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  • 2 days ago my family and I almost died

    2 days ago I was walking home from downtown with my girlfriend and our 15 months old child in his baby carriage when suddenly, after 2 months of record heat, it started raining and lightening when we just had entered the central park of Graz, which we had to cross. We knew that should happen that day or the next, but there were not much hints that it would come so soon.
    At that point I already knew we'd come into heavy rain, we put a rain cover over the baby carriage and my girlfriend opened the umbrella, me getting completely wet, well I don't care much about rain. A wind set in and I told Katja that we should walk a bit faster, before the wind becomes stronger. All of a sudden (all this happened within less than 2 minutes!), a storm started and I saw smaller branches coming down from the trees and the horse-chestnuts falling down. I shouted at Katja to run and I ran with the baby towards the end of the park, where there was a roof for people wating for public transportation.It was still scary there, because it's at a highly frequented street and those idiots continued to drive past us at 50-60km/h. I only got hit by minor branches on my way, the baby cried in panic and Katja didn't come after us. Looking back I saw bigger branches coming down and decided to run back, leaving the baby with some people I didn't know who also seeked shelter there from the storm ("where should they go in that storm?" I thought). Luckily I didn't have to go back far when Katja came - with a completely destroyed umbrella, broken by the branches falling down on her.
    Only few minutes later, the wind was completely gone, in the news they said it were Tornado-like whirles that struck Graz with speeds around 115km/h I don't know, people in Tornado areas will maybe laugh at that speed, but we don't have Tornados in Graz, damn it and we were completely unprepared. On our way back home we saw in an alley a car that was severly hit by a falling tree while driving (the driver being hurt badly) and yesterday I went back to see how the park looks like and it was horrible. Right where we wlaked there was a fallen tree and several huge branches. Considering that the tornado lasted only, say, 3 minutes we were pretty close to being hit.

    Just felt that I have to share this experience with you, thanks for reading.
    "The world is too small in Vorarlberg". Austrian ex-vice-chancellor Hubert Gorbach in a letter to Alistar [sic] Darling, looking for a job...
    "Let me break this down for you, fresh from algebra II. A 95% chance to win 5 times means a (95*5) chance to win = 475% chance to win." Wiglaf, Court jester or hayseed, you judge.

  • #2
    Good to hear you made it through ok.
    I'm building a wagon! On some other part of the internets, obviously (but not that other site).

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    • #3
      Glad that no one was hurt.

      Although wind breaking branches and trees isn't that unusual.
      “Now we declare… that the law-making power or the first and real effective source of law is the people or the body of citizens or the prevailing part of the people according to its election or its will expressed in general convention by vote, commanding or deciding that something be done or omitted in regard to human civil acts under penalty or temporal punishment….” (Marsilius of Padua, „Defensor Pacis“, AD 1324)

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      • #4
        Only few minutes later, the wind was completely gone, in the news they said it were Tornado-like whirles that struck Graz with speeds around 115km/h I don't know, people in Tornado areas will maybe laugh at that speed, but we don't have Tornados in Graz, damn it and we were completely unprepared.
        No, that sounds about right for a not very strong tornado.
        I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891

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        • #5
          Good to hear you made it.

          I had a mini-tornado in my garden one year ago. Heavy branches had flewn 50 meters, while light branches had been lifted over my house and landed on the street 150 meters away. It was a mess to clean up, I can assure you.
          So get your Naomi Klein books and move it or I'll seriously bash your faces in! - Supercitizen to stupid students
          Be kind to the nerdiest guy in school. He will be your boss when you've grown up!

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          • #6
            Good job staying alive, hope your family's ok!
            "I work in IT so I'd be buggered without a computer" - Words of wisdom from Provost Harrison
            "You can be wrong AND jewish" - Wiglaf :love:

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            • #7
              We had a gale last week and one unlucky couple driving in their car were killed by a fallen branch.
              I'm building a wagon! On some other part of the internets, obviously (but not that other site).

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by HershOstropoler
                Although wind breaking branches and trees isn't that unusual.
                No, it's not. But finding myself in a park when it happens is.

                No, that sounds about right for a not very strong tornado.
                Wow, now I can brag "I live in a tornado area, you know"

                It was a mess to clean up, I can assure you.
                My mum is a flower and generally plant maniac and owns dozens of potted plants. Better, she owned, because there are few pots left and the plants are scattered around the garden.
                "The world is too small in Vorarlberg". Austrian ex-vice-chancellor Hubert Gorbach in a letter to Alistar [sic] Darling, looking for a job...
                "Let me break this down for you, fresh from algebra II. A 95% chance to win 5 times means a (95*5) chance to win = 475% chance to win." Wiglaf, Court jester or hayseed, you judge.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by elijah
                  Good job staying alive, hope your family's ok!
                  Thanks, we are. Just the boy instantly started to cry today, when I walked through the rain with him today.
                  "The world is too small in Vorarlberg". Austrian ex-vice-chancellor Hubert Gorbach in a letter to Alistar [sic] Darling, looking for a job...
                  "Let me break this down for you, fresh from algebra II. A 95% chance to win 5 times means a (95*5) chance to win = 475% chance to win." Wiglaf, Court jester or hayseed, you judge.

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                  • #10
                    Graz! My machine set it to Tokyo!


                    Seriously, glad you're all ok

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                    • #11
                      Glad you're ok.

                      The last mini-tornado here was last week, killed a few people under trees. The one before that, though, was over a year ago.
                      Solver, WePlayCiv Co-Administrator
                      Contact: solver-at-weplayciv-dot-com
                      I can kill you whenever I please... but not today. - The Cigarette Smoking Man

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Wernazuma III


                        Wow, now I can brag "I live in a tornado area, you know"
                        And write a book: "How I survived the Styrian Tornado of 2003"
                        “Now we declare… that the law-making power or the first and real effective source of law is the people or the body of citizens or the prevailing part of the people according to its election or its will expressed in general convention by vote, commanding or deciding that something be done or omitted in regard to human civil acts under penalty or temporal punishment….” (Marsilius of Padua, „Defensor Pacis“, AD 1324)

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                        • #13
                          Sounds pretty wild! I'm glad to hear you made through it. Kind of funny, your life can end at any minute and you wouldn't know it before hand.. I guess you just have to enjoy every minute of it and not dwell on crap, so it's good times the most of it. Also kind of weird to think, you know if you never came back from that situation, would we have ever known about it? Maybe not.. well, anyway good to hear you and your family is ok, that's the most important thing.
                          In da butt.
                          "Do not worry if others do not understand you. Instead worry if you do not understand others." - Confucius
                          THE UNDEFEATED SUPERCITIZEN w:4 t:2 l:1 (DON'T ASK!)
                          "God is dead" - Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" - God.

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Pekka
                            Also kind of weird to think, you know if you never came back from that situation, would we have ever known about it? Maybe not...
                            Scary, isn't it. In a history forum I frequently visit(ed), there was some guy who stopped posting all of a sudden. Well, such things happen, for whatever reasons. Some 2 weeks later though his mother posted that he had died in hospital after a long disease (of which we didn't know anything) and wanted his mother to inform the people of the forum.
                            "The world is too small in Vorarlberg". Austrian ex-vice-chancellor Hubert Gorbach in a letter to Alistar [sic] Darling, looking for a job...
                            "Let me break this down for you, fresh from algebra II. A 95% chance to win 5 times means a (95*5) chance to win = 475% chance to win." Wiglaf, Court jester or hayseed, you judge.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Damn.

                              That's almost as bad as that time when I receive a phone call from a friend, informing me that a mutual friend had just died of a heart attack. He was a class below us and had just graduated from university.

                              First, I was confused. Then I was bewildered, then shocked. Having a close look at mortality at that brash young age was most unsettling.
                              (\__/) 07/07/1937 - Never forget
                              (='.'=) "Claims demand evidence; extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence." -- Carl Sagan
                              (")_(") "Starting the fire from within."

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