Mike - glad to hear you're ok. I did a google image search and to say you were lucky is an understatement. Wow.
My own experience pales in comparison. I was in a movie theatre and kept hearing a loud racket up on the roof. Eventually it became so annoying, I get up to complain to management. When I exited the darkened theatre, I could see outside what must have been causing the noise. There was wind blowing like I'd never seen before. The small trees lining the parking lot were bent to the ground! Mind you, this is in New Hampshire. And it was a perfectly nice, sunny afternoon when we entered the theatre. Within minutes the wind was gone. We found out later that it was a
microburst. We'd never heard of it before, but it's apparently something like an inverted tornado. It's very centralized and massively powerful. The sad news is that the center of the storm(?), event(?) - was at a small park in Statham, NH. A group was having a picnic, and all huddled under covered picnic area when the wind came up. The wind collapsed their shelter, and some people died. Driving past that spot was awe inspiring. That picnic area was at the base of a tree covered hill. I mean BIG old evergreen trees, and the entire hillside was wiped clean. Amazing power.
