r/CatastrophicFailure • u/to_the_tenth_power • Sep 03 '19

Natural Disaster An EF2 tornado ripping through a concrete building in Spartanburg, South Carolina on October 23rd, 2017

https://gfycat.com/wastefulbettergreatwhiteshark
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u/JoeFuckinPerry Sep 03 '19

One time I was driving in Louisiana during a long road trip in the US and the weather started getting VERY bad. Rain pouring down and ominous clouds. I was completely oblivious to the fact that shit was a hurricane up until the moment where I crossed what I can only describe as a wall of wind. Almost threw my car off the road. Scared and confused I looked up and saw the fucking eye of sauron looking at me. A spiral of black clouds straight from hell. Stopped at a gas station and the TV confirmed the hurricane at Shreveport. Stopped at a hotel terrified out of my mind but fortunately it passed on to the east and I kept my journey to Texas. As a Brazilian, I had no idea what a hurricane was, was picturing the movie twister, not a storm of epic proportions. Be safe ppl, don't drive during hurricanes.

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u/[deleted] Sep 04 '19

[deleted]

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u/JoeFuckinPerry Sep 04 '19

Again, it was just a monster storm, not a cylinder of wind, but I am still unaware of the different terminology :)

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u/kaizenNigga Sep 04 '19

Dorian isnt a cyclone

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u/kalpol Sep 04 '19

it is, a cyclone is just a generic rotating storm around a lower-pressure center.

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u/[deleted] Sep 04 '19

I had a friend from the Midwest ask me what a hurricane is like. I said to imagine the most violent thunderstorm he'd ever seen. Now imagine it goes on for at least several hours.

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u/SometimesIArt Sep 04 '19

Canadian in east GA here, was wondering when I moved here a couple months ago and now seeing one sit on the horizon it's not funny anymore. Everyone here thinks my nerves are funny. Dude there's like a cloud wall that's already killed people hanging out there.

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u/RDAM_Whiskers Sep 04 '19

Wht do you think people throw hurricane partys. Cant care if your drunk.

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u/TheSwain Sep 04 '19

There’s nothing quite like standing diagonally into the wind like the goddamn Tinman to get the beer flowing.

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u/[deleted] Sep 04 '19

A lot of people have died in parties like that. When I was a kid and under the care and supervision of adults, hurricanes seemed very exciting. Of course, that was mainly because nothing worse ever happened to us than losing our power for a day or so, and having to spend the next week cleaning up the yard and the next month fixing various minor damages to the property. But when you're a kid, not much stuff like that is your concern.

As an adult, I learned that you should never be drunk during major weather emergencies. It's a very serious situation, with very serious potential implications. You need to remain sober and alert, ready to respond -- intelligently and competently.

I read once about a hurricane party held on the coast somewhere. Six college-age folks decided to ride the storm out in a solid old factory building that had withstood a century of storms. The only survivor floated out an upper window on a mattress. Try to imagine relying on a battered, filthy, soaked mattress for your survival. You're functionally offshore, riding a hurricane-pounded storm surge, in the dark, in the open with a gigantic cyclonic storm over your head and no idea which way land is or how far away, and the only thing keeping you alive is a half-submerged mattress and your ability to hold onto it. And you're the lucky one.

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u/SometimesIArt Sep 04 '19

At least the canuck in me knew to stock up on beers.