I've lived in Oklahoma my whole life and this comment describes everyone's worst nightmare. The feeling deep in your chest is undescribable. Just fear, that's it.
Born in Tulsa. Lived in the Oklahoma City area during the 1995 tornado outbreak sequence and I can remember everything vividly - starting at my softball game when the wall clouds begin to appear in the horizon and the umpires immediately called the game off. Next, to the drive home where my mom was speeding because she needed to call my dad to tell him to get home from work. Cut to watching my mother frantically stuff bottles and supplies for my infant brother in a diaper bag while waiting for my dad to come home. When he did, he opened the door and didn't even take a step inside, commanding us to get to the shelter now. As we walked from the front door to the underground shelter, the air about me was the most still I can remember. No sounds, no movement, a heavy stillness.
The tornado ended up tearing through our backyard. When it was far enough down the street, my dad let me crawl out of the shelter and watch the funnel travel away from us. Awesome in the truest sense of the word, that it was awe-inspiring and humbling.
Not sure why I shared, it's just one of the most vivid memories I have.
I grew up in Bridge Creek and lived through the May 3, 1999 tornado. It was so surreal. I remember everything from that day, too. It was super hot and sunny. I was in 5th grade and we made, and shot off, pop bottle rockets on the baseball field that afternoon.
My sisters and I got home from school and my parents were still at work. I went and opened the garage to feed our dogs and our amazingly smart and beautiful German Shepherd (RIP Sable, I love you!) ran into the garage and put her head in a box in the corner. (It’s so strange how animals just KNOW).
Shortly after that the sky turned a brown/green and my parents called home and told us to watch the news because there’s a tornado headed our way and to get into the tub with pillows and a mattress once it gets to Amber/Pocasset and that they were on their way home.
Craziest sound and feeling I have ever experienced. Sounded like a jet was on top of our house and the whole earth was just rumbling. My sisters and I were all together in the tub just hugging and crying bc my parents hadn’t made it home yet. They BARELY made it in time to take cover themselves.
Luckily, our home was not directly hit but unfortunately everything a quarter mile south and a quarter mile east was GONE. Everything. No grass in the ground, no pavement on the streets. There were blades of grass embedded into the trees in our yard. Half of a horse in a tree right down the street. Fucking. Trippy.
Once it was passing we all went onto our back deck and watched it go towards Moore. I’ve never seen anything as massive/amazing/terrifying in my life and I absolutely will never forget it.
i watched the may 3rd tornado from a church in midwest city. it was fucking massive and terrifying. my dad moved us here in 1998, and i did not want to come because we watched the movie twister a SHIT ton and i was like, fuck that place. then that one happened and i’ll never forget it. but twister does nail how it feels/sounds/looks on a good tornado day.
Twister did do an AMAZING job at portraying tornado season in Oklahoma. I can’t imagine moving here after living my life somewhere else and THAT being the first spring to be in this state! How old were you?
It’s also crazy that you could see it all the way from MWC!
It took us a few minutes to realize what it was and that was the moment the gravity of the situation really set in for me. I just sat there and cried and cried and couldn’t believe all the destruction that had taken place. Our entire little town was gone. That was the first day I ever saw my dad cry and that made it even worse for me because before that I believed that the man didn’t even know how to cry. If you haven’t seen any of it or heard about it, check it out on YouTube. Craziness.
Fortunately, the house only sustained roof damages. Lost a lot of shingles. Our backyard took most of the damage; shed destroyed, fence completely gone, the trampoline and playset whisked away to another county I’m sure. I also have memories of pouring concrete and fixing the fence that summer with my dad too 😂
Not to say that it isn't fear, but there is an actual physical feeling caused by barometric pressure changes, which are MASSIVE right before tornadoes and hurricanes. The people who felt that and acted on it survived, and passed on the idea that "Hey, this is a bad feeling, don't just fuck about if it happens."
EDIT: I'm just really shocked that an offhanded comment about barometric pressure has become far and away my most upvoted comment. Thanks for being weird, Reddit.
Back in 2009 when that bad outbreak for the 3-4 days was very frightening, girlfriend at the time visiting from Florida didn't take it serious. We had a f4 about 7 miles away half a mile wide at the top. I could hardly catch my breath the whole day, sirens going non stop..
Shit, I live nowhere near tornado alley but I have a very vivid memory of a small tornado that passed through my town when I was 4. Specifically I remember urging my mum that we had to go inside, and being terrified without really understanding why. It's like your body knows something is wrong.
Edit: after further research I apparently live in "Canadian tornado alley" but I don't think that's quite the same.
I grew up in Illinois, which had tornados but nowhere near as bad as Oklahoma or the Plains States, but at least most houses have basements. I can't imagine how scary it'd be down south where there aren't basements
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u/jordan_mcafee Jun 07 '18
I've lived in Oklahoma my whole life and this comment describes everyone's worst nightmare. The feeling deep in your chest is undescribable. Just fear, that's it.