The path was about 1/2 mile south of my house.  We had to have the roof and gutters replaced from hail damage.

I put my wife and Granddaughter in a central closet when we got the warning.  I went out on the back patio.  You know.  To be able to give real-time updates to the family.  Dark so didn't see anything.  The tornado was really freight trainy loud.  Tornado sirens going off.  Emergency vehicle sirens going off.

I'd advise, if you have time, to put on heavy and durable clothes and shoes.  Any kind of helmet if you have one.  We all have motorcycle gear so we put on heavy jackets with armor, helmets, and padded gloves.

My daughter was at DFW Airport close to there. They herded everyone into the bathrooms.

I lived near there when the ones went through Xenia in 74(sp?).

An F2 hit my house on November 5th, 2017. It wasn't fun and I was out of my house for 6 months.

That part isn't as significant as the group of Arfcommers, friends, and family who came and helped with the clean up. I am still incredibly thankful 6 years later.

I lived in a different area not too far from where I am now in 74 when Xenia got hit. I remember that day and that storm very well. The storm passed right over us before it spawned the tornado that hit Xenia.

It had been storming for quite a while. Tornado watches all day. Then warnings. The storm had knocked our power out, so we were sitting in the dark with flashlights, listening to a tiny transistor radio that was drowned out by static with every lightning flash.

The announcer would read off any new warning updates then play a song or two.
At the worst part of the storm, it's dark as Hell outside in early afternoon, raining like mad, wind howling, constant lightning and the radio announcer basically telling anyone who could hear him to take shelter then starts playing Ray Charles-Hit the Road Jack.

To this day, if that song comes on the radio, I find myself back on that day, listening to that song on a tiny, staticie radio and can still hear every burst of static that punctuated old Ray's vocals.

We had 3 within a 1/4 mile of the house over several years and were not touched more than downed limbs that were compromised already. My neighbors to my east and west took it down the middle with major damage.
Weirdest part to me is they at lower elevations than I am

We had 3 within a 1/4 mile of the house over several years and were not touched more than downed limbs that were compromised already. My neighbors to my east and west took it down the middle with major damage.
Weirdest part to me is they at lower elevations than I am

Mine is a hurricane story from when I lived on the island of Anguilla.
We knew it was approaching and was working on securing the resort and evacuating guests. 4 assholes from Boston refused to leave so I told them ‘it’s your funeral’…more on them later.
Islanders are superstitious like you wouldn’t believe and I’m hearing stories of ‘jumbies’ that speak during the storm; I of course laugh that off.
Storm approaching and I’m housed in a building separate from the main building and while I’m lying in the bathtub with the sliding glass door blown into the room, I actually hear voices outside…shit you not.
So I’m thinking it’s from guests making their way to the main building and me being a ‘good guy’, think I need to assist. While running there, the wind picked me up off the ground where I was ‘running’ in the air. I was literally moving forward line running and my legs pumping; sure wish I had video of THAT.
I get there and of course there isn’t a soul so I go outside and take pictures with my waterproof camera.
After the storm, we have no power, running water, etc and doing what we can to take care of guests who stayed. The group that gave me so much shit are beside themselves with one of the guys crying he wants to go home. I remember handing him an apple and saying ‘eat this’ and walking away.
Never saw him again.

Lived through a number of them , but one nearly got us back in 2004. It was just after dinner when things started rocking and the warnings for tornado started wailing in the distance. My ex wife made the comment that we should head to the basement with the kids , but of course I said " nope i will watch from the window". Well as I was watching things pick up they started to move to basement when I saw two of the huge maples we had out front bend nearly over one way then snap back the opposite direction. I yelled to hit the basement and as I closed the door behind me you could hear everything hitting the house. It seemed like hours , but was maybe 20 min of non stop debris hitting the house and that "train" sound.
The next morning was like a bomb went off. We found out later than the tornado literally bounced over us and an arial view from a news copter showed the line run right over our place. Took five days to get power and months to clean all the old growth tree out.

Kinfolks mother used to tell the story of a tornado where they ran from the old house they lived in when they saw it coming and hid in a walk through pit that they used to run animals through to dip them for bugs. She said when it was over the only thing left of the kitchen was a sack of dirty diapers sitting upright where it had been sitting near a big wood burning iron stove that was gone along with most of the rest of the house.

Rode through an area of Edgefield SC after one once and other than normal damage I saw a tree that fell over from being twisted around multiple times near the base. Kind of like you would twist a wet rag to wring it out.

Yeah, you're REALLY close.

We probably know some of the same people.

Looks like you woke up to a really bad day.

In the early '70s I used to ride my bike down that street, the houses on the other side of the tracks didn't look so old then.

THAT'S what I was here for!

Going to work in a storm and a couple hundred yards from the building I look in my rear view mirror to see nothing but rain going sideways and gray.
Barely could see in front of me but thought shit! I’m going to get wet! Whip into the parking lot and haul ass inside just as one of the office ladies goes streaking by hollering at me to get to the storm shelter area there’s a tornado.
Maybe ten minutes later the storm passes and we go outside to see one of our 53 foot trailers flipped on its side that I’d just driven past when I’d looked in my rearview mirror.
Pretty sure the tornado crossed the road right behind me as I went past that trailer in our empty lot.

Working at the stripclub and storm sirens go off. Me and my bouncer and a buddy that happened to be there kind of just watch from the entryway glass door,not much happened but a little rain and some super black clouds, but I’d sent the girls to the motel next door where one was staying.
Storm passes and we go out on the front porch and start seeing insulation and siding fall out of the sky.
I see something odd fluttering down from way up there. Couldnt figure out what it was for a minute or so with the way it was flipping and flipping until it got lower and realized it was a little red wagon.
We jump in my buddies mustang and run up the road to see if we can see the carnage.
Cops and deputies are turning people around at a road. We get to that spot and cop asks if we live on that street. Before any of us can say a word my buddy driving is like yeah 3rd house on the right on the second block.
Cop just goes ohhh, ok,go on.
We go up the street and turn on the second block and the exact house he had randomly popped off is flattened.
We’re like oh shit,whoops. Turn around and as we are going past the cop my buddy looks out the window at him and says, I just can’t even right now.
Cop says,I understand and stops traffic so we can get out on the Main Street.
My buddy just looks at us in the car when we get back and says yeaaah I’m probably going to hell now.

DFW.  Always plenty that have gone by, but never up close.  Seen a couple times definite low level rotation in the clouds over the house.  Scariest was in like '94, marching band practice outside.  We're all on the field and the director is up on a 3 'story' metal stand thing looking down at us. Funnel cloud started forming above / behind him, and we're trying to get him to turn around to look at it.  Practice was over when he finally did turn around.

I drove by there soon after.  It was weird: normally where the apartments filled the space, there was just sky.