Back from Manhattan F4 Tornado

[Kansas]

Wednesday night, an F4 tornado hit Manhattan Kansas. It happened around midnight to 12:30. I was called at 3:00 am Thursday night to emmediatly get a plan of attack on how to fix the CATV system. These are some of the pics of the damage that I took. I have many more.

This was picked up and thrown over 400' into this field


This house is no more.


Use this pic to describe to your kids why it the basement is so important. This house's 1st & 2nd floor are setting in the left corner of the pic, while basement is fine.


Notice how this house is gone, yet 25' away, not a leaf missing off the tree.


This car was in the garage of the house in upper right hand corner with no roof.


This house was totally knocked to the ground. The home owners are standing where the attached garage used to be.


I used this pic to show my youngest son what tornados can do do a little girls room. It really sunk in to him when I put it on a level he can comprehend better with.


Make sure you put your trash barrels in the basement too if you dont want to climb a tree to get it back.


One of the many many many vehicles strung out all over the place. BTW, this truck did not belong to the home owner where the truck layed. The home owner had never even seen the truck in the neighborhood and has no idea where it came from.

[Barrie]

Kansas ... difficult to put into words. I feel so far removed from things like this here in the PNW. It seems this is a common and repetative situation in much of the "tornado alley" region. It would seem like anyone with home designs for tornado proof homes would be endorsed by homeowners and insurance companies.
You and yours are OK I assume?

Cheers, Barrie.

[Kansas]

The VERY next night there was a Tornado on the ground in a town about 10 miles south of Topeka called Auburn. Thats where I used to live 3 years ago. It didn't hit anything but farm land but it scared the bajeezuz out of us.
Speaking of the Tornado proof home, have you seen the deal on TV with the Hurricane proof home in Pensacola? I saw the home when I was there for IVAN. If you have not, this guys home got totalled by Hurricanes twice. So he engineered a home on his own that was circular. NO banks anywhere would give him $$ to rebuild since it had been destroyed twice before, and his engineering was not "approved" so he had to build the home on his own $$$. After Ivan, NOW the government is studying a way to make his home a prototype for all coastal homes in Florida.

[Laaz]

Looks like the utilities are all underground. Glad you made it through without any problems.

[Dean W.]

Glad your okay! Those are some incredible pictures.

Dean

[Kansas]

Laaz, you will get the most out of this....the tornado blew so strong that it blew the Amp peds over and yanked them out of the ground, which in turn ripped the cable in half.
That is a new development where most the cable is UG, but of coarse is fed by aerial cable which got blown away.
GOOD Over Time thou!!