twisters do sound like a train

well i have went through my first tornado. of course like a dummy i when i got woke up by the noise an stuff hittin the house, what do i do but go to our south parch an am wonder how hard the wind is blowin, cant even see out the windows. wife comes out an yells at me it a tornado. that when the light in my head goes on. freight train, wind, i think she is right.
About that time it starts lettin up, wait a little while longer, go outside to over to check on the folks, lots of trees blown over, redneck RV on its side, barn roof gone, it not pretty, smells alot like LP. folks ok, LP tank blown over an moved 5 to 10ft an leakin badly. trees down everywhere. Shop wall caved in. everyone ok that what counts.
Looks worse in the morning, in the light. neighbor lost his whole machine shed, side of house damaged pretty good, windows blown of west side of house. 2 by 4 in garage, wasnt there the night before. car damaged pretty good. Tractors ok
Next time i think i will go to the basement
johndeeregene

one think i forgot to mention how great of neighbors an freinds i have. one freind came over at 2 in the mornin when he heard our names on the police scanner, when the firedepartment was callin in about all the damage an the LP barrel, he was back a little after 6 in the the morning with his tractor an chain saw.
We started the clean up, by 10 in the morning we had about 30 people here cuttin trees an pickin up stuff in the yards, our neighbor that rents the farm brought his backhoe with him an was helpin moving limbs an the started diggin out the stumps.
you cant ask for better freinds or neighbors then we have here in collins IA
They were all here most of the day workin.
thank you all
johndeeregene

Glad to hear everyone is ok. The rest is just stuff and you can always get more stuff. Neighbors like you seem to have are also irreplacable. Good luck with the cleanup. Mike

That train sound is a for sure. I call it the old locamotive sound. .. Was in one years ago. Out on a farm in Wellsville Kansas. Was with folks then and a kid. But remember it like it was yesterday!
We went to this so called basement of house. Rock walls with a sump pump that with no electricty to make it work. It had done gone out and the heavy rain before tornadoe had brought water up about 1 ft and we had to stand in the water.
Dad open the door outside and I seen this big black cloud coming at our farm. So dod secured door and we went to the corner and held each other.
What I am telling is the truth and even right as I write this. My area is under a tornado watch only.
Anyway, the localmotive was coming and I was scared as we heard things hitting the house and glass braking all around. Seemed like it lasted a long time to me and figured we were going to die.
When sound stopped and all was quiet. Dad open the door and said it was safe to come out. So we did and what a shock to our eyes. For this tornado had dug a wide ditch threw the field.
Hit our 3 story pole barn and it was gone. Not a pole standing are wall except in side the barn was a hexegon red wood silo that was tall.
We had about 6 young cattle and the were cut some and running wild and crazy like. Dad said try to catch the cattle if you can and tie them to something so they will stay... here comes the dumb part of this job and I admit I was the dummy. lol lol
Had this one 6 month old Swiss heffer. So she took off as I got close and I grabbed her tail and for some reason I hung on to it. lol Well I was down on the ground being dragged head first in the wet mud!... My dad seen me and said.. "Dummy let go of that tail!" I did then. lol boy did I feel folish later when dad had shared some laughter with friends over me. Shessss Now I laugh..LOL LOL
Well the house did pick up some and moved about 3 inches on the foundation. Will all windows blown inward into the house. Distroying everything inside with glass and , well looked like a bomb went off in there.
So to shorten this up some. We worked hard getting the cattle together and loaded for the auction the next day. Spent hours sorting out what clothes we might be able to save and a few papers dad found.
Dad said that was it.. and he loaded up the car with what little we had and us. Then took us to California for several years.... That ended my hay hauling days for then. .. We did make the news papers in talk and even pictures, cause it was so bad at time.

Sorry about your lose, but outside of the fact you and your's are safe,which is the most important, I am so pleased the good friends of Iowa still support as they always have. The state where I was born makes me proud. Good luck in your recovery.

Good luck, we have a few here in Michigan, but not as bad as you guys do. I'd get a shelter built.

Yep, sorry about that but unfortunately they do happen. Glad to hear that no one got hurt. When the hard rain, hail, and wind suddenly stop and gets dead calm and then the walls start popping, its time to go cause the freight train aint far behind. RUN!!! And are right, its like a rumbling freight train except amplified. That's an eerie experience.

Mark

I went right through the middle of an F3 borderline F4, I heard the frieght train but thought it sounded more like a giant vacuum cleaner, now I know what a lady bug in a hoover feels like, it was June of 2001 and it nearly wiped my little town of 1000 off the map, very fortunate only 3 people killed, could have been a lot worse.

Sorry for your damage, very glad you and yours are ok. Like the others said, you can rebuild. When your friends and neighbors show up without having to be asked, really makes life good.

Thankfully your'e all right, really hard to imagine the chaos after one of these, whole lot of work to be done after these things pay you a visit.

I think, or I thought we were fortunate around here in regards to these, but was proved wrong on that 10 years ago. F3 decided to drop in some people about 8-10 miles north of here. The local news paper just did a 3 edition story for the anniversary of this event, it did a lot of damage in a short time. The storm was one of the most memorable, southern prevailing winds loaded with tropical air, nice steamy breeze all day, then the cold air collided and the conditions were ideal with all this air coming from the south, the storm knocked our power out til the next day. One thing is for sure, whenever that wind comes in from the south like that, the storms are ususually violent, since I've always taken notice of the wind direction, never did before.

Don't have many in Michigan? Last summer three just missed my place in two weeks! thankfully, they didn't do that much damage, but we've had big ones too. Had two severe storms in the past two days here, with tornado waches/warnings. Inch and a half of much needed rain too.

when the tornado hit my house my mom had come over cuz she was bord and wanted to play with my dogs earlier that day and when my dad and i arrived home from the job we had been at we had long enough to get a shower before it hit.

we were watching the news and it said it was an estimated twelve minutes before it hit. i was at the front door just as he finished sayin that and everything flew by that was on the front porch. that is when we went to the bathroom and we heard the ridgevent come off and then all you could hear was stuff hitting the house and then there was a boom which was a huge pecan tree falling on my moms suburban. it hit so fast it was like it was here and gone in a matter of seconds.

but hey i hope everything is ok... i definetly no what it is like to go throught it and then walk out and see what destruction a matter of seconds can cause.