Entrepreneur invents tornado bed shelter

NewsOK.com ^ | Mark Opbrand

[ChemistCat]

Video--click on the link under "WEATHER STORIES." I'm sorry I don't know how to link directly to the video.

A Georgetown, Texas man, Dale Watson, has invented a bed that is also a tornado shelter. May be of use in mobile homes. Thought this would be of interest to all of us here in the heartland. The link following it, about the El-Nino-Tornado connection, is very interesting too.

Maybe someone can add a text link from another source.

[ChemistCat]

May 3, 1999 is burned into my brain--that sucker came within two blocks of me, and flattened a mile wide, many-miles long swath of the state. I found a cancelled check in my front yard that came from a man's home office safe--32 miles away. (He and his family survived but his home was completely demolished.)

[templar]

I grew up in Oklahoma and spent a lot of time in northern Texas. I've seen some lulu's. Got caught in one while driving once, I swear the old Buick station wagon was completely off the ground for several minutes, but it was pitch black and I can't say for absolutely certain. Two I remember most were Union City OK back in the early mid '70's (entire town gone) and the one that went through Witchita Falls TX a few years later. A person has to actually see the damage to comprehend the destructiveness of large tornado's. Things like 18 inch steel I-beams twisted like pretzels and miles of nothing but bare concrete pads where homes used to be, not even debris.

[strela]

I've been in proximity to three, one of them an F4 and another separating all of the windows in one of my houses from their frames. The weird part afterward is seeing individual stalks of hay driven halfway into telephone poles like somebody used a hammer on them.

[Arkinsaw]

Not a bad idea, as long as over the years it doesn't get filled up with old clothes, basketballs, Happy Meal toys, etc.

I saw a 2x4 that had gone completely through a tree. I saw a house completely gone but on the deck rail was a flower pot and flower undisturbed. Tornados can do some weird things.

[Bahbah]

It looks like we could use this in Kansas and Missouri, but it will have to get here within the next 10 minutes or so.

[genefromjersey]

TORNADO BED ???

Wouldn't a change of diet : less chili,fewer re-fried beans be more effective ?

[Bahbah]

LOL. I'm willing to try it.

[ChemistCat]

Hmmm. My word order is a little awkward. I plead: studying 300+ organic chem reactions this past week for tomorrow's exam. My brain is full.

[Eagles2003]

We got hit by a good tornado back east here of Wash DC that came as a surprise. Small twisters, roofs torn off, etc are the norm. This one was good size.

I lost a friends father, his brother got a concussion and broken arm, he got stitches when the picnic table on their farm "grew wings" and changed their lives forever. That was in Eagles country back in the 60's.

Once only, I remember getting hit by a "pulse" windgust. 0-90 mph just like a square wave. Trees don't have time to bend, and they really can, but just break, rip up outta the ground. It was a mess. Not like a mile wide swathe however.

[Revelation 911]

Once only, I remember getting hit by a "pulse" windgust. 0-90 mph just like a square wave.

I saw the same thing awhile back - 0 to 80 in about 3 seconds at 2am - I was awake and looking out the window -I remember the blinds were down in my sons room and the window was shut, yet it was fluttering at 45 degrees from the wall. My neighbors trampoline picked up and flew about 100' in about 1 second. When the wind was done 3-4 minutes later, it got calm and oddly surreal as the whole neighborhood came outside with flashlights and chatted. My neighbor the drunk was the only one to sleep through it and later awoke when my generator fired up at 8am.