Tornado!

[VeganBikeChick]

Stay safe everyone!

[Owlie]

What a spring this has been.

Stay safe, everyone.

[OakLeaf]

Yikes. Be safe, all.

[Crankin]

We didn't have any hail here (I'm only a few miles away from SheFly), but pretty fierce lightning and wind, along with torrential rain. We also went down to the lower level of our house, which isn't below the ground, since our house is built into the side of a hill, and had plans to go into the storage closet, as my house has windows everywhere. I also have never thought of making an emergency pack. Our emergency contingency is having a flashlight in every room!
It's a beautiful New England day today. I don't see any visible damage right outside my house, but I am sure there must be debris on the road. The damage in Springfield and the small towns around there looks awful.

[bambu101]

We are about 10 miles from the damage in Westfield, which is awful. We had 2 rounds of storms with brief downpours, very little wind, and a bit of hail. We lost our phone service, but still have internet, and the power never went out. We were extremely fortunate compared to a lot of folks around here:

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.s...h_pioneer.html



Pretty scary stuff!

(on a happy note, the Mama Robin nesting in the holly bush outside the window rode out the storm and sat tight on her 2 babies, who are about to fledge)

[7rider]

Waiting to hear from a friend of mine with family in Springfield/West Springfield.
Yikes. Hope they are all well.

[sundial]

...I have no safe place to go in my apartment if a tornado hits...

If you are able to, hide under the stairwell on the bottom floor and cover yourself with a large cushion or even a mattress. If that is not an option, go to an area away from the windows and get as low as possible. Most deaths occur because of flying debris.

[m.eliza]

We had hail stones the size of dimes coming down for a while before I left work (strange that you didn't have any down the street, Crankin!). I had to run outside to roll my car windows up (oops) and came back dripping from head to toe.

A friend of mine lives in one of the towns where a tornado touched down last night. Hoping to hear back from him soon!

[Jolt]

If you are able to, hide under the stairwell on the bottom floor and cover yourself with a large cushion or even a mattress. If that is not an option, go to an area away from the windows and get as low as possible. Most deaths occur because of flying debris.

Ugh...the only stairwell I could get under would be the one going up from the second to the third floor (there's a little alcove under therer where I have a few things stored) and it's right across the living room from the two windows. Currently I do not have access to the basement although this may change as my landlord said he is planning on putting an outside entrance in to the basement at some point so everyone in the building can access it for storage etc. One person to whom I brought this up suggested I go outside and lie on the ground right against the retaining wall at the edge of the yard, but that would seem to be pretty exposed to any flying debris if it's coming from the wrong direction. I suppose the best bet would be to knock on my downstairs neighbor's door if she happened to be home.

[nancielle]

There was a pretty bad one in Great Barrington (Berkshires) about 10-12 years ago.

I was living in Great Barrington when that hit on Memorial Day of 1995. Was classified as an F4 tornado. Very scary. I had just gotten home from an outing and the sky turned green. Had never seen anything like it before. The funnel cloud torn down the street behind my apartment. Three people died in that one.

We got the severe thunderstorm with extremely heavy rain and hail. It flooded storm drains (and my front yard.) Fortunately, no tornado for us.