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Old 02-25-2016, 01:22 PM   #1
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THOR #2754
DRV Suites in a Tornado Strike

This photo was posted on the Facebook DRV Suites Owners page and shows a DRV Suites (foreground) at the St. James Parish (LA) RV Park where 2 were killed this week in a tornado strike. The front end of the MS (so it would appear) was dragged sideways a number of feet, but it otherwise looks relatively undamaged. Luck or ????



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Old 02-25-2016, 01:34 PM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RustyJC View Post
This photo was posted on the Facebook DRV Suites Owners page and shows a DRV Suites (foreground) at the St. James Parish (LA) RV Park where 2 were killed this week in a tornado strike. The front end of the MS (so it would appear) was dragged sideways a number of feet, but it otherwise looks relatively undamaged. Luck or ????



Rusty
It is luck, We lost everything to a tornado and a half block away houses where standing. Horrible for those people and I often wondered what I would do in an RV park if there was a tornado.
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Old 02-25-2016, 01:39 PM   #3
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It is luck, We lost everything to a tornado and a half block away houses where standing. Horrible for those people and I often wondered what I would do in an RV park if there was a tornado.
In many RV parks the bathrooms/showers are tornado shelters. The ones I've been to the free standing bathroom structures have been made of cinder block.
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Old 02-25-2016, 01:47 PM   #4
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In many RV parks the bathrooms/showers are tornado shelters. The ones I've been to the free standing bathroom structures have been made of cinder block.
Yea I see that at many parks. The hard part is the decision of when do you go to the shelter. The warning on tornadoes does not give you a lot of time and normally it is raining. So when do you go is the tough part. We hit the floor in our basement 10 seconds before the F4 took it all and that was with warning sirens going off. Tough stuff and I'm sure those poor people at that RV park probably didn't have much warning.
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Old 02-25-2016, 01:59 PM   #5
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Yea I see that at many parks. The hard part is the decision of when do you go to the shelter. The warning on tornadoes does not give you a lot of time and normally it is raining. So when do you go is the tough part. We hit the floor in our basement 10 seconds before the F4 took it all and that was with warning sirens going off. Tough stuff and I'm sure those poor people at that RV park probably didn't have much warning.
True. That would be a pretty scary run, especially if your campsite was some distance from the shelter.
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Old 02-25-2016, 03:39 PM   #6
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In most areas in tornado country they use a warbling siren to warn of imminent tornadoes. When you hear that siren it means to take immediate shelter. When I was going to AF War College at Maxwell AFB AL in 1994 we lived in east Montgomery. I'll never forget one extremely bad weather day the tornado sirens went off 4 different times. It is absolutely the worst day of weather I have ever seen in my 72 years.
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Old 02-25-2016, 05:17 PM   #7
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You can chalk me up for stating that it is luck. Having lived in Oklahoma for most of my life and the Oklahoma City area from 1988 to 2014, I can attest to what some tornadoes will do.

I don't know how things are in areas other than OKC, but in Oklahoma, the sirens tend to be sounded if a tornado is spotted anywhere in the county. Thus, the tornado itself may not be an immediate danger to the area where one is located. In OKC, when a tornado watch or warning was issued, we watched one of the local TV stations that sent out numerous storm spotters and as many as two helicopters to track the tornado's path. If it appeared that it would be approaching our area, we would then go to the "fraidy-hole."

If you want to see more pictures of a Mobile Suites surviving a tornado, check the link below. In the pictures at that site, there is a Coleman RV right next to the Mobile Suites that was really torn apart. The link will take one to a slideshow of the images, but one can click on each thumbnail at the bottom of the image to see the next one, provided you don't want to go so fast.

Mobile Suites Tornado Images

Terry
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Old 02-25-2016, 08:32 PM   #8
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It doesn't matter what you are in if it hits you, you will know it. We had houses 4 houses away from us that had some damage from debris while the houses directly across the street where completely wiped out. Granted the stronger the structure of the RV would help but when a tornado can completely wipe put 800 houses and damage another 500 they really don't care.
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Old 02-26-2016, 08:47 PM   #9
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I will second that it is pure luck. We had (2) F1 tornadoes and an F3 tear our neighborhood apart on April 27, 2011. Some houses had nothing but a slab left behind and next door, the house just lost some siding. Our subdivision lost roughly half the homes that day and will never recover.

By the way, the only warnings we had were the the TV stations and the National Weather Service radios.We rode out all three without an issue as we have a storm shelter built into our basement and our home did not receive any significant damage.
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Old 02-26-2016, 10:00 PM   #10
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Originally Posted by RustyJC View Post
This photo was posted on the Facebook DRV Suites Owners page and shows a DRV Suites (foreground) at the St. James Parish (LA) RV Park where 2 were killed this week in a tornado strike. The front end of the MS (so it would appear) was dragged sideways a number of feet, but it otherwise looks relatively undamaged. Luck or ????



Rusty
I think it's safe to say the RV directly to the left of the DRV was "saved" by the DRV being next to it.

I have sat thru 85-90mph winds in our 36SB3 MS hitting the door side directly and it's a pretty good ride. More than that I would be hoping for better shelter.

But I think the picture does show that a heavier and better constructed RV will do better.
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