Anyone here ever been in one, or near one? I know there have been tornadoes near here where I live recently, but I seem to remember a sloo of them back in the 80's. There was one in 1981 that came through just about 5 miles or less north of me and took the roof off a shopping center and movie theater that I go to at least once a week. Tore through a "Sound of Music" store which is now Best Buy. There was another one in 1984 that went through yet ANOTHER shopping center near my cousin's apartment...took the roof off their pool house, and he was going to go swimming just before the sirens went off. Ended up huddled in a bathtub instead!

Then there was one in '86 that was caught live on tv on the 5 o'clock news from a helicopter from start to finish. I wish I would have taken the time to see that, but I was only 6 and although the storm was several miles north of me (near that same cousin's NEW house) even though it was in another county, they sounded the sirens for the whole 7 county area! This frightened me terribly and so I was behind a couch crying. :)

Said cousin was sitting on top of his garage with a buddy...drinking Pepsi and watching the whole thing which was about 8 blocks away!

Surely there must be some retro tornadoes and tornado drills...right?

I chase them. I'm a storm spotter

Well, it's not really "retro" but in spring 2004 tornadoes came through the South Chicago Suburbs, including Joliet, Wilmington, and a really bad one in Utica. The tornado that was in Joliet went right by my house - it ripped through my back yard and destroyed my dad's wishing well and some of our fence. Luckily, our house remained untouched - the roofs of the apartment building and a flower shop (both right next to us) got ripped off instead of ours. The tornado also damaged several historical houses on Western. Mom and I were watching Gilmore Girls that night, and Dad was in the basement watching the news. When we heard a train-like sound and the alarms we knew it was time to go to the basement. I prayed that all of my belongings would not get destroyed, because we felt the tornado rocking our house. We were lucky.

The only other tornado I remember during my childhood was the one in Plainfield, Illinois in 1992-93 that destroyed their school and several other buildings. We got a lot of rain in Joliet and the tornado brushed by us and damaged a few buildings, but Plainfield got the most damage.

YAY! So am I! I'm all excited because there's this big convention coming in April. Hee Haw!

My school conducted a lot of tornado drills, but we never encountered a tornado during class. The closest I've ever been to a tornado was back in 1999 when a tornado was 50 miles away from my house. Other than that, I haven't been affected by tornados.

This isn't retro or anything. Today was Indiana's day to test the Tornado Sirens. I knew about just didn't know what time they'd be going off. I babysit my Nephew while my sister works she lives right next to a Siren. My Nephew was in his crib playing about 11am and the Sirens went off. Talk about a little boy SCREAMIN HIS HEAD OFF. He was fine after a few mins.

Man tornado's are so retro!

One tore through a town 15 minutes south of me about 5 years ago.

I loved it because it completely changed the urban landscape of the environment, and it was completely closed up for almost a year. I would always go there to skateboard because you can't help but find interesting things to skate when looking in a disaster area.