Power of Mother Nature

[keram]

I've already posted this on the old forum, but because it is gone and since last summer we have many more new members so here it is:

 

It was beginning od August 2006. Me and my family were camping on the shores of Kamaniskeg Lake (Barry's Bay area) One afternoon the clouds were pretty heavy, and just shortly after dark heavy thunderstorms has developed.. We were in the tent trailer. It took about one hour of heavy rain to flood the campsite ( later I was walking in 2" of water ). During this hour, about ten minutes left some memories in our heads.. It was dark, heavy rain and our trailer started shaking like hell.

This is what we have learned next day:

 

The category 2 tornado went pretty close to us (about 1.5 km from path of the tornado to our camp )

 

The only thing that changed it's direction was small hill ( so called Shweig Hill ), tornado passed through south side ( we were on the north side of the hill)

 

Few pictures from " day after":

 

Shweig Hill

 

 

Combermere ( small willage on the shores of Lake Kamaniskeg)

 

 

 

Campground on Lake Kamaniskeg

 

 

Nobody was hurt, but lot of cars were damaged

 

[PatrickGG]

I don't know if you guys remember this one but the story goes like this i live around the corner from this incident and took the kids to the store i walked right on the sidewalk and no tree was down yet but on the way back 5 minutes later there it was.

 

 

 

Edited March 14, 2007 by PatrickG

[GbayGiant]

Mother nature can be a B!t(h sometimes. Here are my two brushes with nature. 1st one, I was driving a barge full of Douglass fur wood from BC ( worth a bundle, boss told me to be extra careful) out to and island on Georgian Bay we were working on. Well a crazy lightning storm and heavy winds took a matter of 5 min to start up, I was standing on a rubber tire with one hand on the wheel looking for the closest place to park. Seen a boat house and got there as quick as possible, waited out the storm (only lasted about 30min) tied the boat up and hid under the dock. watched lightning hit the trees about 50 yards away and when it stopped the tree tops were all smoking, not a fun day, but it was exciting.

 

Other time the wind came in fast and waves got huge quick, filled my first boat a little 14" to the brim and ended up sinking just in time as I got back to my sisters dock and dug it out in the morning. :closedeyes:

Edited March 14, 2007 by GbayGiant

[Garyv]

Before moving to Canada in the 70's we lived in a tornado zone in the suburbs of Chicago. If that wasn't enough we would spend our weekends in Lake Geneva Wisconsin. I personally have been through 5 tornado's ( my wife 4 ) and each one was as bad as it's predecessor.

 

Two of the most memorable were while driving home from University in Aurora Ill you could see tornado's in the sky. When I exited the east-west toll road to get away from the possibility of being on a road with no escape possible, I wound up sitting at a traffic light at an intersection known as Cermak Road and Lagrange Road in my new 66 Ford Galaxy. All of a sudden it started vibrating and moving sideways across the intersection along with the other cars. Since it was wet it just slid until all of a sudden it stopped. I was fortunate and never touched another vehicle, but wish I had on depends.

 

The other time was in Lake Geneva where we rented a top floor of an older house near the lake for the summer. A severe thunderstorm was raging when it just got calm. In an instant all heck broke loose and you couldn't see the tree clearly that was about ten feet from the window. House shook and vibrated. My wife said what should we do and all I could reply was it's to late to do anything at least hopefully we'll be on top of the pile. Next thing it stopped and the sky got brighter..it was over. We were lucky houses down the road were damaged and on our other side about 1000ft away the damage started again. The tornado had lifted briefly and then put down again. The guy that owned the bar at the end of the road said it was unbelievable to watch. All in all four twisters had covered about a five mile area at almost the same time. Damage was something to behold. In the town of lake Geneva itself all the boats in the area were on the eastern shore, piled like logs would be for a fire.

 

 

Then theres the major thunderstorm on Kesigami lake when we went to shore took off the outboard and stayed under the canoe but that's another story.

Edited March 15, 2007 by Garyv

[ccmtcanada]

Here is a video I shot of a large thunderstorm from last summer. It was the one that spawned a bunch of tornadoes in southern ontario. A meterologist and tornado chaser commented on my video and said that at the 22 second mark, you could see a tornado starting....I'm not so sure, but decide for yourself....

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To see all the comments, double click on the video below....

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<object width="320" height="240"><param name="movie" value="

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HweRNWoJLg0"></param><param'>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HweRNWoJLg0"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HweRNWoJLg0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="320" height="240"></embed></object>

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Edited March 15, 2007 by ccmtcanada

[mattyk]

I had the oppertunity to go down to the gulf coast after hurricane katrina to do some research for the university. It was before i got my digital camera. But i took a few hundred pictures. Here are two of the shots. You really dont understand the power of nautre until you witness something of this magnitude.

 

Edited March 15, 2007 by mattyk

[Dutch]

My wife and I were caught in Mexico during hurricane Wilma. The power and destruction was immense. We made it through, but I would never, never want to ride out one ever again. We were not there by choice, just not evacuated in time, it came on too quick.

 

It was the first hurricane to build to a category 5 in less than 24 hours and still hit land. We were within 5-8 k.m. of the eye coming ashore and felt it's calm. Eerie.

 

Hope you all never have to ride one out.

[BITEME]

 

Just another day at the office in my formative years

 

Had the pleasent experiance to travel in and out of hugo as it ravaged South Carolina we were on a stopover in Charleston and ordered immedadiatly to sea

 

Going through the eye of a big Hurricane is a very strange and humbling thing makes you understand you are very insignificant in the grand sceme of things, its actually very beautiful and then comes the wall and your butt slams tight all hell breaks loose. All in all very cool and it has given me a very DEEP RESPECT FOR MOTHER NATURE AND HER MOOD SWINGS

 

Hey Keram just the week before that storm we were staying at those cottages in Combermere

[BLACKFISH88]

When I was about 16 yrs old we had a thunderstorm in belleville thunder was loud as hell.I remember it actually scaring me because it was so loud, every time I heard a crack of thunder I would actually jump. I was out after I had got off work at the bingo hall I was working in and was at a neighbours house without my parents consent then we heard the loudest crack of thunder I've ever heard in my life. Went outside and looked towards my parents home as it was visible from the place I was at and seen my light on UH OH mom and dad were gonna be mad I thought so I packed up my things and went on my way home to get in trouble for being out well past curfew went in the house and my dad was in my bedroom cleaning giant shards of glass off my bed that was about 3 to 4 ft away from the window. He said that it was a good thing I wasnt in the bed because of all the glass. We woke up in the morning and lightning had hit a giant tree that stood in the middle of four different yards the people behind us their house lost 11 windows the house beside them 7 and the house beside ours 3 and ours lost 1 and cracked another all from the sound of thunder tree was nowhere near any of the windows. My dad said he woke up in his bed a foot off of it. I think to this day it was the loudest sound I've ever heard! Apparently a tornado had touched down on the BOQ, ripped big air conditioning units from the radio station on the bay and lots of other damage around city.