Tornadoes and You :)

10 years of driving.... 35 years of life.... Still have never seen a tornado!

 

My 1st load i drove near one near bloomburg in major hail storm it busted well cracked my passanger winshied good thing I was load heavy I was prepared tho I was hanging onto the steering wheel so tight it hurt my hand

 

my "first" tornado, i was in Bloomer, WI...i had just delivered a trailer load of new cans to the Big Red food cannery company up there. i made it to a restaurant down the street, and pulled in to the parking lot, and waited it out...


my "second" tornado, i was driving east on I-70 in the state of KS and it came over the Am/FM radio about a tornado warning.....the skies were multi colored, red, blue, green orange, yellow......the winds picked up, a sudden hail came down, i pulled over. my co-driver was sleeping, he woke up and asked me, "is someone throwing rocks at us"...?? i said, "no, we are in a tornado"....."A TORNADO, WHERE, WHERE, WHAT DO WE DO"....??? he asked me.....i said, "well Dave, i don't know about this, i am wearing my clothes, i'm seat belted in...you are in your underwear, and running amuck in the truck, if we get rolled over, they will find you in your underwear".....

he couldn't get his pants on fast enough, swearing up and down he was officially DONE with trucking........and he DID quit too, once we made it back to Medway, OH....the former home of Victory Express (now US Express).....

so, this is what happened to me..........

i survived, and went on trucking....

Dave quit.....and whatever he's doing these days....???

i'm sure it AIN'T worrying about tornadoes anymore......

 

Well last summer extremely powerful straight lines winds blew my rig over. Wind seemed like at least 80mph and got dark just the drive side started to lift up. Maybe was a tornado in the area but I'm not sure.

But yeah I was stationary on I-39 just south of Rochelle, IL. I could see a dark clouds coming in but I had no idea it would be a Wind Burst. Everyone including cars starting using the right lane and curb to just park and then things just got really crazy.

It was a close thing though because my trailer was empty. Some other loaded rigs were still standing and offered me shelter.


EDIT: I broke my arm when this happened and want to quit like Dave. Whenever I find a somewhat decent job besides trucking I'll get out of the business. I kind of dread the Spring windy storm season. Windy thunderstorms give me the creeps anymore.

 

I love tonadoes. They sell them at almost every truck stop

Ohhh wait you mean the weather thang...

Unless they are coming straight at you keep driving.. chance are you'll out drive it. The spin fast, but forward motion is rather slow.. even hurricanes move forward slow... sheer winds an down drafts are different and rare..

 

Just keep what you learned as a kid in mind (assuming you learned it in school, you could have grown up in an area that never got them.) Pull over, find a ditch, lay down flat.

Sounds horrid, but it's the safest option there is. People have been killed by debris flying around under overpasses (which is another common tornado safety myth.)

The single best indication of a tornado in the area... Multi-colored, or green skies. Not sure why, but it holds true time and again.

I'm from Wisconsin, we grew up with them as a threat, nothing like OK, or the plains states, but a threat just the same.

 

Never had to deal with them - I just get an occasional foot massage here who knows though - I just might learn about them up close and personal in the coming years - LOL!

edited to add - I live in CA

 

Yeah I've always wondered about that and since I am a newbie and a trained weather spotter I will keep my eyes open once I am out there on there on the road. But like the driver said make sure you find a ditch far away from the truck so you won't get crushed to death by the truck falling out of the sky. Get to low ground immediately or a sturdy building. And sometimes if you the tornado is far away you can out run it in your truck, but sometimes they are rain wrapped and you can't see them those are the dangerous ones.

 

By this time the truck should have been parked and secured and you're in a safe place. That's the way I do it anyway. No load is worth my life, those days are over.