Yesterday a massive storm ripped through out part of Texas. We were under a tornado warning for a few hours. Luling south-east of us got hit with a tornado. Round Rock north of us did too. Apparently our old neighborhood up there suffered massive wind damage. Kid 1’s best friend’s parents’ house is ripped up.
I thought we were going to have a tornado, because it did that thing where it’s wind, wind, wind, then suddenly it’s completely still, and then storm clouds just poured in very fast.
To make things a tiny bit more stressful, Kid 2 did not answer her phone for a couple of hours and neither did her boyfriend, so as soon as the tornado warning lifted, Gordon got into the car, and I went with him, and we drove through the remnants of the storm half an hour to her house.
The sun was setting. Huge clumps of clouds flashed with lightning like strobe lights, non-stop, with a second or two between flashes. The road was wet. Everyone drove like a champ, because Texans have zero problem driving through a possible tornado cell. It’s when a single snowflake hits the road that we have a massive freak out.
We got there, and her car was in the driveway. They are fine. She was working and didn’t realize her phone died and her boyfriend had his phone off to study.
So our family is fine. Everyone we know is fine. But the damages to our general area are terrible.
Glad to hear that all your family is safe! We recently went through some bad tornado weather here too and worrying about children in it is waaaaay worse than wondering about yourself. ((Hugs)) ????
Wow, I got first! It’s been awhile. ????
Glad to hear everyone is safe!
Glad you’re all safe.
Yep, after last fall’s tornado during Round Top Tx Antique Show, everyone was tied down with overkill here for last nights storms. Whew, it seems soggy, but Ok here. Round Rock looks beat up. Glad everyone is good.
So glad to hear everyone is okay. But that was scary!!!
Glad to hear that you guys are safe.
Not to mention the damages to your peace of mind!
Glad everyone’s safe!
+1
Thank you for letting us know. Not knowing is the worst. ????
Also, why does Round Rock not have tornado sirens or they have them but they don’t work. My brother told me they heard nothing yesterday in the way of sirens and they were rushing from car to house having just returned from Dallas when the tornados touched down. Just had time to grab the dogs and taco the cat and get into the bathroom.
I hope everyone is ok, Patti! Were the animals scared?
The dogs were upset for a bit but Taco could care less about much of anything or acts like he could care less.
He is only perturbed by the fact that they keep him away from me when I am down on Tuesdays because I am severely allergic.
@Patty – sounds like they’re ok, if rattled, and I’m glad.
Yes, Austin and round Rock have sirens. Some of the smaller communities around them do not, because their cities have not invested in them.
Sirens usually only go off for 1-2 minutes when the warning is first issued, and then once more for the all clear. The sirens are only meant to tell people who are outside to seek shelter. They’re not meant to be heard from inside vehicles or houses. Frankly because of what we demand in our home and vehicles, there’s a lot of sound insulation qualities built into them. I rarely hear ambulance sirens especially because of the doppler effect if they’re coming up behind me for instance. I live about 150 yards away from a Tornado siren, and if I’m inside the house I usually won’t hear it. The house has to be quiet for me to hear it: i.e. no a/c actively running t that moment, no laundry going, no listening to music, or watching tv.
Our weather radar is sophisticated enough now that sometimes we can have a lot of lead time for warnings.(For those outside Texas, warnings are issued when either we have a confirmed report of a tornado, or wether radar shows wind rotation confirming that we’ve got a funnel trying to produce. because of that we’ve managed to increase warning times for people to seek shelter.) For instance when the tornado warning alert came through on my phone I had about 20 minutes before it was going to be hitting my neighborhood. Some areas had more than 30 minutes warning. Of course sometimes they spin up so fast when we’re in a tornado watch, and we have maybe only 3-5 minutes to get the warning out when suddenly rotation starts up. Some cities are starting to do multiple rounds of the sirens, but that can be confusing because of the all clear signal. I remember when we didn’t have today’s weather radar sensitivities and the only time a warning was issued was when you had confirmed eye witness reports of touch down. Which unfortunately took time to be called in, reported, and for city officials to trigger the sirens. And rain wrapped tornados or ones at night just weren’t seen until after the fact.
So it sounds like they were on the road probably when the sirens first went off.
A tornado watch was issued hours before the storms rolled in. The NWS issues those as a head’s up that everyone in that area of effect should be paying attention to the weather because they know that the ingredients for a possible tornado can be produced in the storm front. So people need to be aware and pay attention to the weather and be in a position to follow time sensitive alerts. and such alerts, and ideally should be planning around it. I.E. don’t go grocery shopping, avoid non essential travel during the time period of the watch, maybe adjust your commute times to try to avoid being out during the window of the watch. We get so used to these though that I think most of us are guilty to sort of disregarding them. Like “oh it’s X’s birthday let’s go out to eat” I can be a bit guilty of that too. ^^;
They should have gotten alerts on their phone though, and it’s concerning if they didn’t. Did they accidentally turn off alerts? Was their phone off? Or was the phone tracking in a different gps location at the time the alert was issued (i.e if they were on the interstate were they in an area when the alert was issued at their house, that they were outside of the alert area?)
@KC
I am from Dallas, currently living just north of there now. Trust me I totally understand all the radar ins and outs and all the the weather service stuff. During Severe weather I live on Channel 8, the only weather people I trust. I can tell how bad things will get by the main weather guy, and whether or not he has his coat and tie on and if his sleeves are rolled up.
I lived in Round Rock for several years at different points in my life and I never actually heard any sirens when I lived down here…and my old apartment was crap for insulation. My brother said they did not hear any sirens, nor did their neighbors…everyone got the alerts on their phones. Maybe they missed the sirens, or they didn’t go off long enough. They were lucky to get home in time, they live not far from Dell Diamond which did get hit. I will not be driving by to view anything, even though I really want to know if the Hat Creek burgers over there survived. I dont want to get in the way. I hate it when people gawk, especially on the highway.
I do know that UT has sirens and that they went off yesterday, I got the text alerts on my phone as they are my employer (I drive down once a week now to teach). I am currently fighting Taco the cat for my pistachios, this is not cool.
WFAA Channel 8 is my go to for weather too especially in situations like yesterday!
I was texting back and forth with Co-workers starting at 5:52. At 5:56 I was told a tornado was heading our way. At 5:57 I was texted that it was here. At 5:59, the tornado passed by, doing damage to all the houses around us. We personally had no house damage. It was like being in a protective bubble while mahem was going on.
I don’t think there was time to get the siren out. The weather was nice, then it wasn’t. The only reason my co-workers knew about it was because they had the TV on and I was lounging around.
Do you not get tornado alerts through your cell phone? I remember I was visiting Savannah once and my phone went off at 4 or 5am, even though I have do not disturb on. It had a broadcast alert of tornado warning or watch, whichever one is the more severe one.
Did you not get alerts on your phones about the tornadoes?
Not everyone has access to mobile phones- financially, due to lack of ease around technology or being differently able.
They may also not be charged, inaccessible etc.
Oh, yes, true. I’m not sure I’d even know what a tornado siren would sound like since they weren’t common in northern Michigan. I’d probably assume it was a call for volunteer firefighters to assemble for a fire. I hear that occasionally if my window is open.
Very glad to hear you and yours are OK – how scary!!!
As a child I was terrified of storms, but there was a persistent myth that due to a quirk of geography, it was not possible for a tornado to hit my town. As an adult, I learned that this myth technically only applied to what had been “town” as of about a hundred years ago… and that it was always just a myth. I called home from a summer internship one day in college and my mom said we’d had an EF4 rip through just a couple of blocks from our house. My brother had nearly driven into it; he abandoned his car and ran to a nearby house to take shelter with the residents. Mom was locked out of the house because we all just got in through the garage door and didn’t carry keys, but the power was out. The tornado had gone straight through where that myth said it couldn’t, and since then we’ve had two or three more do the same thing. I even had one go right over me. It was a little EF1, it didn’t do much damage (none to the building I was in), but it did actually result in a fatality of someone who was caught outside in it. My boss at the time didn’t think we needed to take shelter, so I watched the wind in the tree outside my window suddenly pick up, whip to the right, go freaky still, and then whip to the left, and then go back to normal storm wind.
No fatalities is priority 1. No injuries is priority 2. But… that EF4 changed the landscape near home so dramatically that for a while it felt alien, driving up the hill and seeing blank spaces where there used to be massive trees. I’m still a bit sad about some of them, and sometimes I look at satellite imagery to see if I can still pick out the blank space where young trees are just starting to fill in.
Are you in Tulsa? I’ve heard about a legend there, but that’s the only one I know of.
If you have both have Alexas you can do the drop-in calling in the future. I’m sure they are other smart speaker options. We use Alexa together for my Dad and I have been really happy so far.
Glad you all are safe.
So thankful everyone is safe, it was an interesting day!! Sounds like we’re “neighbors “!! We live in Cedar Creek, Cloe to Red Rock! I enjoy the snippets of life you share and soooo excited for the new books!!
We just got a little much needed rain in San Antonio. I saw incredible footage on CNN of a pickup truck near Elgin being spun around and flipped over, then once the truck was put down the person drove away!!!!!!
Grateful to hear you all are okay. Our tornado warning here expired around 7 pm.
Thanks so much for letting us know! Glad it skipped you all — the video I’ve seen of it is astonishing
Aww, tornado season. Here we go again… Glad yall came thru ok.
prayers for all affected.
Peace,
My son flew back to Austin last night. Airport was a mess.
Flight landed at 11.40pm. They deplaned at 1:15ish.
Baggage carousels were off.
Folks of the 5 planes before this were sleeping all over.
Finally he made it to campus at 3am.
At least they landed safely!!
So glad he’s ok, that sounds like an anxious nightmare!
So glad everyone in your family is safe. Tornados are just scary. I grew up in Maryland and never heard of a tornado hitting here until I was in college. Now every summer it seems there are at least several tornado watches, partly because the weather people are better at seeing the conditions with today’s technologyI think. Scary though. One hit College Park and came up through Laurel 20-some years ago. I was living between Laurel and Columbia, and we just got the horrible winds. Bad enough to take the top third of a Sycamore tree in my back yard and dump it in my neighbor’s yard. Did the same two houses down. My first indication, other that the news, that something was going on was both cats went under my bed in the middle and wouldn’t come out. Glad I didn’t have to try to grab them. If that is the closest I ever come to one, I will be very happy,
Glad everyone is okay. we’re supposed to get tornado’s today possibly tomorrow.
Not looking forward to the cleanup, either. Yay, Spring?
Hope you come out completely unscathed!
Thank goodness you & all your family are fine! I am so sorry for the poor people who were hit by those tornadoes and suffered damage of any kind and degree.
There are so many people suffering today, from natural disasters like those tornadoes, or from the actions of some mad man (invasion of Ukraine). It certainly puts the small things I bemoan into a different light, and makes me realize how fortunate I really am.
I’m glad to hear you’re all okay. I hope you stay that way.
We’re getting fairly normal weather here for the time of year, which (thankfully) does not include tornadoes.
Normal weather for this time of year does include the occasional flood, but I live too far above the river to have to worry much about that.
Glad y’all are ok, it was gnarly.
Yesterday in Texas was ‘special’. Across parts of the state you had:
Blizzard Warning
High Winds Advisory
Multiple Wild Fires
Thunderstorms with lightning, hail,
and Tornadoes
At one point we’re hunkered down in the closet with the cats (treats are a great way to get them to come in with you, especially my Rory she’s so food motivated), I have the news streaming on my phone and the radar weather track with the rotation is heading right for us. Luckily for us it weakened as approaching. The neighbors lost a 40-50 year old live oak tree it split in half but hadn’t fallen, so they were out with a chainsaw cutting it bit by bit before it fell on their house.
It was dark, and gloomy and then the sun came out right at sunset and gave us a rainbow.
I saw the footage of the Austin/Round Rock area. It looks like what happened in Jacksboro and Montague. Fort Worth was under a tornado warning due to a spin up near the Joint Reserve Base (which is west of where I live). It moved to the northeast. If it moved due east, I would have been in my stairwell with shoes on and my phone in hand. A friend of my from Atlanta saw the footage and texted me later to make sure I was alright.
One of my coworkers told me this morning that her son saw a funnel cloud near their home in Hurst, but the funnel didn’t touch down. Sighs of relief from me and my coworkers.
Glad to hear everyone is ok in your neck of the woods, Ilona.
@Patricia
I’m in Hurst, we were lucky, the rotation weakened as it approached us! It was definitely gnarly.
Glad you’re all safe!!
I know that feeling ! I’m on the Parker/Wise county line and thankfully everything went northwest thru Jack/Montague counties. There was a bunch of damage up there too. It’s gonna be a wild spring in Texas this year! Buckle up Buttercup! Glad you guys are ok!
Scary stuff, tornadoes! In fact, of all the places I’ve lived, I found the Texas weather the worst, year round…including blizzards and ice storms causing massive power outages lasting a week or more (the outages).
So glad all’s well with your family.
Faith
I think Oklahoma and Texas are tied for worst weather. What one state doesn’t have the other one does. It gets crazy. 😀
Pleased to hear everyone is safe and sound. Hopefully nicer weather will prevail. It’s pleasantly sunny in London, UK, I will try and send some your way ????
Glad to hear everyone is safe.
Much love guys!!!
I’m so sorry for the damage, but so glad you and your family are okay!
May God always hold you and yours in the palm of his hand and keep you safe from harm.
Glad that you are all safe and sound. Y’all ready to move to Oregon yet?
I’m so glad that you are all okay. Tornadoes can be unbelievably destructive and can randomly destroy one block while leaving the next intact. We don’t get them where we live in VA (at least to date) and I’m grateful. You may wish to consider Northern VA- cost of living and allergies suck, but weather is not half bad. Lots of sun, cooler than TX with less humidity (although that bar is low) and access to great food and events. Plus you get a ring-side seat for the insanity that is politics.
Just watched the weather on the news, WOW what a massive storm. Weatherman said they predicted it 7 days out which is amazing in regards that the weather service is getting better and better at predicting these weather events.
Glad everybody is safe
So glad that everyone is safe. Also glad that I live in an area where I can count the number of tornadoes for the past 50 years on one hand.
Glad all of urs are safe. So sorry for the ones that aren’t.
I’ll take my New York mountains blizzards hunkering down by the woodstove and handy dandy generator over being in a tornado’s path any day.
This is all part of weather going chaotic. Having some spent my whole life in the NYC area, we are seeing heavy winds so much more than ever, talking winds 30+ w high gusts.
Tornadoes were extremely rare and usually the were localized and small. Now they are a lot more common, last summer there was a bad storm system that spawned tornadoes and there were like 5 active at the same time and they were strong, which the weather guy said simply never happened.
Glad to hear you guys were okay. We just finished watching this you tube channel where the woman was in Germany and she was in the town of Braunfels, and mentioned that New Braunfels was founded by people from there:)
Same here, farther down the east coast. Weather has gotten really extreme. I’m looking at moving next year, and at least a partial basement or storm cellar is on my list of requirements in case of weather emergencies. I’ve always had homes with basements. The area where I’m relocating is on the fall line between piedmont and coastal plain. The coastal plain soils and water table are iffy for basements. I’m going to try to stay on the piedmont side.
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***Pyrane***
Good news among the bad.
Good to hear you and your family are safe.
Oh my gosh, I’m so glad to hear you are all safe! We don’t get nearly as many tornados in NJ as you do, but we do get some wild summer thunderstorms that have been known to spawn tornados or microbursts, so I can imagine how scary that was. Stay safe!
my neighbors –
Very glad you are all okay, though sorry to hear about others not so fortunate.
I was hoping all is well when I heard the news. Thank you for the update.
Glad to hear everyone at House Andrews and amongst the Horde is safe!
We’re hot and clear over here in our bit of the UK right now – have as much of that from us as you wish!
Feeling your pain-just south of you in San Antonio and my daughter worked a 4:00-11:00 shift last night. I was texting her that the walk-in freezer was her safest bet and worrying when she didn’t reply. Turns out they got slammed (lots of Texans are unconcerned about tornadoes unless one is in sight) and she was the only server.
But a colleague in Round Rock said a their house got skipped when the storm tore up houses on either side of them.
I am glad you are all okay.
Glad you all are safe.