Major storms hitting Kansas - major damage in Greensburg, Kan.

Yeah, Angola, I would guess the bathroom would be the place to be. My old house didn't have a basement. Thankfully, I never had to worry about taking shelter there.

Re: Salina, there are about 45,000 to 48,000 people there.

 

So, if Salina gets hit, then we are going to see some serious destruction.

 

I was two blocks from one that hit in 1999. I was running the board at a radio station whose studio was on the second floor. It sounded to me more like a gigantic swarm of bees times 10. I practically swan-dived downstairs.

Turned out we were OK, but the uplink tower outside was blown down (signaling end of my shift) and it demolished a Kroger's right up Broadway and killed a man.

Same tornado skipped right over my folks' house (as I discovered after I later plotted it on a map) and came down on a small town to the northeast, killing five.

This was probably a strong F2 or weak F3.

 

From watching the radar on The Weather Channel, it sure looks like this storm has a chance of hitting Salina.

 

You would, yeah. Hopefully, the worst is done because I fear to read about Greensburg in the next week. There are some good people in that town. All those western Kansas communities, really. Salt of the earth.

Looks like that storm is about to hit Claflin, Jackie Stiles' hometown.

 

I spent the first 22 years of my life in tornado alley and the closest I came to one was within two miles maybe. Never felt threatened, never saw one in person, never heard one. Lots of sirens but nothing dangerously close to me.

My wife went to college in tornado alley and within the first two years had one go back into the sky right before destroying the house she was in. She goes outside and a book shelf and a car bumper were in her backyard. The apartment complex down the street was in bad shape. She saw it and ran inside, heard the sound of a train and everything.

She got the wrong idea thinking that tornados nearly kill us Midwesterners every other year.

 

You too, huh?

 

If it goes from Greensburg to Claflin, it'll go wide left of Salina.

Here's hoping the only thing that gets sucked is a lot of blackdirt.

 

My mother still lives there. 52 years in the Midwest, never once a close call.

knock on wood.

 

I'm going to bed. Prayers for the Kansans. A lot of lives dramatically changed tonight.

 

TWC finally showed radar. Tormado warning for 3 counties in central Kansas — I think Reno and Rice were two of them.

 

Second that.