I will never forget where I was on March 13, 1990. This was the day of the Hesston tornado. After this massive F5 tornado hit the town of Hesston, it continued on and passed about a mile south of the town where I grew up. (It also passed a mile and a half from Travis' house. He and his dad were in the milk barn when their power went out so they went outside to see what was happening.) The tornado sirens were going and my mom and I headed to the closet in the basement. We took my little purple radio with us and listened to the weather reports. I remember being very worried because my dad wasn't home from baseball practice yet. He showed up shortly after the sirens went off though. It was hailing outside and my dad was in the garage watching. The fire trucks were driving around town telling people over their loud speakers to get inside their houses because the tornado was headed right for us. My dad came downstairs to tell us that debris was falling from the sky and the hail was huge. Thankfully, the tornado turned as it approached our town and missed us. I will never forget how huge the hail stones were. They were the size of softballs and I collected them and put some in the freezer. To this day, I still remember how scared I was. My parents were both so calm and kept telling me it was going to be okay. Ever since then, I have not been a fan of storms. It probably helps that I have children now because this helps me to stay calm. It makes me wonder if my mom was actually scared throughout this whole ordeal. If she was, I never knew it!
I tried to find a video of the tornado on YouTube and this was one of the best I could find.
3 comments:
Time sure goes fast. It doesn't seem like 20 years ago already. I was scared Lisa! Mostly for my children and dad since you and I were alone and didn't know where the others were. Hopefully, never again.
Lisa, I too remember that day. It was stormy here as well. I talked to my dad (in Hesston) and he said the tornado was headed straight for town. As he was watching it approach Hesston, he then said he was going to the basement. Next time I tried to call the phone lines were down, so I (anxiously) wondered what had happened! It was about 10 minutes before I got a call from him that he was okay, but then, again could not get through on the phone (no cell phones back then). Fortunately his home was not hit, but it was a tragic scene in most of the town!
Softballs! Come on Lisa, your memory is like that of an old fisherman. The hail was big. The storm was huge. I was on the bus back from music contest. We just stopped on the 13 mile road and watched and waited. But really, softball sized? I think raquetball might be a bit closer.
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