Face to face with an F1 yesterday evening...
Posted by
AquaRN on 6/2/2012, 2:55 pm
They may not, but I did...'twas a bit unnerving. Was on my way to daughter's fiance surprise party at Buffalo Wings in Harbourview area near the Monitor Merrimac bridge tunnel and noticed that the clouds were low and rotating. Having been from MN and lived in OK, I always have an eye to that. Well, I turned the corner and there right in front of me....about one mile away was a tornado.
Oh my goodness...had not been that close to one in a long, long time. I certainly didn't want to drive into it so took a fast 90degree right and ducked into the nearby hospital ED (used to work at that facility)...ran into the room and said to the clerk that she might want to consider getting all the people out of the glassed in waiting room!!
I pulled out my trusty iPad, and opened the RadarScope app and there it was...a hook echo right over my location Within about 30 seconds after I opened the APP, the tonado warning was issued. and also popped up. (I really didn't need to verify it though at that point!). That event took a few years off of this old gal!
It went on to go over the water and hit in various places in Hampton, VA. No loss of life but a bit of damage, totalled cars, a few totalled/damaged buildings, totalled boats, and a general mess. Scrambled up a vender area for the Blackbeard Pirate Festival. Fortunately no loss of life considering this area is NOT tornado smart, no sirens, no NOAA weather radio, and has few basements. It could have been much, much worse.
But can you believe it? NOAA weather radio was offline as a company (not sure how long ago) had accidentally cut some cable in a time period prior. Now the questions arise, how long had NOAA been offline and why was it not fixed in an urgent time manner? If it was broken, why was that info not broadcasted to localities/citizens through a reverse 911 considering the Tornado Warning had been issued?
With hurricane season close by...that is unnerving too. Bill..???...any insight on what happened? (Wakefield, VA, NWS) |
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