For a good chunk of last week, my meteorologist buddies were warning of significant weather due to hit yesterday. They were not wrong. I know Washington, Illinois got pummeled; the Starbucks in Lebanon had a wall or a window knocked out. I-65 had lots of overturned vehicles; a couple of schools in Tippecanoe County suffered significant damage as well as a local factory; Kokomo was hit hard as was Irvington. I’m sure there was a lot more damage, but those are the highlights that trickled through my Twitter feed. We were up in Goshen, Indiana for my grandmother’s funeral. Typically we would have stayed later into the morning to socialize with family before we left. But, because our meteorologist friends were very concerned; we got up and got on the road fairly early.
We were safe and sound in my basement when the weather hit. My neighborhood got off pretty easy in terms of weather. I don’t even think my neighbors trash cans got tipped over. But, we lost power at about 2:30 yesterday afternoon and, as of 9:30 this morning, it’s still not back on. About two blocks away, they have power. I think the Duke website said that, as of this morning, there were about 12,000 customers in Tippecanoe County without power. I believe Howard County was the next highest for the Duke service area in Indiana.
I hope everyone got through the storms without too much trouble.
As the man said, “Mother Nature bats last.”
I’m amazed and thankful how good forecasting for these types of storms have become.
I’m only 36, and I remember that tornado sirens gave you 1-2 minutes notice when I was little. Outside of that, a window was your best bet for looking up to 10 minutes ahead.
Forecasting that tornadoes were going to hit Indiana DAYS ahead of time is something unheard of 10 years ago.
I think a lot of lives were saved without dramatic rescues after the fact, and that should be celebrated.
Accu weather is every bit the joke that is the weather channel. Remember that idiot Joe Bastardi that got kicked off fox news for saying he knows new england will be hit by a hurricane. I have a news flash for all of you, all of the base data that these private forecasting companies use comes from THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE, the WORLDS BEST. Thas where i get my forecasts from. Not from idiots with communications degrees, no science background (Schwartz and others) and no actual meteorological training or skills.