Your experience with a close call at home is different from mine. Don’t know what the scale might have been at the time but it touched down again a few miles to the northeast and was an F3, killed several people, pulled firetrucks out of the station house.
You could hear it, creepy silence followed by a strange whistling and buzzing, then a rumbling roar. The only damage I got was a large, four-trunked oak came down and shook the house. The actual path was about a quarter mile away, structural damage, roofs torn off.
I was in the hall bath since it had no windows, with my two dogs. Power went out, then nothing. Sat there long enough to start feeling a little foolish about panicking, then my ears popped and the dogs started whining and trying to climb into my lap. Exhaust fan started whirring, you could feel the air pulling out of the room. Then the boom and the house shook from the tree hitting the ground, then the roar after that.
I think the funnel passed directly overhead before touching down afterwards, myself. Explains a lot.
Wow! At the time the one next to us came through, I was right here on Free Republic on the Tornado Live Thread we had going. Everything at this point had been up North from mid Mississippi through Tuscaloosa-B’Ham-Huntsville. So it was about 8:30 or so. I think not too long after this the North Georgia/ Tennessee tornadoes began, or it was around the same time, so everyone affected were posting reports.
But beyond all the noise outside, I didn’t hear the “freight train”. Kind of disappoint ting because I thought that would be how I knew.
A new pair of Fruit of the Loom is a must after that.
Our farm in TN was hit that day, too, and though the house survived intact, there was a huge mess left behind. The funnel didn’t touch the ground here but was low enough to twist the tops of several tall trees. Following the line of those trees, it went directly over the house! At ground level, it was the most horrendous straight-line wind I’ve ever experienced and I was outside when it hit!!
The storm chased me home and I had just gotten out of the car when all h*** broke loose. What saved me was the carport is on the east side of the house and the wind was out of the west. There was so much rain, I couldn’t see a thing but I could sure hear all the trees being toppled over or snapped off. I had no idea if any of that wood breaking was our house or not. All I could do was stand there frozen with fear.
It stopped as quickly as it started, like a switch being turned on, then off. I came inside, ran through the house to make sure it was ok, grabbed the camera and went outside to start taking pictures. While I walked around, I called the cats, who had been outside when this all went down, and was relieved when all of them finally showed up unscathed.
BIG trees down everywhere, the tractor shed ripped to shreds, but the house and our kitties - and we - came through intact. We still thank our lucky stars to this day for that.
And we’re mighty glad these season has been a quiet one and hope that trend continues. We’re in NO hurry for a repeat!