Seeing reports of some wicked weather last night in the Kentucky area.?ÿ Initial reports a painting a sad morning for many families.
I watched one of the weather channels' last night.?ÿ They were using doppler radar showing tornados on the ground with certainty and pointing out the 'debris field' in real time.?ÿ Not sure why or if those affected could have gotten out of harms way but the tools were sure there.
condolences to those communities
In Northern Kentucky, it just so happened that we had our annual surveying chapter Christmas party last night.?ÿ The storm was blowing in just as everybody had left.?ÿ All we got this far north were 50mph winds and rain.?ÿ If leaves had still been on the trees there were would have been a lot of tree damage but as far as I can tell it was just another breezy rain.?ÿ Tomorrow, I may be driving very near the damage to begin a survey for a 30 acre farm closing if everything is still standing.
My heart goes out to those people impacted. Don??t have tornadoes here but as a kid living in Alabama I saw what they were capable of and by all accounts, these storms were as bad as it gets. I just can??t imagine being in their shoes.
Mayfield, Kentucky, which is about 45 minutes from my office, was flattened.?ÿ Downtown looks like a bomb went off and the courthouse took a terrible hit.?ÿ There was some lesser damage south across the state line, but it was bad enough.
Our house is about 1/4 mile south of the center of the path. Only damage we got was 2 of my center pivots are turned upside down. We were watching the coverage from the Paducah, Ky. meteorologists, and the alarm in their voices and the steady tornado track they kept showing convinced us to get out of its way. 2 daughters and families were here for our weekly ??Mexican takeout night?, so when it was about 30 minutes out we loaded up 4 cars with 3 families, 3 grandkids, and 4 dogs, and headed down I-24 to Clarksville, Tn., which was about 90 degrees to the track. ?ÿI was watching the radar and there was another warning headed that way, so once the worst had passed home we headed back. ?ÿDrove through some light rain and made it back to daughters house, which is just on the north side of the path. ?ÿThere were a bunch of big oaks behind their house, now they are a pile of mangled wood. Only damage to the house was it rolled the hvac around the house, and demolished the shed next to the house that had all the son-in-laws tools in it. ?ÿAlso uprooted several fruit trees in front. ?ÿTornado went right between our place and theirs. Only way back to our house was cross country, roads were completely blocked. My brother got my ranger and crossed the fields to get us, and we shuttled that way until everybody got home. ?ÿThey have no power, we have no water. ?ÿThey are a couple miles from Princeton, and there is a lot of devastation there. Went thru there this morning. Hopefully a once in a lifetime thing.?ÿ
@eddycreek?ÿ ?ÿI was thinking of you guys when I saw Eddy Creek on the news feed/...?ÿ ?ÿglad to hear it was generally good news.?ÿ ?ÿ
Made a point to look at an aerial view in the general neighborhood of Princeton.?ÿ Lots of small crop fields.?ÿ Where do you find enough room for center pivots?
In 2000 we had two tornados on the ground at the same time about 12 miles apart.?ÿ My house at the time was roughly midway between them so no damage.?ÿ Was talking with one woman whose house had been completely destroyed.?ÿ Much of it and the debris field ended up in a pasture across the road.?ÿ All sorts of relatives showed up to help with the cleanup and recovery of anything that could be saved.?ÿ She told me that before the scavengers were done they had filled a gallon jar with boxes of condoms found in the pasture.?ÿ Said she was wondering why her husband would have thought he would ever need that many.
We don??t have Kansas size fields, but my biggest one covers 160 acres of a 280 acre field. Would have been longer but there is a major TVA power line crossing one side of it (which is now on the ground). Another farmer who farms up to the Princeton city limits has several longer ones, and I saw some of them are on the ground also. ?ÿWe are blessed with several water sources. ?ÿMine and some of his comes from Eddy Creek, which is about 1/4 mile behind my house. ?ÿWe own about a mile of frontage along it down to where it becomes Barkley Lake.?ÿ
I see a big one and a smaller one wedged between Gray Farm Road and Rube Adams Lane.?ÿ That appears to be one of the largest open fields in the area.?ÿ Must be really fertile ground, though.
those are mine. The smaller one is a towable I can move across Gray Farm Road. Except when its upside down.?ÿ
They don't tow well when they look like this.?ÿ Too rough on the aluminum, hoses and sprinkler heads.?ÿ Doesn't do much good on the tires being drug sideways, either.
Where I am at, I'm statying in eastern PA and own a home in the Pinelands of NJ in a farming community, tornados are extremely rare.?ÿ Last year there was one that touched down about 10 miles from the home I own, without much damage done, another about 30 miles away leveled quite a few homes.?ÿ Here in PA, there was one that touched down about 5 miles from where I'm at and completely destroyed three large car dealerships, destroyed most of their inventory (hundreds of new cars) and leveled a hand full of homes.?ÿ Nothing even close to the devastation in KY.
When I was grade school age, my father was an Electronics Engineer for the FAA and had to go to Oklahoma City every four years for six months for upgrade training to air traffic control signal relay systems.?ÿ Enrolled in school there as a young kid, we didn't have fire drills at school, wehad tornado drills.?ÿ It seemed pretty odd to me as a first grader from NJ until I got to see the real deal pass through off in the distance.
I walked them with the installers today while they were putting an estimate together. I was amazed that one tower was flipped one way and the next was flipped the other. There are drag marks on the ground where the were moved from. Saw that the center tower on one of the neighbor??s was actually turned up on its side, concrete pad, footing, and all. Not sure how that could even happen.
Here in central OK we are all too aware of what mother nature can do in a matter of seconds.?ÿ I'd like to remind everyone of the losses other than financial after a devastating weather event.
Lives are disrupted.?ÿ Even though most folks endure and eventually attain a semblance of normalcy the scars are permanent.?ÿ Dreams are destroyed and families are shattered.?ÿ Childhood is cut short for many.?ÿ Divorce numbers skyrocket.?ÿ College plans disappear in the wind and bright sports futures fade.?ÿ Local economies are fractured for the long term.?ÿ Work is further away and less fruitful.?ÿ Suicides increase in number along with addictions and alcoholism.?ÿ Basically all of the pitfalls of human existence in America magnify and take more victims after devastating destruction.?ÿ Things can take years, if not generations, to repair and regenerate.
Wounds and broken bones will heal.?ÿ Cars will get replaced.?ÿ Folks will either rebuild or repair their homes and businesses.?ÿ This is all usually done in an attempt to "get back to normal".?ÿ In most cases that is a faint mirage on the horizon.?ÿ And people will strive for that goal, but the human damage done by the disruption is a permanent thing.?ÿ "Getting normal" might be a better saying than "getting back to normal".?ÿ Sadly there is no going back.
So pray for our brothers and sisters that were wounded along the paths of these recent storms.?ÿ Give what you can in any way that you can.?ÿ And remember how frail our lives are in the face of natural disasters.?ÿ
When it's all said and done all we really have is each other.?ÿ Let's all try and act like it.
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Amen, Brother Cash.
As a fan of local history, I join in with the old-timers to tell stories from a tornado that hit this community long before I was born.?ÿ May 2, 1948 was the date when a tornado fired up at the far end of the county and remained on the ground most of the time until it was about two miles from leaving the county.?ÿ The center of the path passed two miles south of my parents and two miles south of my grandparents.?ÿ They had no damage.?ÿ A church was destroyed completely while one fellow was killed across the road from the church.?ÿ Five miles to the southwest was the only other fatality, a farmer walking back to his house from a field.?ÿ However, of all the houses the houses that were obliterated, I can think of only one that has a house on that same site today.?ÿ It was moved in from about two miles away several years later.?ÿ Otherwise, all gone, along with the population they would have supported.?ÿ And, in the cemetery next to the church many of the old stone tombstones were shattered beyond repair and no family members ever replaced them.?ÿ So quite a few of the founders of civilization in that rural community were effectively wiped from the face of the Earth when their 'permanent' memorials were eliminated.
When it's all said and done all we really have is each other.?ÿ Let's all try and act like it.
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@eddycreek?ÿ Glad to hear you and family are okay. Gonna be a long road.
