On May 3, 1999, something new came along...the most powerful tornado ever recorded was documented with
winds up to 318 mph, and it tracked along the ground for over 80 miles, tearing up everything in its path, including several major metropolitan suburbs on the south side of
Oklahoma City. In some places, it left a
trench behind it 15 feet deep. It picked things up and threw them so high into the
atmosphere that
residue was found in Arkansas, Nebraska, and Iowa. It stripped grass right out of the ground and
sandblasted the bark off trees.
This big bad wolf tore up a lot of houses, including mine, leveling them completely. My wife, my stepson, and I were in a closet on the first floor of the house, beneath the stairwell. When it was all over, we were sitting on TOP of a pile of wood fifteen feet high. The stairwell was twenty feet away, and the bulk of the house lay in a circle around us, radiating in all directions.
People ask me what it sounded like. It sounded like a thousand tanks rolling down our street.
People ask me what it looked like. It looked like blackness and blindness.
They ask me how long it lasted. Unfortunately, I forgot to take my stopwatch into the closet, but it seems like it was about 90 seconds. Maybe as long as three or four minutes.
They ask what it felt like. The ground shook beneath us, the noise was deafening, our windows exploded all around us, and the house folded like a pack of playing cards before being torn to toothpicks.
Miraculously, we experienced no injuries, other than cuts and bruises. Many of our neighbors weren't so fortunate.
Later, I wrote a story about it. It's called "The Wind on the Edge of My Eye," and you can read it at http://www.mshadow.com/E-llusionsArchives/ellusions23.htm, and you can see some pics at http://www.mshadow.com/FamilyAlbum/fa1.htm
It was a life changer, and had a lot to teach...