Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Dexter residents spared in latest storm

   Besides damage to many homes, Dexter residents must be counting themselves lucky to have escaped last weeks storms with no injuries or deaths.
   Having never been in a tornado, it's hard to understand how fast one of these storms can be right in your neighborhood.
   The closest I have come to such force was going through a typhoon in the western Pacific. My ship, the U.S.S. Topeka (CLG-8) was steaming east heading to home port in Long Beach, California when we encountered the storm.
   We rode through one edge, then the eye and out the other side. In the company of several destroyers, it kind go got to be every ship for themselves.
   The rocking and rolling were to the point that you never knew if the ship was going to recover or keep right on going over.
   One wave was so powerful that it ripped heavy armor plating, rolling it up as if opened by a can opener. I don't care to ride out another typhoon.
   And I don't care to experience any tornado. The force and power of these storms is too awful to imagine.

No comments:

Post a Comment