2 days ago my family and I almost died

Wernazuma III · August 31, 2003, 06:27

2 days ago I was walking home from downtown with my girlfriend and our 15 months old child in his baby carriage when suddenly, after 2 months of record heat, it started raining and lightening when we just had entered the central park of Graz, which we had to cross. We knew that should happen that day or the next, but there were not much hints that it would come so soon.
At that point I already knew we'd come into heavy rain, we put a rain cover over the baby carriage and my girlfriend opened the umbrella, me getting completely wet, well I don't care much about rain. A wind set in and I told Katja that we should walk a bit faster, before the wind becomes stronger. All of a sudden (all this happened within less than 2 minutes!), a storm started and I saw smaller branches coming down from the trees and the horse-chestnuts falling down. I shouted at Katja to run and I ran with the baby towards the end of the park, where there was a roof for people wating for public transportation.It was still scary there, because it's at a highly frequented street and those idiots continued to drive past us at 50-60km/h. I only got hit by minor branches on my way, the baby cried in panic and Katja didn't come after us. Looking back I saw bigger branches coming down and decided to run back, leaving the baby with some people I didn't know who also seeked shelter there from the storm ("where should they go in that storm?" I thought). Luckily I didn't have to go back far when Katja came - with a completely destroyed umbrella, broken by the branches falling down on her.
Only few minutes later, the wind was completely gone, in the news they said it were Tornado-like whirles that struck Graz with speeds around 115km/h I don't know, people in Tornado areas will maybe laugh at that speed, but we don't have Tornados in Graz, damn it and we were completely unprepared. On our way back home we saw in an alley a car that was severly hit by a falling tree while driving (the driver being hurt badly) and yesterday I went back to see how the park looks like and it was horrible. Right where we wlaked there was a fallen tree and several huge branches. Considering that the tornado lasted only, say, 3 minutes we were pretty close to being hit.

Just felt that I have to share this experience with you, thanks for reading.

Skanky Burns · August 31, 2003, 06:30

Good to hear you made it through ok.

HershOstropoler · August 31, 2003, 06:36

Glad that no one was hurt.

Although wind breaking branches and trees isn't that unusual.

DanS · August 31, 2003, 06:56

Quote:

Only few minutes later, the wind was completely gone, in the news they said it were Tornado-like whirles that struck Graz with speeds around 115km/h I don't know, people in Tornado areas will maybe laugh at that speed, but we don't have Tornados in Graz, damn it and we were completely unprepared.

No, that sounds about right for a not very strong tornado.

Chemical Ollie · August 31, 2003, 07:02

Good to hear you made it.

I had a mini-tornado in my garden one year ago. Heavy branches had flewn 50 meters, while light branches had been lifted over my house and landed on the street 150 meters away. It was a mess to clean up, I can assure you.

Whaleboy · August 31, 2003, 07:15

Good job staying alive, hope your family's ok!

Skanky Burns · August 31, 2003, 07:23

We had a gale last week and one unlucky couple driving in their car were killed by a fallen branch.

Wernazuma III · August 31, 2003, 07:30

Quote:

Originally posted by HershOstropoler
Although wind breaking branches and trees isn't that unusual.

No, it's not. But finding myself in a park when it happens is.

Quote:

No, that sounds about right for a not very strong tornado.

Wow, now I can brag "I live in a tornado area, you know"

Quote:

It was a mess to clean up, I can assure you.

My mum is a flower and generally plant maniac and owns dozens of potted plants. Better, she owned, because there are few pots left and the plants are scattered around the garden.

Wernazuma III · August 31, 2003, 07:32

Quote:

Originally posted by elijah

Good job staying alive, hope your family's ok!

Thanks, we are. Just the boy instantly started to cry today, when I walked through the rain with him today.

red_jon · August 31, 2003, 07:38

Graz! My machine set it to Tokyo!

Seriously, glad you're all ok

Solver · August 31, 2003, 07:50

Glad you're ok.

The last mini-tornado here was last week, killed a few people under trees. The one before that, though, was over a year ago.

HershOstropoler · August 31, 2003, 08:16

Quote:

Originally posted by Wernazuma III

Wow, now I can brag "I live in a tornado area, you know"

And write a book: "How I survived the Styrian Tornado of 2003"

Pekka · August 31, 2003, 09:55

Sounds pretty wild! I'm glad to hear you made through it. Kind of funny, your life can end at any minute and you wouldn't know it before hand.. I guess you just have to enjoy every minute of it and not dwell on crap, so it's good times the most of it. Also kind of weird to think, you know if you never came back from that situation, would we have ever known about it? Maybe not.. well, anyway good to hear you and your family is ok, that's the most important thing.

Wernazuma III · August 31, 2003, 11:35

Quote:

Originally posted by Pekka
Also kind of weird to think, you know if you never came back from that situation, would we have ever known about it? Maybe not...

Scary, isn't it. In a history forum I frequently visit(ed), there was some guy who stopped posting all of a sudden. Well, such things happen, for whatever reasons. Some 2 weeks later though his mother posted that he had died in hospital after a long disease (of which we didn't know anything) and wanted his mother to inform the people of the forum.

Urban Ranger · August 31, 2003, 13:17

Damn.

That's almost as bad as that time when I receive a phone call from a friend, informing me that a mutual friend had just died of a heart attack. He was a class below us and had just graduated from university.

First, I was confused. Then I was bewildered, then shocked. Having a close look at mortality at that brash young age was most unsettling.

chequita guevara · August 31, 2003, 14:07

I guess it's just cuz you're not used to strong weather, but you weren't in much danger. Hurricane force winds are common where I grew up (American MidWest). Really, winds of that speed are unlikely to kill or hurt very much. I imagine it was pretty scary though. I wouldn't have wanted to be out in it.

BTW, tornadoes are not quiet. If it had been a real tornado, you would have heard the sound of a frieght train or jet airliner. Buddy of mine was telling me that he used to live near the airport, and when a tornado was actually headed towards his house, he didn't even bother to seek shelter, because he thought a plane was crashing on him, and where do you hide from that?

Gatekeeper · August 31, 2003, 15:00

Welcome to the world of tornadic winds, Wernazuma III. Not much fun, are they? Glad to see everyone made it out fine.

I live in the Upper Midwest of the United States, and we're no strangers to howling tornadoes up here, although we don't have it quite as bad as, say, Oklahoma or Kansas. We did, however, record 67 tornadoes in a single day and night back in June — we had a massive low pressure system moving through unstable air, and it set everything off. There was one monstrous F4-F5 twister that leveled a small community southeast of where I live ... no one, died, though the town is gone. Literally.

Gatekeeper

st_swithin · August 31, 2003, 15:16

A miss is as good as a mile.

Ecthy · August 31, 2003, 15:20

you post in a history forum? geek

cool how you got through that anyway. make sure the boy gets used to rain again

that weather sounds weird even for ösiland

st_swithin · August 31, 2003, 15:26

You're not in Kansas anymore, Miss Parker.

Ecthy · August 31, 2003, 15:28

you have talent. I can teach you to become a spamedi knight.

Atahualpa · August 31, 2003, 16:07

ÖSILAND IST ABGEBRANNT!!!!

Asmodean · August 31, 2003, 16:19

Quote:

Originally posted by Gatekeeper
There was one monstrous F4-F5 twister that leveled a small community southeast of where I live ... no one, died, though the town is gone. Literally.

Gatekeeper

What kind of reparations can the home owners in such an area expect. Are they required to have individual insurance for their houses, in order to receive reparations. Or will the state/federal authorities take over part of the payments?

Asmodean

Ecthy · August 31, 2003, 16:38

@ata

Lancer · August 31, 2003, 16:52

That'll teach you to go for a walk in the park!

You young people always looking for a little excitement, life in the fast lane, well I'll tell YOU! When we were young we had more sense than to go for strolls all willy nilly! Were you drunk?!?!

Hmmph.

Young people.

Well, good thing you're all safe, hope you learned something from the experience.

st_swithin · August 31, 2003, 16:57

Go to Disneyland, you non-New Yorker.

Watch out for falling poodles.

Wernazuma III · August 31, 2003, 17:31

Quote:

Originally posted by Ecthelion
spamedi knights

once infested, better let the thread die quickly...

Ecthy · August 31, 2003, 18:03

werna, please

I told you I'm glad you survived

st_swithin · August 31, 2003, 18:06

You'll still be known as the poodleman.