Take cover NOW!

 

          Good evening, 919 Gang.

 

   KEN WILLIAMS writes:

          Trust me, Leslie Wolf Branscomb, take tornado warnings seriously! Always run to a place without windows, preferably to a basement, and worry about things falling on top of you as well as broken glass and debris that turn into deadly missiles.

          I worked at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram from 1994 until 2005, at which time I joined the Union-Tribune. I have an unforgettable set of memories from the destructive tornado that struck downtown Fort Worth in 2000.

          As a slot editor, I worked the 4 p.m. to midnight shift. I ended up being the bad-weather monitor for the second-floor newsroom, probably because I had purchased emergency weather radios for my work desk and for my home.

          In the early evening on March 28, 2000, a cluster of 10 tornadoes formed in the vast plains west of Fort Worth and headed east toward the Fort Worth-Arlington-Dallas metroplex. The Fort Worth newsroom went on high alert, and our satellite offices in Bedford and Arlington were also prepared to dispatch reporters and photographers in case any of the twisters touched down.

          I was closely monitoring the emergency weather radio, and giving verbal reports to the newsroom. Little did we know that one of the tornados was heading for downtown Fort Worth. After a touchdown in the River Oaks community, the twister gained strength and became an F3 tornado with winds between 158 and 206 mph. Suddenly, the radio crackled the dire warning: Everyone in downtown Fort Worth take cover NOW! I yelled across the room, and the newsroom brass ordered everyone to calmly march down the stairwell into the former printing plant area, several floors below street level.

          I grabbed my cell phone and keys, and headed downstairs. As we all paced in the musty subterranean space, we had no communication with the outside world. No cell phone service. No idea what was happening outside.

          We suddenly heard a loud swooshing sound ... it was the tornado jumping over our building. When the "all clear" was given, we emerged from our safe place and walked outside to see the damage. OMG. It looked like a war zone. The twister spared our office, but slammed into the Bank One tower (see photo below), the tallest building in downtown Fort Worth that was across the street from the newsroom. It was a shiny glass tower that I saw out my office window a hundred times a night.

 Two people died, dozens of folks were injured, and the F3 twister caused a half-billion dollars in damage.

But the night was young. As we're rushing to cover the big story while also trying to contact our loved ones to make sure they were OK, another F3 twister was headed for Arlington, to our east. My partner and our two dogs were home in Arlington that night, and that tornado was headed toward them. Of course, cell phone service was overwhelmed, and it took forever to learn that my family and home were spared.

          I have nothing but praise for our staff's professionalism under extreme duress, and we produced an outstanding paper that night with eight full pages covering the extreme weather events. Kudos to the staff photographer who bravely - or foolishly? - went to the top of our building to document the approaching twister. The stunning photo was featured prominently on the front cover. He ran to safety before the twister jumped the building.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Fort_Worth_tornado_outbreak

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hpeIGmbJxE

 

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HANNAH HUI-WONG writes:

          Responding to Leslie Wolf Branscomb's post about tornado warning in San Diego. I was also born and raised in San Diego. Outside of seeing the movies "Wizard of Oz" and "Twister," anything having to do with a tornado would have been on my "never have I ever" list. That is, until my family moved to the greater St. Louis area; we live in St. Charles County, just west of the Missouri River. Every first of the month there is a tornado drill; an air raid-sounding alarm goes off for 3 minutes. Both my sons had regular tornado drills at school; they said everyone just sits in the hallways.

All our high schools have interior halls and mostly a large, two-story building, a basement, and various wings. One of the newest elementary schools in our district, built in 2016, has a storm shelter (required by Missouri law) that can house all the students and staff, and can "withstand up to an EF4 tornado." Today, March 31, the greater metropolitan St. Louis area is in a "Level 3" severe weather alert. The local meteorologist, whom I follow, has been giving updates since Monday. Level 3...wow, it's a first for me! I've gotten used to level 1, and maybe an occasional level 2, but that's usually for the more rural areas of the region, but Level 3 has everyone talking. At 10 a.m. today, the warning was upgraded to Level 4 (out of 5). At least this isn't a cause for a run on milk, bread, and eggs, like a winter storm watch.

          The most unsettling tornado warning I've experienced here, the sirens sounded at 1:45 a.m.! We woke our two boys, and everyone grabbed a pillow and blanket and went to our basement. We've learned a bit from neighbors about looking at the color of the sky, but that's during the day! The local meteorologists are good at showing the colorful radar maps, describing the path of an approaching storm, and listing on the screen, the times the storm would be close to the different towns or cities. They would then announce, for example, "O'Fallon (where we live) residents you should start heading to your basement or safe spot in about 7 minutes." It's very helpful. In addition to having the local news on, our smart phones will give us information, and there is a weather radio that can be purchased at a local supermarket or hardware store. Generally in the spring, local weather teams will visit the area supermarkets and help with tuning the radios properly.

For now, it's going to be a very interesting late afternoon and evening. All after school sports and activities have been canceled, and all buildings will close at 4 p.m. If and when a tornado siren sounds, we'll be ready. Oh, springtime in Missouri. Times like this makes me miss San Diego, but I've heard there's been lots of rain. Lots... Sigh, when it rains in San Diego, it usually ends up raining around here a few days later. I guess it will be a windy and soggy start to April.

 

          REBER: Hannah, please write and tell us how this works out.

 

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PRESTON TUREGANO writes:

I enjoyed Glenn Grant's photos of the former hideaway of the 1950s/60s Frank Sinatra "Rat Pack." The interior pics clearly show that money can support bad taste, especially displaying art.

          As for Leslie Branscomb's tornado report, it scared me more than current U-T management.

As for slaughtered bison, good grief. Was that really necessary? That criticism is directed at the perpetrators, not Steve Prosinski.

 

Jack J. Reber

P.O. Box 2239

Ramona, CA 92065-0938

United States

Tornado protocol

 

          Good evening, 919 Gang.

 

          LESLIE WOLF BRANSCOMB writes:

          A dispatch re: San Diego weather:

We've had more rain and crazy weather in the last few months in San Diego than I ever remember, and I was born and raised here. Today was interesting, to say the least.

          Shortly before noon, I was sitting in my 16th floor office in a downtown San Diego highrise with floor-to-ceiling windows, when my co-worker -- recently relocated from St. Louis -- pops into my office with phone in hand and says, somewhat urgently, "All of San Diego is under a tornado warning. What's our tornado protocol?"

          Me: "Our ... WHAT?" Him: "Tornado protocol! I don't remember this from my new employee training." Me: "Well, um, we do fire drills, earthquake drills, active shooter drills, but ..." Meanwhile, colleague in the office next to mine (like me, born and raised in La Jolla) chimes in, "Yeah, what are we supposed to do?" Me: "Get away from the windows maybe?"

          Co-worker sprints down the hall to see our operations manager, comes back frustrated, muttering, "We really should have a tornado protocol." I look out my north-facing office window at the dark clouds and say, "Well, I've never seen a tornado in person, but based on what I've seen in the movies, this doesn't look like one." Co-worker, now aggravated, says, "Because it might be coming from the other direction and you can't see it from this window."

          That never occurred to me. When you're in a hurricane or earthquake, and I've been in both more than once, you're IN it. It doesn't sneak up on you from behind while you're looking the wrong way. While we were having this inane conversation, the threat passed, to be replaced shortly by this view. (No, those aren't ghosts or UFOs in the upper left, it's the reflection of my office ceiling lights in the window.)

 

           While checking on Twitter for the latest from the San Diego National Weather Service office, I saw a comment posted by a Midwestern native, with some helpful advice. First thing to do in a tornado warning: get into a tornado shelter. (Ok, not happening, we don't have those here.) Second best thing to do, get into a root cellar or basement. (Also not happening, though I guess we could have gone to our underground parking garage, but if the power failed due to, you know, tornado, we might be stuck in the elevators for a very long time.) Third piece of advice: if you can't get to a storm shelter or basement, find an interior room away from windows (such as a bathroom), hunker down, cover yourself with a blanket and hold onto something sturdy -- and she added, helpfully, "You know, like you do in an earthquake." Okay, thanks, but that's not really what we do in an earthquake, since there is no early-warning siren that gives you the chance to get a blanket, let alone get to another room.

          So, this wasn't an idle threat. In the last week or so tornadoes have touched down in LA, the San Francisco Bay area, and in Cambria in the middle coastal part of California. According to NWS, their radar actually detected swirling clouds forming near Valley Center, which prompted the warning. They asked on Twitter for people to report any damage and post photos, but as far as I saw an actual tornado did not develop.

          This won't be news to any of you who have lived in "tornado alley," but for Californians: I learned today from my co-worker that a tornado "watch" means conditions are ripe for a tornado, so stand by, be aware. A tornado "warning" means a tornado is imminent, and has either been spotted visually or by radar, and you are supposed to take cover immediately (as opposed to standing around for 10 minutes debating the best course of action, as we did.)

          Also, it is called a "funnel cloud" until it touches land, then it becomes a "tornado." Though I've never seen one in person, I know we've had a few waterspouts in the ocean offshore which have come onto land in coastal San Diego a few times to wreak havoc. Strange times we live in.

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          GLENN GRANT writes:

With so many in this group writing about their vacation adventures, I thought you might be interested in what I posted to some of the Facebook groups I belong to on our visit to Frank Sinatra’s secluded hideaway, Villa Maggio, above Palm Desert, during our February trip to Palm Springs Modernism week: I’ve included just a few of many photos.

We lucked out and got apersonal tour from Janna Ritz Titenbaum, daughter of the property’s owner the last 20 or so years, Naomi Ritz, widow of Harry Ritz of the Ritz Brothers comedy team popular in the ‘30s through ‘60s. Janna is a real treat, growing up in a showbiz family. She seems to know everyone in the industry and had lots of juicy info about the house and the business. She has lived in the villa off and on with her mother, who is selling because of advanced age.

          Janna was at the villa because their listing agent, Markus Canter, and I work for the same real estate company. (Incidentally, Markus’s grandfather founded Canter’s Deli in the Fairfax district of L.A.). The villa was open for the very first time to the public during Modernism Week, and tours sold out online in a half-hour. Around 400 people visited it over a Friday and Saturday. Markus invited some of his clients and friends, and Janna invited some of her friends, to see it on Sunday.

          The drive to the villa is harrowing, up a curving, swerving two-lane mountain road for 11 miles above Palm Desert, then another mile on a barely paved road, and another two miles of dirt/gravel road. But it was well worth it. We also lucked out because we just missed a motorcycle accident that closed the mountain road in both directions for about an hour.

          This is the secluded property where Sinatra got away from it all to relax and party with “The Rat Pack” and his buddies, male and female. Janna said he hadintroduced her parents, and they remained friends until both Harry’s and Frank’s deaths. Naomi bought the house on a whim because it had slipped through the hands of several previous owners who let it fall into disrepair. She has renovated much of it, aiming to keep it as much as possible the way Frank left it.

          The Villa is at an elevation of about 4,200 feet, so it’s always around 20 degrees cooler than the desert floor. There are very few other homes around, but when Frank built it in 1971 for about $1 million, there were even fewer homes. It took three years to complete, all of it personally supervised by Frank. There is a helipad for quick access, but it has not been relicensed. A nearby fire station and the sheriff have used it for emergencies. A propane- backup generator can power the entire property should the electricity go out.

We expected the décor to be more Modernist style, but it is mostly pretty traditional, with large furniture and lots of art pieces. There are something like 11 fireplaces throughout, with one in each bedroom, including those in the three-story guest house, which has three bedrooms. Each bedroom on the property has a men’s and women’s bathroom. So does the pool house, which is about as big as a single-family house.

The main house, sort of like a mountain chalet, has a huge living room, dining room, kitchen, and deck, all with incredible views of the Coachella Valley. There’s also a large den, a guest bedroom upstairs, and Frank’s own bedroom. Outside is the pool, spa, fire pit surrounded by a dance floor, and recently redone tennis court.

Janna kept describing it as a “very sexy man cave.” A groovy, cool place. It’s yours for a cool $4.5 million.

          We also visited Hawaiian Garden Estates, a condo complex in Palm Springs built in the early '60s in the Polynesian style. Many of the current residents have decorated their homes in Tiki style. Not tacky but really well done. The place was built by a Jewish developer who was tired of Jews being discriminated against back then when it came to home sales and rentals. It too fell into disrepair but has been lovingly restored by many of the current owners. Will post photos if desired.

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STEVE PROSINSKI writes:

Another amazing report and stunning photos from Mike Burge from the Yellowstone region. The bison are such beautiful creatures. Mike mentioned the culling of the herd. This winter's firing-line "hunt" has been particularly messy as bison wander out of the park into Montana, as Brett French, a former Billings Gazette colleague, explains.

https://www.montanaoutdoor.com/2023/03/brett-french-reports-bison-hunt-cleanup-hauls-gut-piles-to-dump/

 

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SUSAN DUERKSEN writes:

          Here's a hint:

Imagine Ray ordering a sandwich at the restaurant on the flipside, the one where he can get anything he wants. What does he say about condiments?

 

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BARRY BLOOM forwards:

Here’s my latest on the Padres as they open the season with uncommon optimism:

https://www.sportico.com/leagues/baseball/2023/mlb-preview-san-diego-padres-spending-1234717726/

 

Jack J. Reber

P.O. Box 2239

Ramona, CA 92065-0938

United States