The Tornado Project

On Sunday night, March 12, I had my first personal experience with being in the direct path of a tornado.

The sirens were blowing, as they do every time a twister is seen within my county. For all of my previous forty-six years, all that meant was that a tornado was close, not necessarily in a position to affect me personally. Well, Sunday night, my streak ended. My home was hit by a fast-moving twister that ripped through so fast that it was over in less than a minute.

I was fortunate. The damage was light. A couple miles farther down the path from me, homes were destroyed. My guess is that the twister was higher up in the air when it hit me.

Anyhoo, I have tornadoes on my mind today. So today's FamilyFirst pick is a slightly funky but highly informative site called Tornado Project Online. Here's their mission:

We are a small company that gathers, compiles, and makes tornado information available to weather enthusiasts, the meteorological community and emergency management officials in the form of tornado books, posters, and videos. There are many sites with tornado data, so we are giving the subject a little different twist, with tornado myths, tornado oddities, personal experiences, tornado chasing, tornado safety, and tornadoes in the past as well as more recent tornadoes. We will be adding new pages and have some unique ideas planned during the next few months, so come back often and check us out. You'll be glad you blew in!

There are lots of accounts of tornadoes (including the storm that spawned mine!), pictures of twisters and damage, tornado myths, fascinating strange tornado tales, and safety tips.

I was in a small closet with my wife, two teenagers, two dogs, and a cat. It was scary. But I think we made out pretty well. Enjoy today's FamilyFirst site, and be prepared for the next time the sirens go off in YOUR community.

http://www.tornadoproject.com

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