LR - The Storm..Please check in.

[Ciarlariello, Keith W]

Just to let you know how we faired in the storm.
Jenny had her horse riding class cancelled and everyone arrived home approx
30 min prior to the first rain.
Rain turned into peat sized hail, then into golfball sized, and finally
baseball sized.
No apparent damage to the roof, siding or windows, however it sounded like
someone with a sledge hammer pounding away.
The whole thing was over inside of an hour.  We have a 3.5" dia ball of ice,
currently in the freezer as a memento.
I thought is was quite impressive to see these meteorites of ice hit the
driveway and shatter into tiny pieces.
Jenny was scared to death when she heard the news reports about the tornado;
sensationalism has an effect on a 9 year old girl.
It ended up passing within several miles of us and the wind spattered the
siding with bits of mud.

     Wilhelm von Oldenburg


USA Today, 29 march 2000

                  FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - After hustling his frantic
customers down 35
                  floors, Sean Finley described the tornado that struck his
high-rise restaurant
                  this way: ''Imagine a large bomb going off.'' 

                  Two tornadoes roared through Fort Worth shortly after the
evening rush hour
                  Tuesday, overturning cars and sending broken glass and
debris raining onto
                  city streets. 

                  Four people were killed in the storms and more than 100
injured. Dozens of
                  people were homeless today and some 30,000 across one of
the state's largest
                  metropolitan areas remained without power. 

                  Authorities closed off the central business district and
urged people who work
                  downtown to stay home. 

                  Mayor Kenneth Barr said rescuers would go floor-by-floor
through buildings
                  to assess damage and safety. They had the aid of the Texas
Urban Search
                  Rescue Team, created after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing
to respond to
                  catastrophes. 

                  Two people died in one of the tornadoes, said Lt. Kent
Worley, a fire
                  department spokesman. One was crushed inside a collapsed
building, and
                  another was hit by flying debris. 

                  Strong winds blew two other people from their car into the
Trinity River.
                  Worley said they were missing and presumed dead. No names
were released.

                  The storms struck shortly after 6 p.m., with one tornado
churning to the north
                  and the other through downtown Fort Worth, a city of
480,000 some 30 miles
                  west of Dallas. 

                  ''The wind was blowing so fast and all the people were
shouting, 'We don't
                  want to die, we don't want to die,''' said Sanu Piya, a
worker at Star City Fina
                  gas station and convenience store, who huddled with others
inside the
                  downtown store as the tornado passed. 

                  Finley said the storms destroyed Reata, a popular
restaurant he managed on
                  the top floor of the 35-story Bank One building. 

                  ''It got pretty hectic in here,'' said owner Mike Evans,
who helped patrons and
                  employees hurry down the stairs to safety. ''We were doing
some major
                  yelling to get people out of there.'' 

                  Robert and Wendi Sparlins were eating dinner downtown to
celebrate their
                  second wedding anniversary. 

                  ''The windows starting popping, people were running trying
to get under the
                  table,'' Sparlins said. ''I saw a chair in the straight
line winds going down the
                  street.'' 

                  One side of the Calvary Cathedral International suffered
major damage.
                  Pastor Bob Nichols said his damaged church looks like it
had been ''in a war
                  zone.'' 

                  About 175 people stayed the night at an American Red Cross
shelter at Will
                  Rogers Coliseum, most of them elderly, manager Richard
Fall said. The
                  American Red Cross also set up shelters at in Grand
Prairie and River Oaks.
                  Police said 82 people in Arlington were left homeless. 

                  Jeffery Moore, a forecaster with the National Weather
Service office in Fort
                  Worth, said another round of severe weather was possible
today. 

                  ''This is spring in Texas. Unfortunately, spring in Texas
means we do have a
                  chance for severe weather all too often,'' he said. 


	----------
	From: 	Padraig Ruad O'Maolagain[SMTP:padraig_ruad at irishbard.com]
	Reply To: 	loch-ruadh at ansteorra.org
	Sent: 	Wednesday, March 29, 2000 2:04 PM
	To: 	loch-ruadh at ansteorra.org
	Subject: 	Re: LR - The Storm..Please check in.

	Padraig here.  Sorry about not checking in earlier, but our phone
was only working off and on after the storm last night.  We got a lot of
rain, a little hail and a lot of wind at our house - Lorriane and I were
home, where we stayed.  Dana called me just before all hell broke loose and
we agreed that driving out to the Springfaire planning meeting was not a
good idea.

	Amber was still at work in the Tandy Technology building (right next
to the Tandy Towers) and on the phone with a customer when they gathered
everyone up and went down to the bottom floor.  It was some time before she
was able to get to a phone and get through to me, during which time I was
going frantic.  They kept everyone there for a couple of hours before
getting the okay to let them go home.  The subway from the parking lot was
out, due to the trains getting knocked off the tracks, but apparently the
big Tandy parking lot was spared the worst of it, as there was no visible
damage to her car.

	Paul didn't fare quite as well.  He had just had dinner with
Lorraine and her fiance, and was headed back to Dallas.  The hail caught him
on NW Loop 820 and pounded the hell out his car, smashing the windshield.
He managed to get under an overpass and waited out the rest of it there
before getting a ride to a gas station from where he called me.  I picked
him up and we went back to his car, then he followed me home at 40 miles an
hour with emergency flashers on.  He's trying to arrange for a rental car
now while waiting for the insurance adjustor to arrive and do an estimate on
his 4-month-old Ford Focus.

	Has anyone talked to any of the MacFerguses?  I'd heard there was
some damage in White Settlement, and hope it wasn't anywhere near Ken's
house.  Who else hasn't checked in yet?  Any word on Zahara and Hakon?

	Thank you, God, that the storm was no worse than it was, and that so
far all of our folk appear to be okay.

	Padraig

	--
	Nunc Est Bibendum
	**********
	Politicians prefer unarmed peasants.
	--
	
============================================================================
	Go to http://lists.ansteorra.org/lists.html to perform mailing list
tasks.

============================================================================
Go to http://lists.ansteorra.org/lists.html to perform mailing list tasks.