Truck Driving Jobs

bdinaz · #1 03-26-2007, 03:55 AM

Talk about scary, I was at the northern part of that area along the NM/TX border that was hit by 13 tornadoes this past friday. I had run out of hours around 4pm and stopped at one of those picnic areas along US 54 about half way between Tucumcari and Dalhart, TX. It was ok at first but after sitting there for an hour, the clouds were really starting to act weird. The clouds were moving in a northeast direction(from what I could tell) and moving pretty fast. There was one spot right above me where as the clouds moved passed that area, they would dip down and then back up the other side, kind of like an upside version of how water would move over a log thats laying across a stream bed. Right before this area I could see the bottom of clouds moving toward the left and a little passed that area the clouds were moving toward the right. I'm kept switching from the driver seat to passenger trying to get a better look and praying oh please hurry up and pass over me clouds, luckily a tornado did not form where I was as there would have been no where for me to get shelter, not even a ditch to lay in. I kinda joked to my dispatcher to calm my nerves when I called him that about the only thing I could do was to buckle up my seat belt and hang on. All night long as I laid in my bunk the weather would seem to calm down, I would relax and then all of a sudden the wind would pick up and rock my truck back and forth for 20 minutes. I wasnt able to actually fall asleep until around 1:30am.

Have any of you experienced tornadoes in your truck and what would be the best way to secure any safety if there was not a storm shelter to go to.

Slimland · #2 03-26-2007, 04:05 AM

I was about to make the same thread, but about Lubbock!

I was working on a fence today, and noticed a funnel cloud, so I told my brother in law, and he said it looked like it to him also.
The next thing you now it was on the news. It was just 4 mile's from my house.

After finishing up for the day, I had to go to town, well comming back it was extreemly flooded, and I got sucked into the ditch. And now my car is ruined and still there My son had to get on the roof, this suck's!

Jackrabbit379 · #3 03-26-2007, 03:41 PM

Hey Slimland, how much rain did yall get over the weekend? Fill up your rain guage? :P Idalou was under water last night. On the west side of Idalou, where the highway curves, both sides of the highway was under water. Of course, it always floods right there, anyway. :P It started raining on me when I was coming through the caprock, and it rained all the way into Lubbock. Going back, it finally quit raining somewhere east of Guthrie.

Slimland · #4 03-27-2007, 02:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jackrabbit379

Hey Slimland, how much rain did yall get over the weekend? Fill up your rain guage? :P Idalou was under water last night. On the west side of Idalou, where the highway curves, both sides of the highway was under water. Of course, it always floods right there, anyway. :P It started raining on me when I was coming through the caprock, and it rained all the way into Lubbock. Going back, it finally quit raining somewhere east of Guthrie.

5 &1/2 Inches,, And it is raining right now.

Towed my car home today, Drained the oil, and it had about 2-3 quarts of water in it. Flushed the engin, and some other stuff. Now tommorrow, put the new plugs in and pray it starts and runs. Hope it does, it is the only vehicle we own, and can't afford another!

Top it all off, last night our well decided to have Electricale problems, Got that fixed today. I am sure that will cost and arm and a leg.

Jackrabbit379 · #5 03-27-2007, 02:41 PM

Ahh man! Yeah, I heard that yall got close to 5". Man, sorry about the car. Hopefully, you will get it back up, and running.

Mr. Ford95 · #6 03-27-2007, 08:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bdinaz

Have any of you experienced tornadoes in your truck and what would be the best way to secure any safety if there was not a storm shelter to go to.

Get out of your truck and get as low as you can, even if it means trying to spread eagle on the ground because no ditch or low lying area is near. The worst part of a tornado is the debris field, it's what kills the majority of people, not the actual tornado itself. That 80K lb truck can become an 80K lb ballistic missle in a tornado even if the tornado doesn't give a direct hit and offers zero chance of survival when a small sliver of wood can pierce sheet metal when travelling 150 mph.