I'm a Simple Man that likes simple things. And this blog has these simple things that I enjoy, like growing my beard, guns and funny stories. Won't you come check it out?
The Closest I Have Come To Dying
The closest I ever came to dying was on June 12, 1998. I was 12 years old at the time and my parents and I were returning home from town when the weather turned ugly. Here in Indiana, the weather can turn ugly very quick. We were in the middle of the country as sky got incredibly dark. Several clouds started dropping closer to the ground. At the beginning, it was pretty exciting, this would be the first time any of us had ever seen a tornado in real life. Soon though, three clouds touched the ground and formed three small tornadoes that seemed to dance around each other for about 5 seconds. At this point we are probably about 2 or 3 miles away from these tornados and had an incredible view of the events that were unfolding. Soon however the 3 tornados formed into one giant super tornado and begin moving in our direction. The tornado looked to be about half a mile wide now. My dad was driving, and by this time we were going pretty fast as we were trying to make it to my grandparents house about 5 miles away. I was in the back seat and had turned to watch as the tornado was getting closer and closer. I could see the tornado tearing apart a small woods we had recently passed. We were very close to my grandparents house now, about a mile, but the tornado was even closer to our car now, less at half a mile. All of a sudden, we could hear the sound of the tornado you always hear people talk about. It was kind of like a train and a tea kettle going at the same time. I remember my dad asking yelling "where is it?", and I yelled "it's right behind us!" As we went around a 90 degree bend in the road, I watched as the tornado entered into the subdivision that was parallel to our car. I will always remember seeing the full roof of a house being ripped off and flying in the air. We wound up behind a police car that was driving slowly through town with it's sirens on, we went around it and continue to my grandparents house. We slid into their driveway and headed to their storm shelter in the back yard. My grandparents were already the shelter and we basically jumped into the 8 foot deep cement bunker and pulled the door closed. Within 10 seconds you could hear the destruction taking place outside. It seemed to only last for 15 seconds or less and then it was quiet. When we came out of the shelter we were happy to see my grandparents house was still there. Their neighbors were not as lucky though and many had significant damage. My grandparents had this huge tree in there found yard, it had a trunk that was at least 3 feet in diameter. It had fallen towards our car and missed it by mere inches. I remember how quiet it was after that, but soon the quietness was filled with the sound of chainsaws as people began trying to clear the streets and help their neighbors. The power was out for a few days, and I remember generators were sold out everywhere. The subdivision I saw the tornado hit was devastated as was a local school and many parts of the town. The tornado was rated as an F3 and was measured at 800 meters wide. Had we been 30 seconds slower, I don’t think we would have made it... It was probably one of the scariest most exhilarating moments of my life.