Pope Hope
TNPer
Anyone else here from the Midwest been hit with a nasty rash of tornadoes and/or strange weather lately?
Iowa City was hit pretty hard Thursday night; some of you may have seen it on the news. I moved to Coralville last July (which is directly connected to IC), and we were glued to the local news the whole evening as tornado sirens went off outside. We could hear three or four different sirens at once--Coralville, IC, and a couple nearby communities. The news kept telling us the tornadoes were headed right for us, but somehow we escaped virtually unscathed. There was some general nasty thunderstorm and hail damage, but we fared pretty well compared to what was being specualted by forecasters.
Unfortunately, the tornadoes swung around and headed straight into the heart of Iowa City. Went right through the campus, decimating buildings, uprooting trees, bending traffic lights over the streets, and tearing out power lines. The block I moved from was affected. We drove through about an hour or two after the tornadoes hit to give a friend a ride to work, and the scene was somewhat post-apocolyptic looking. Power was out in large sections of town, including over the highway, so traffic was packed and self-regulated. There were people everywhere (a lot of college kids wandering around on their cell phones), roofs ripped off buildings, debris covering everything, etc...general chaos. Thankfully there were no casualties in IC, but a woman in a town hit in another county did die.
We've had a lot of strange weather here as of late (expecting more tonight). I was just wondering if anyone else here has had similar experiences, as the midwest seems hard hit (Missouri got it bad a week back).
Iowa City was hit pretty hard Thursday night; some of you may have seen it on the news. I moved to Coralville last July (which is directly connected to IC), and we were glued to the local news the whole evening as tornado sirens went off outside. We could hear three or four different sirens at once--Coralville, IC, and a couple nearby communities. The news kept telling us the tornadoes were headed right for us, but somehow we escaped virtually unscathed. There was some general nasty thunderstorm and hail damage, but we fared pretty well compared to what was being specualted by forecasters.
Unfortunately, the tornadoes swung around and headed straight into the heart of Iowa City. Went right through the campus, decimating buildings, uprooting trees, bending traffic lights over the streets, and tearing out power lines. The block I moved from was affected. We drove through about an hour or two after the tornadoes hit to give a friend a ride to work, and the scene was somewhat post-apocolyptic looking. Power was out in large sections of town, including over the highway, so traffic was packed and self-regulated. There were people everywhere (a lot of college kids wandering around on their cell phones), roofs ripped off buildings, debris covering everything, etc...general chaos. Thankfully there were no casualties in IC, but a woman in a town hit in another county did die.
We've had a lot of strange weather here as of late (expecting more tonight). I was just wondering if anyone else here has had similar experiences, as the midwest seems hard hit (Missouri got it bad a week back).
