• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Man who mowed lawn with tornado behind him says he 'was keeping an eye on it.'

D

Dalek

Member
http://www.timescolonist.com/man-wh...m-says-he-was-keeping-an-eye-on-it-1.20394290

cpt109409578-jpg.jpg


Cecilia Wessels snapped the picture of her husband, Theunis, on Friday evening as the twister passed near their home in Three Hills.

She said cutting the grass was on her husband's to-do list, and as he started the task, she went for a nap.

Wessels said she was woken by her nine-year-old daughter who was upset that there was something like a tornado in the sky, but her father wouldn't come inside.

Theunis Wessels said the tornado was actually much further away than it appears in the photo, and that it was moving away from them.
Click to expand...

I literally took the picture to show my mum and dad in South Africa, 'Look there's a tornado,' and now everyone is like, 'Why is your husband mowing the lawn?’” Cecilia Wessels said Saturday.

"Our whole street, everyone was on their back patios taking pictures," she said.

Theunis Wessels said he was keeping watch of his surroundings and saw the twister form as the swirling connected from the sky and the ground to form the funnel.

Both said tornadoes are not common in South Africa, but Theunis said he watched a TV program about storm chasers, so he's familiar with them.

The tornado moved away to the east, he said.

"It looks much closer if you look in the photo, but it was really far away. Well, not really far, far away, but it was far away from us," he said.

"I was keeping an eye on it."
Click to expand...
 
D

Derwind

Member
Both said tornadoes are not common in South Africa, but Theunis said he watched a TV program about storm chasers, so he's familiar with them.
Click to expand...

Something about this quote just cracks me up.
 
S

sinkfla87

Member
ronaldthump said:
I'd love to see a tornado IRL one day
Click to expand...

You say that but uhh... Lol.
I live in NW Florida and last year we had a tornado pass through our neighborhood, destroying homes and eventually apartment complexes in its path. We got super lucky but that was still the scariest thing I have ever experienced in my life. I thought my family and I were surely going to get blown away.

With that said, this dude is still a boss.
 
P

pa22word

Member
ronaldthump said:
I'd love to see a tornado IRL one day
Click to expand...

That love will quickly turn to panic and deathly fear dude. I've been caught in one before (live in oklahoma), and it's absolutely insane how much damage those things can do in such a short amount of time. Combine thst with the relatively little warning you have for them popping up make them just so (in the og sense of the word) awesomely devastating. Like God suddenly got bored and decided to spin a top on the surface of the earth for a few minutes for shit's and giggles.
 
N

NoblesseOblige

Banned
I had an idiot second uncle who, at least how the story goes, drove his tractor 'through a tornado' that ripped across his field while he was working it. He got the nickname Uncle Windy. It's probably an embellished story though.
 
A

aspiegamer

Member
I'm more concerned that these people had no apparent warning system (either sirens, local media or SMS/emergency push messages) that alerted them to the storm. This is Canada and I admit I have no idea how that works there. As for the guy doing the mowing? I get what he's thinking. It just passed and there's nothing else incoming? Whatever. Were this me I'd have probably stopped to film a bit but so long as it's not raining what do I care? Disclaimer: This kind of thinking can get you killed and I can't exactly recommend it to anyone else.

This picture will be in countless "is this real?" quizzes for the rest of the history of the internet.
 
T

Timedog

good credit (by proxy)
In the movie Twister they just chain themselves to a bike rack or whatever to survive an F5, so this makes sense IMO.
 
P

pa22word

Member
Timedog said:
In the movie Twister they just chain themselves to a bike rack or whatever to survive an F5, so this makes sense IMO.
Click to expand...

I mean that may sound absurd, but the one I got caught in I survived by hiding under a concrete park table with 7 other people underneath a wooden awning while the camper I was just in less than 50 yrds away was thrown 50 ft. I was like 10 years old and still to this day have vivid memories of that moment and have absolutely zero idea how any of us survived that day. I've heard stories of tornados moving so fast through an area that they've ripped the roof off of houses only to leave everything else inside the house perfectly intact.

Tornados are fucking strange, man.
 
K

Kieli

Member
Do tornados move in a predictable manner, or can they change their trajectory unpredictably?

If latter, then I'll do the best to run the fuck away even if it looks like the tornado is moving away.
 
C

Chaos2Frozen

Member
NoblesseOblige said:
I had an idiot second uncle who, at least how the story goes, drove his tractor 'through a tornado' that ripped across his field while he was working it. He got the nickname Uncle Windy. It's probably an embellished story though.
Click to expand...

That is the lamest name to give to a man who drove through a tornado.

If I drove through a tornado I better get a name like "Thunderfury" or "Winds of Destruction"
 
M

Mivey

Member
Chaos2Frozen said:
That is the lamest name to give to a man who drove through a tornado.

If I drove through a tornado I better get a name like "Thunderfury" or "Winds of Destruction"
Click to expand...
"Gale-Tamer", "Storm-Breaker", "Batshitcrazy", "Wind-Ruler" or "Njörðr-Chosen". Would be my picks
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

I was asked to call a man Daddy during sex and it really turned me off
2 3
122
9K
German Hops replied
The story behind the unreleased 2nd Control Denied album: When Man and Machine Collide.
11
3K
Scotty W replied
[Bustle] Please Respect Mia Khalifa’s Rebrand
6 7 8 9 10
499
62K
Maiden Voyage replied
Woman kills her husband with eye drops
30
3K
Constant Flux replied
Man who mowed lawn with tornado behind him says he 'was keeping an eye on it'
11
2K
LinkAndEpona replied
Top Bottom