One of the worst storms I've ever seen just went through town

Sportsdude · Jul 19 06 08:38

90mph wind gusts

Trees down everywhere

Temperature went from 100 degrees to 70 degrees in 5 mins.

Power was flicking on and off.

Airport was damaged.

Buildings collapsed

Trees down everywhere.

Place looks like a war zone.

Lise · Jul 19 06 08:38

Sounds bad. Got any pictures?

Sportsdude · Jul 19 06 08:41

I drove through it though, scared my mother. No I don't have any pics. Cell phone died while I was driving around. I could find some though...

Sportsdude · Jul 19 06 08:46

Here's some from a local news station:

[A href="http://forms.belointeractive.com/sharedcontent/datafiles/1153363906063_ORIGINAL_lighting_.jpg" target=_blank][img alt="Click to view original image" src="http://forms.belointeractive.com/sharedcontent/datafiles/1153363906063_LARGE_lighting_.jpg" width=300 border=0][/A]

[A href="http://forms.belointeractive.com/sharedcontent/datafiles/1153358366829_ORIGINAL_P1010156.jpg" target=_blank][img alt="Click to view original image" src="http://forms.belointeractive.com/sharedcontent/datafiles/1153358366829_LARGE_P1010156.jpg" width=300 border=0][/A]

[A href="http://forms.belointeractive.com/sharedcontent/datafiles/1153359912852_ORIGINAL_Storm-039.jpg" target=_blank][img alt="Click to view original image" src="http://forms.belointeractive.com/sharedcontent/datafiles/1153359912852_LARGE_Storm-039.jpg" width=300 border=0][/A]

[A href="http://forms.belointeractive.com/sharedcontent/datafiles/1153362236131_ORIGINAL_hrfd-lightning-2.jpg" target=_blank][img alt="Click to view original image" src="http://forms.belointeractive.com/sharedcontent/datafiles/1153362236131_LARGE_hrfd-lightning-2.jpg" width=300 border=0][/A]

Sportsdude · Jul 19 06 08:51

[A id=HyperLink1 href="http://ksdk5.4wmt.com/content/albums/00bcb784-9355-4c0d-8c7a-c38e5f00f33b/Original/ec8b3a7d-e930-48e9-b1cc-a569f775bd28.jpg" target=_blank]

[/A]

.

Sportsdude · Jul 19 06 08:53

.

kitten · Jul 19 06 09:07

That's horrible, Sportsdude. I'm glad you made it through safely.

Sportsdude · Jul 19 06 09:13

Yeah. What really makes it dangerous is that the cardinals had a baseball game today and the storm came right before the start of the game. 40,000 people didn't see this coming in the stadium apparently. They didn't tell the crowd that "hey theres tornadoes coming".

It was weird almost surreal. The wind came first started blowing things around then the lights on the main street here in my area started to flicker. Then the rain came. But suprisingly the tornado sirens didn't go off when they should have. Someone is going to have some explaining to do by tomorrow. The only way you knew it was coming was by the power flicking on and off.

kitten · Jul 19 06 09:15

And to think I was going to complain about the heat wave that's starting tomorrow. I'm glad I don't live in your part of the country.

Sportsdude · Jul 19 06 09:21

Yeah, I know. Here you get a bit of everything. Floods, tornadoes, hail, and during the winter you get the occasional blizzard.

You guys only have to really worry about global warming and rising oceans, occasional mud slide in North Van and West Van and the once in a while earthquake.

I'll say this. I rather deal with an earthquake that happens about every 10 or so years then having to deal with tornadoes every single year during the spring, summer, and fall. One of these days your number is up and you get hit with a tornado. They come close but haven't hit my city...yet.

[img style="FONT-SIZE: 12px" src="http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a89/eldeearr/Thunderlightning.gif" border=0 size="1"]

kitten · Jul 19 06 09:22

I thought that was your city. Where were those pics taken?

Sportsdude · Jul 19 06 09:28

Those were taken by either KMOV or KSDK news crews in Downtown Saint Louis. The first couple of pics that are mostly lightening and such are local viewers who sent in photos.

kitten · Jul 19 06 09:30

So you don't live right in St. Louis. I'm not asking where you do live, but I thought that you lived In the city.

Sportsdude · Jul 19 06 09:45

Nope. I live in the well off suburbs in an area called West County which is part of st. louis county which is not part of the city. The city and county split in 1910 I believe. The city which was big at the time didn't want to deal with the poor country folk. Well know the county has 1.5 million people in it and the city has barely 300,000. The city is mainly poor while the county is rich.

Can't find a good map but here's a funny one:

[img height=439 src="http://www.archstl.org/education/edumaps/2005county.gif" width=420 useMap=#countymapMapMap border=0]

I live north of I-44, south of I-64 and west of I-270. This map is about catholic education in st. louis and number 14 is right across the street from me.

Sportsdude · Jul 20 06 01:45

[FONT size=1] [/FONT]Ah the video I was looking for that some teens at the ball game at busch stadium shot.

[A onclick="window.DOH!(this.href,'videowindow','width=775,height=560,scrollbars=0,resizable');return false;" href="http://www.kmov.com/sharedcontent/VideoPlayer/videoPlayer.php?vidId=76736" s_oidt="0" s_oid="http://www.kmov.com/sharedcontent/VideoPlayer/videoPlayer.php?vidId=76736"]Cell phone video: Inside Busch Stadium [/A]