1. Years and years ago walking back to my hotel from the French Quarter about 2am. I don't remember the name or location of the hotel or the name of the street with the incident but it was a 4 lane street with dividers in the middle like Hwy 12 through Starkville now. There was no traffic at all on the street until a car load of people came from the opposite direction, slowed down across from me and someone yelled something like "What time is it?" then then they slammed on the gas and at the next intersection turned to come up behind me. I immediately picked the darkest alley I could find and hauled ***. I went places that I wouldn't go during the daytime but I deemed that what MAY be ahead wasn't as dangerous as what WAS behind me. I hid out for about 30 minutes before proceeding back to the hotel.
2. Several years ago when storm chasing with Hugh's Burner Phone we spotted the tornado that hit Tishomingo while we were north of Tishomingo on Hwy 25 with a clear view to the west. He notified Memphis NWS and I notified Laubhan then we booked it south to try to get below it. With zero visibility due to trees and radar scans being 5 mins old, we thought we were far enough south and in the clear. NOPE! We pulled into a cemetery just across the road from the Dollar General that was soon to be demolished. As we were out of the truck watching the sky, we saw the rotation right in front of us. As we hopped in the truck to get the hell out of there, there were several southbound cars just poking along on 25 delaying our getaway. As soon as we got on 25 it hit. Several cars stopped in front of us with the debris flying but thankfully 'Hugh' put his foot down and we screamed out of there amidst falling trees, falling powerlines and a huge piece of tin that went just over the truck. I later went back and checked the time stamp of when I notified Laubhan which was the same time that 'Hugh' was calling the NWS and it was less than 2 minutes after that when the tornado warning was issued. Up until that time it just had a severe thunderstorm warning. So, even though we ended up in the middle of it, we were able to give folks a few minutes of warning.
2. Several years ago when storm chasing with Hugh's Burner Phone we spotted the tornado that hit Tishomingo while we were north of Tishomingo on Hwy 25 with a clear view to the west. He notified Memphis NWS and I notified Laubhan then we booked it south to try to get below it. With zero visibility due to trees and radar scans being 5 mins old, we thought we were far enough south and in the clear. NOPE! We pulled into a cemetery just across the road from the Dollar General that was soon to be demolished. As we were out of the truck watching the sky, we saw the rotation right in front of us. As we hopped in the truck to get the hell out of there, there were several southbound cars just poking along on 25 delaying our getaway. As soon as we got on 25 it hit. Several cars stopped in front of us with the debris flying but thankfully 'Hugh' put his foot down and we screamed out of there amidst falling trees, falling powerlines and a huge piece of tin that went just over the truck. I later went back and checked the time stamp of when I notified Laubhan which was the same time that 'Hugh' was calling the NWS and it was less than 2 minutes after that when the tornado warning was issued. Up until that time it just had a severe thunderstorm warning. So, even though we ended up in the middle of it, we were able to give folks a few minutes of warning.
