Tornadoes by Joe R. Eagleman

Be Informed – Be Safe

This book is designed to provide everyone with all the essential information needed about tornadoes. It will give you the knowledge you need to react to the threat of tornadoes in the most effective way. Knowing more about how tornadoes form and knowing about the nature of tornadoes will help alleviate fear. Information on safest locations inside houses as well as outside can be very important in saving lives.

Knowing more about how tornado watches and warnings are made lets you know what to watch for on your cell phone. Knowing about and watching the parent thunderstorm of a tornado in real time can let you avoid them during the threat of severe weather.

Inside, you’ll discover:

• The science behind tornadoes—how they form and why they’re so unpredictable.
• Real-life survival stories and the lessons they teach.
• Detailed safety strategies for homes, schools, and workplaces.
• Tips on creating a tornado preparedness plan for your family.

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Excerpt from Tornadoes © Copyright 2025 Joe R. Eagleman

Chapter 1 PROPER RESPECT FOR THE TORNADO

It is no wonder that so many people have an unhealthy fear of tornadoes for they have been known to do many strange things. Early on the morning of March 3, 2020 an EF4 tornado hit the Cookeville, Baxter, Tennessee area where Jennifer Henson-Collins lived with her family. “I heard the siren go off and grabbed my kids and we took shelter in the laundry hallway. The tornado was in our back yard! The tornado picked us up with the hardwood floor and landed us 250 feet across the street! We lost everything! I could feel my guardian Angel right behind us hovering over us to protect us. We were hollering out to God for help and he helped us! We had minimum injuries. The scariest night of my life. We’re still trying to figure things out. Our lives have been forever changed since that early morning tornado.”

In Xenia, Ohio a man heard a knock at the door and got up to answer it. When he opened the door it was a tornado. He and his wife had time to seek shelter although others are not always so fortunate. The loud noise accompanying a tornado may be the first warning that a tornado is near.

In another tornado a man heard a loud noise and went to the door to see what it was. When he opened the door the door flew out of his hand and he followed along with it. His friend went to the door to see where the other man had gone and saw him flying over the treetops. The second man was also pulled out the door and picked up by the tornado. Both of them were carried about 200 feet. One unwrapped the other out of a bunch of wire and they crawled back to the house. A tornado has sufficient strength to lift very large objects and, therefore, it is not unusual for them to pick up people, animals or other things in their path.

In Mountain View, Missouri a tornado picked up a man and carried him up into the storm. While he was flying about within the tornado a car came floating by. He tried to grab the door to get inside but missed and was not able to catch it. The tornado set him down in a nearby field, anyway, without doing him any great harm.

In Kansas a man was picked up by a tornado and carried along for a time. He remembered that as he flew about, he grabbed at anything within his reach. After the tornado had set him down, he found that he was clutching a handful of coarse hair that could only have belonged to the tail of a horse that must have been up there with him.

Another tornado picked up a house from its foundation and blew a cow into the basement. It then set the house back down on the foundation. This left a major problem for the owners who had to get the live cow out of the basement after the tornado had passed. Cows are not usually accustomed to climbing stairs.

In Oklahoma a tornado sucked a man, who did not have his seat belt fastened, right out through the top of his convertible and set him down in a field some distance away. On another occasion, in Oklahoma, it picked up the whole car with the man still inside and set it down on the flat roof of a building. This building happened to have stairs leading down through the kitchen of a restaurant. The man was able to walk down the stairs through the restaurant saying to the employees, “I’ll be back tomorrow to get my car!” The people no doubt knew that there had been a tornado and knowing that he could only have come from the roof, thought the man was crazy.