New York City gets some nasty weather - ice storms, blizzards, hurricanes, nor-easters. But it's very rare for us to have tornadoes. And yet, TWO not one, but TWO hit here just the other day. It traveled right up my block ripping trees from the roots, upending blocks of sidewalk and shredding power lines. I was lucky. The tree that fell in front of my house and across my driveway, missed my front fender by about two inches. Except for a tiny ding in the trunk from a flailing branch, my car and property came out of this unscathed.
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Watching the tornado arrive was incredible, though. As the winds came, so did the hail. I fought the wind as I closed the windows and as I did our basketball hoop wobbled then crashed, sideways, to the ground, also missing my car, the trunk that time, by a few inches. And then the world went white. I couldn't see anything (from my second story window) but could hear a bone-chilling screech and crunching. When it was over, my block looked like a foreign land, strewn with tree limbs , sparking wires and people streaming into the street to see the damage. We're still cleaning up a week later but, fortunately, only one death was reported. Tragic and heartbreaking as that death is, things could have been much worse for so many more people.
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What, if any, exciting/horrifying experiences have you had with wicked weather?.
EDIT... I tried to upload an image but it doesn't open. :-(
I went on a holdiay to Perth, Australia in the month of May many years ago and was caught in a freak storm. My friends and I tried to run for shelter but we found ourselves running on the spot instead. The wind was so strong that it kept blowing us backwards.