Interesting tornado experience

[srb08]

I was in Rogers Ar on Saturday, visiting my sister. About 1:30 on Sun morning, a tornado hit the town. Power was out and still is. The worst damage was 1/2 mile from where her house is. She lives on a private road in an Exclusive area with 10 large homes. There were large trees down and a lot of roads blocked. We couldn’t get out of her street or through a connecting street to get access to an open thoroughfare. My BIL and I started working on a tree blocking their road at around 7am. The only saw he has is a Stihl 211. Slowly, the other neighbors started showing up to help. Other than one ms251 and a battery powered easygo saw, all of the saws were 211’s, nothing with a bar more than 16” and most with 14” bars. Other than my BIL and I all of the guys were dressed in button down Oxford shirts and Khaki’s. Most had lace up dress shoes or tennis shoes and one guy was wearing Feragamo loafers. Watching them cut up trees was worth the price of admission. I couldn’t count the number of pinched bars. Most had chains that threw chips the consistency of flour. They worked their asses off but really had no idea what they were trying to do or how to do it. I was really wishing I had one of my saws with me. I could have accomplished more in 10 minutes than these guys did in an hour. I finally suggested a plan and they, not having a clue, were quick to abopt it. One of the neighbors with horses, eventually showed up with a small Kubota with a FEL, which really helped. These were all very successful wealthy guys, in their 60’s-70’s who had never had to deal with something like this. They couldn’t call anyone to take care of it. They worked hard, didn’t complain and after getting a little guidance, succeeded in getting the job done with what they had. We worked hard for nine hours to clear their street and two places on the adjoining road to get egress out. We also cleared trees from two of the elderly neighbors driveways to allow them to get out. Turned out to be a really good bunch of guys. I really enjoyed working with them.
Below are a couple pics I took.
The first is my sisters pool.
Second is a tree blocking one of the elderly neighbors driveway. That’s my 70 yr old retired surgeon BIL getting ready to operate on the tree.

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[Steve]

I've had two close calls from tornadoes. Amazing how everyone can come together so quickly to help one another get the job done.

 

[EFSM]

Here in southern Illinois, we have had a few close shaves with tornadoes this year so far. A few weeks ago one went through Harrisburg, about 25 miles north of us. Then last night one went about 10 miles north of us. We had some straight-line wind damage, twigs and dead trees. On a more humorous note, the port-a-john at the construction site just up the hill got blown over. Probably no one in it at 9:00 Sunday night, but what an experience if someone was!

 

[Ronaldo]

Good that you were there and ready to help with a plan. Would have been great to have your saw AND your sharpening files to get there's cutting some chips.

 

[Dustin4185]

Glad you all are okay! I’ve helped on disaster cleanups and that seems to be the case. Most home owners are ill prepared for situations like that. We had some major storms roll through last night and the first thing I did this morning before heading to town was throw a saw in the truck. I had to clear a few trees out of the road so we could get out. My wife’s sister and BIL came over and was talking an out the damage and I said we had to cut out way out this morning. He was baffled the county road department hadn’t took care of it. I asked him if he had a saw in case something like that happened in their subdivision. I knew there were large oaks on both entrances that would shut down egress there. He hasn’t even ran a saw so today was a learning experience for him!