........................Storm.



Sorting through some images from a few years gone by, and ran on to this one. It was taken on the 4th of May 2007 around 8:00 P.M.

The location was on U.S. Highway 183 looking south toward Oklahoma about 15 miles south of Greensburg. The power and displays of this storm was a truly frightening sight.

When we got to the intersection of U.S. 400/54 my wife and I had a discussion. She wanted to spend the night in Greensburg, and I wanted to go on to Dodge. Thank goodness I won because about an hour later this storm produced a devastating F5 Tornado that struck Greensburg, and killed several people.

On the way back we passed through a small town, north of Greensburg called Macksville, that was also hit. There was a police unit there that was almost unrecognizable that Officer Tim Buckman had been driving, and trying to warn folks of the storm's approach when his unit was tossed, and he was fatally injured.

Macksville Police Department, Kansas, Fallen Officers

He was a very brave man.

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LEX ET ORDO

On 4 April, 1974, a wave of tornadoes tore up a number of towns in this area and did enormous damage in Louisville.

Dick Gilbert, a veteran pilot well into middle age, flew an old MASH-era Bell helicopter for one of the local radio stations. At enormous risk to himself he trailed the Louisville tornado across the city, closely. Really closely, and reporting all the way. Tremendous guts.

LEO's and other first responders on the ground at a time like that often take terrible chances. My hat is off to every one of them.

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Oh well, what the hell.

In the late 90s, I owned a private motocross track in Rush Springs, Oklahoma. For a few years, it gained a reputation as a track with big air and fast, long timing sections. We regularly had pro riders coming by to ride, and as word spread among the riders, we eventually had film companies coming with them to shoot segments for industry films.

One day, a group of quad riders and a film crew came from California to shoot a film, but the camera man kept complaining about the storm developing off to the north and this nasty, greenish tint that it took on. He kept fiddling with color correction filters, but never was content as the mass just got darker, and greener. Finally, in exasperation, he asked if this type of sky was normal here.

We didn't have cell service where we were at, much less smartphones, so we couldn't check the weather. My only response was "well, someone north of us is having a bad day." I had no idea...

It was May 3rd, 1999, and forty miles north of us an F5 tornado was ravaging Moore, Oklahoma. The tornado killed 36 people and caused a billion dollars in damage while we shot a film and complained about the color of the sky.

In 1985, one week after my 12th birthday, I survived a tornado. % of my neighbors died that night. A lady that lived a few miles away managed to get this picture of it. From the angle, it was taken very near our home.

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SDMF

In about 1983 I was a Police Cadet in Springfield, MO. The town got hit by 5 tornadoes basically all at once. The power had gone out at the gun shop I worked at so I closed up a little early and headed home. Had I looked in the rear view mirror I could possibly have seen one of the tornadoes take out our front sign. By the time I got home I had gotten a call from the PD that we would be helping out the National Guard who was called out to prevent looting. Spent the next 14 hours roaming from post to post.

Funny thing one post we stopped at I noticed one of the NG's charging handle was hanging out cockeyed in his rifle. Obviously there was no bolt carrier in it. I don't know if they had them in their pockets or if the rifles were just for show. I pointed it out to the guy and he replied "Oops my ammo might fall out"

Greensburg Tornado destroyed a prairie dog town my brother and dad used to shoot quite often.

I've been through several, by far the worst being the June 8, '74 Emporia, KS tornado. Rode it out in my Dad's Ford van as it came through the intersection we were at by the mall and picked up the van and threw it a good 300 plus yards. We landed on tires and he drove it home. A number of people died. I was a lucky 7 year old.

I remember that one. Most of my kinfolk grew up in or around Emporia, we went to visit just after that happened and I remember what it did to the mall. I also remember being up on a hill above the mall and Grandad showing me grass that had been driven into the side of a tree.

Back on May 27th 1997 an F5 came through Jarrell TX that killed 27 people out of a town of 410. The path was 3/4 of a mile wide and tracked across 7 miles. I was at the time heading home from San Antonio to Dallas. I remember the rain was fierce all the way up through Austin and as I came up Interstate 35 into Jarrell it was the worst yet and dark and ominous. I was able to get past the worse part of it and only heard on the radio of what was behind me. Not my picture but one of the tornado.


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