Posted by Austin, Little Rock on 4/4/2008, 4:29 pm
70.232.98.245
The tornado that hit Little Rock and surrounding suburbs went just 200 yards to the west of my house last night. It was raining very heavily and then the rain and wind stopped as the wall cloud came directly over. It was about this time that the power went out in the entire area making for a pitch-black night.
I was watching the storm roll in and had to seek shelter in an interior room for about 5 minutes. I am a trained stormed spotter and severe thunderstorms don't frighten me easily, but this storm was very, very eerie. My house had a slight shaking as the funnel cloud passed over head. There was no damage to my house. Some of my neighbors lost their siding, and a tree fell into one neighbor's house causing moderate damage.
Less than a quarter of a mile away was the tornado! It hit areas to the south of Little Rock and then went to the northwest affecting the National Weather Service and the communities to the north. The meteorologists at the NWS had to seek shelter as the tornado went directly over their office and the big doppler radar dome. The NWS in Memphis took over the warnings as they went into their concrete room. I knew when they took shelter, it was very serious. I have talked to the guys before and they had told me that it would have to get very bad for them to abandon their computers. I knew we were in trouble when I heard on the news that they left for their tornado safe room.
What a scary night. Luckily, there were only a few minor injuries in the state. I saw the damage first hand; pictures never really "show" the real damage; it's so much more impressive in person. I hope you all stay safe further east.
Austin
In the picture: The WSR-88D (Doppler Weather Radar) indicated rotation from Cammack Village (Pulaski County) to northeast of Sylvan Hills (Pulaski County) between 953 pm CDT and 1019 pm CDT on 04/03/2008.
In the picture: Twenty four hour rainfall through 7 am CDT on 04/04/2008.
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/lzk/html/rain0408a.htm
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