storm-shelter specs.Solid steel door with triple storm locks, breathing tubes. From the outside it won't look like a storm-shelter. i will make it look like it matches the new part of your cabin with the same stone veneer attached to storm shelter exterior wall and a metal roof on top of the concrete storm shelter top to match cabin.."

As Ron White said, "It's not THAT the wind is blowing 125 mph, it's WHAT the wind is blowing at 125 mph."