Does anyone remember the tornado event that occured in Washington DC and College Park, MD in 9/24/01? Not sure if anyone remembers, but man it is SCARY to see that picture on the Washington Press cover photo of a tornado funnel just a mile away from the Washington Monument. It then struck the Univ. of Maryland campus in College Park MD killing 2 people. I remembered last year talking to someone around this time in Delaware and he was a paramedic in Maryland in Anne Arundel County. He said he knew the father who lost their twin daughters in the College Park tornado which was a f3 and he was also responsible for transporting many victims of the La Plata tornado in April 2002. He said he lived in Waldorf at the time and he saw the destruction of the tornado that it left on the town. He said while he was transporting a victim to the hospital, a car went right into the 2nd floor window on the hospital and the helipad was unusable because a giant tree rested on it. He also saw the tornado in person and remembered spotting the twister on the Chesapeake while on the way back.
His story really creeped me out. I've never met somone who witnessed a tornado so close before. I'm so surprised how Maryland has gotten many strong, deadly twisters within the past years.
It's also kinda ironic how the tornado in DC back on 9/24/01 went also right through the damaged Pentagon. (right after 9/11) and it went from the F1 in Arlington, VA to a F3 in College Park.
But the La Plata tornado just gives me the chills. It was still an F3 when it passed over the Chesapeake crossing to the other side of MD. Gosh, I hope such a strong twister doesn't strike in Jersey, really worries me a lot. That incident happened not too far from here.
While on 4/28 I don't remember any thunderstorm activity there but I do remember being in a very violent thunderstorm back in 4/3/2002. My mother and I were shopping for furniture at a rural shopping centre, and the weather was just cloudy but I didn't expect any storms. When we were ready to catch the bus back home, a HUGE and i mean HUGE lightning strike struck maybe 3 feet from us. We ran into Burger King and ate a quick lunch there for 20 minutes. The weathet got worse though. The clouds blackened, there was a lot of thunder and lightning, it was windy and there was lots of heavy rain. I remembered trying to open the door so my mom and I could get to the bus stop, but all of a sudden our bag where we kept some leftover food just flew away, and the door just slammed open w/heavy rain coming in. I was scared as hell. I closed the door, and thought how such strong wind could do that. Then I opened the door again and we ran to the bus stop. There were lightning flashes everywhere and a deafening rumble of thunder. 10 minutes passed by, and the bus came. We quickly got in as the weather got worse. There is usually a lot of people on the trip, rain or shine, but when we got on the bus there were only 2 on board. There used to be an average of 20-30 on a rainy or sunny day.
Just felt like sharing these stories to you but gosh these are some thunderstorm experiences I've listened to and have been through. I know this post is really long but I hope someone can take the time to read this post and share their "worst" thunderstorm experience. I also have another story to share equally as scary, but I'll post it later on.
