SHARE YOUR TORNADO STORIES

Tornado veterans have started reporting in. So as we promised, here are their stories. We might do a little trimming to give more room for everyone, so keep them coming.

Young SAL SEMLER tells of the first success in his budding storm chaser career:

I am an 11-year-old boy who lives in NY. Our town got hit by an F0 tornado recently. This picture (at right) is of my house after the twister hit. I was playing outside with my friend when we heard a roar. All of a sudden the wind started picking up and I saw a tornado down the road going towards my house. My friend didn't know what it was but I did because I want to chase them when I grow up. We ran inside and into my basement. The windows started rattling and soon we heard a crack from outside. The big tree in our front yard had fallen down and hit our house. You can see it in the picture. A week later all of it was cleaned up, but it was an experience that I will never forget.

Former CSI team member Michael Ringley remembers the day he became a tornado spotter:

I was watching the local weather in my garage on Mother's Day in May 1998 when our local news issued a tornado warning for Summerville, S.C. which is nearby. I grabbed my police radio and Nikon Camera from my crime scene van and went outside in the front yard. I witnessed the tornado touch down in the Sangaree Subdivision in Berkeley County just outside Summerville. I saw a slanted fat vortex funnel with the sound of a freight train touch down and pick up debris from roofs and yards. I ordered my wife and my small daughter into the bathroom as I watched and called in the tornado on the police radio (I was a City of North Charleston Police Crime Scene Investigator). I watched and photographed the tornado from my front porch with my assigned Nikon camera and figure if I saw the cell tower just up the road uprooted, I would take cover. It fortunately went around my neighborhood and I called in over the radio that it was heading toward Charleston Southern University. I was later commended by a road Sergeant that I was right on the money as the vortex passed over the college without touching down.

After the storm passed, I got in my Crime Scene Van and assisted fire and rescue helping remove an elderly woman that was killed as the result of her mobile home rolling over. I also assisted with other responding police officer checking on others in the area on foot. This tornado claimed one life and I can honestly say I have "rode" out one hurricane, "Hugo" in 1989, and the "Mother's Day" tornado in 1998.

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