Good Friday Tornado, Saint Louis, Missouri – April 22, 2011
Cheryl and I walked out of the St. Louis LDS Temple around 6:00 pm (18.00 hrs) on Friday into obvious tornado conditions. It is always obvious to those of us who grew up in ‘Tornado Alley’. Hot air pulsing air. High humidity. Shifting winds. Uneasy clouds. A storm front was moving into the eastern part of the State. We quickly left heading west on I-64 toward Wentzville, 25 miles away, straight into the green/gray clouds, and gusty, fitful rain. The best thing to do in these conditions is to get away from them.
At Wentzville, we stopped at QT for fuel. When I got out of the car the City tornado sirens were wailing and the police cars were out with their sirens on. Bad news. Everyone at the gas station was anxiously scanning the roiling clouds for signs of the funnel. We turned on the radio to KMOX but, since there was a Cardinals baseball game that night, the announcers could pay no attention to a possible tornado. Cheryl got on weather.com on her laptop and found that a tornado was sighted 8 miles south of Warrenton, and it was heading east at 50 mph. Maybe 10 minutes away and coming right at us. Tennis ball sized hail was associated with this storm. A panicky woman at the next pump island asked me what was going on? She was from Indiana and had no idea. I quickly explained and advised her to finish up and get on her way. Probably a mistake since she was heading east along with the tornado. The clouds suddenly turned emerald green. Really bad news.
Cheryl was getting excited and urged me to hurry with the gas. In another two minutes we were heading back to I-70 west, hoping to get through the storm quickly. We no more than got onto I-70 when enormous hail started hitting the car. It was so huge the car, a big SUV, was actually shuttering from the impacts. I thought we might loose the windshield and told Cheryl to close her laptop and put down the sun visor to block flying glass chips. At the next exit we jumped back off the highway and parked under the gas island canopy at a truck stop, along with every other car and truck that could squeeze in. Safe from the giant hail, maybe, but this was not getting away from the tornado. The weather radar now had it right on top of us. So, the instant the hail dropped in size to 1/2 inch, we headed back to the highway, battling terrific winds and tremendous rainfall. The few small cars on the highway were barely able make headway, but we pushed on through in the Expedition. Suddenly the sinking sun was shining under the cloud through the downpour, making it almost impossible to see, but incredibly beautiful. The end was in sight, and in three more miles we ran out from under the cloud into sunshine.
We looked back. The cloudbank behind us to the east was a roiling maelstrom shot through with lightening. We did not know until Saturday that this tornado developed into an F4, coming down in the suburb of Bridgeton near I-70 and I-270, completely destroying 40 houses and severely damaging another 60. It then crossed Lambert Field, the Saint Louis international airport, doing considerable damage to the terminals and large jet planes, and closing the airport completely. It lifted after the airport, doing lesser damage to homes in Florissant, including my relatives.
Miracle of miracles on this Good Friday before Easter, not a single person was seriously injured.
slicesdotlive 