At about 8:30 Sunday morning an F2 strength tornado came through the North
Fork of Long Island. The NWS says it was 300 feet wide and touched down 3
times over a 3 mile stretch, the closest a half mile from my home. Weather
radio didn't go off cause the cleaning lady had unplugged it to plug in her
vacuum, and over the week the battery took over and drained (!!!!).
Squirrels had made their home directly above our bedroom in the attic so it
was their noise that woke me up at 8:30 and sent me outside in my robe to
try and see where they were getting in. The sky became very dark almost
immediately and all I can describe is an eerie calm. I just had a funny
feeling and immediately lowered the tower. Fortunately no one was hurt
although it picked many boats out of the marina and launched one of them 3
blocks, tore off a few roofs and the rest was all over water. If it came
through a little closer I guess my lowering the tower wouldn't have done
much good, but I figured it might be a thunderstorm. Many of you described
how you made disconnects for all cables and over the past week I finally
made them. Under this "field test" expecting a thunderstorm any second and
in the rain in my robe, I had all cables disconnected and grounded in
seconds, and the tower lowered in under a minute. A very weird morning. Has
anyone on the reflector had a tower lifted from a tornado? How far away did
it go?
Jim Mulvey
KS1A
Cutchogue, Long Island
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