I choose California earthquakes over Midwest tornadoes every time.

S&M equipment company? I bet those cars like it rough.

So wait...its a parking lot in Alabama NOT full of pickups with Earnhardt bumper stickers????????

Wow, I live a couple hours from there and never heard about it (or saw the footage). That's pretty...well...awesome.

@Fiat CinqueBENTO: It's obviously photochopped... or whatever you use for video. haha

I'm in Indiana and I've seen some strange things after tornados. Power poles (the stout metal ones) seem to induce the most damage unless large mass objects start getting tossed around.

Ha, there was a 'nader here in Birmingham yesterday. I called my mom on a whim and found out she was facing down a funnel cloud waiting at a stop light. Apparantley everyone just stood around like turkeys, even the cops, and though I yelled at her to just run the light and get the f out she just waited for the light to turn green and drove up Hwy 31, most likely at the speed limit.

For me the temptation to bug out and hoon would be too strong, what with incapacitated fuzz and impending windy bitch slap. I think I'm adopted.

It's awesome how it just picked a couple of cars from the middle of the line, and whipped them around. The vehicles on either side? Nothing.

@markov - type gna(R): Actually, according to something I read in the past couple of days, turkeys congregate in a corner, pile on each other and then suffocate when a storm hits.

@markov - type gna(R): I was sitting at work (Irondale) and had to watch the news saying there were funnel cloud around Lakeshore/Wildwood (near my house, and my wife was at home).

Apart from those couple of "wake up at 3am and get into the basement" episodes we had last month, that was the only time I've been scared by a tornado. It's been a pretty active season this spring.

I'm from Minnesota, which isn't the worst place in the country for twisters, but when you've got a few zillion acres of flat prairies for it to build on, we get some doozies.

And we head to effing basement. I don't think I'd ever seen a photo of a tornado until I moved to the South.

Minnesota boy: "Wow, that sounds pretty bad!"

Tennessee boy: "Wow, that looks pretty bad!"

Catch that subtle difference?

When I was a kid living in the Midwest I used to get so paranoid of tornadoes. All those "tornado watch" and "tornado warnings" meant that I would get freaked out every time the sky got slightly darker...never saw one, though.

Now, this sort of justifies it.

Either it was very focused winds or it seemed to just pick up the lightest, most aerodynamic cars. The trucks stayed in place.

@P161911: I thought so too but there's a longbed pickup getting tossed at the end.

Never in my life did I think I would see a YouTube video of local news on this site. And, for some reason, it's hilarious.

We just had a big tornado scare here yesterday and I'm sure we'll have 5 or 6 more before the end of they year. If you live in North Alabama long enough you just kind of develop a very jaded "If it gets me it gets me. In the mean time I'm going to the mall." approach to the whole thing, much in the same manner I imagine most people in large cities do about violent crime.

It's going to take more than a tornader to keep me from a smoothie.

@Maxichamp: Does earthquake damage tend to be centered around the fault line, or does it cover a broader area? Living in tornado country, having seen one in person and seen the aftermath of several...and having also spent a few days cleaning up after a major hurricane, I think I'd rather take my chances in a tornado-prone area. Though hurricanes provide plenty of warning, the destruction tends to be much greater and cover a broader area. Even if a tornado stays on the ground for miles and miles, you can travel off to the side of the damage by just a few blocks and things are relatively normal...so getting things repaired and finding alternative shelter isn't so difficult. But if you're anywhere near the center of a hurricane landfall, you can be a hundred miles from an unaffected area, which means everything within that area is damaged, without power, etc. So I guess if earthquake damage tends to line up along the fault, that might not be so bad. But if it radiates out in all directions like a hurricane, I'm not so sure.

my father in law was in a pretty bad one:
he was at a livstock auction, and his truck was picked up, spun in the air and set down, losing all window glass and getting straw puncturing the radiator. a link to a story tornado:

[video.google.com]

ASH, you're from Irondale? That's cool. I'm from Montgomery.

I'm pretty sure this was just yesterday. It's on the Huntsville station's website with description. (WHNT)
That's the thing, this is tornado country. There probably was one here last year, but how many times have we seen video of tossed vehicles AFTER the event, where this is the first time I've seen a real video of them DURING the tossing. That looks like a 4000lb, full-size pickup (70's white two-tone?) that went the furthest. Like a tiny pebble in the carpet under a vacuum cleaner.
What I'm most impressed with is that you can get your S & M Equipment in Leighton, Alabama. Wouldn't there be a sale on right about now?

I'd rather be in the truck being tossed than have a truck being tossed at me.

I wouldn't get out of my car if I saw a tornado. Not on your life. I'd just go, fast.

I don't know if you've seen the video of F-5 in Pampa Texas, but there is a shot of a pickup truck being tossed around in the debris cloud.

When Ma' Nature gets pissed, she can do some incredible things.

I invite any and all of you to come to Oklahoma any time between late April and early June. Actually, the technology behind the newer radars helps it to be less stressful. Now the weather folks can pretty much tell you where it is, where it's going and when it's going to get there. Gives plenty of time to drop your trousers, bend over and kiss your backside goodbye!

And something about being in a car when the sirens go off...cops don't pay much attention to "lifesaving hoonage"!!

@Nayrlladnar: Not from Irondale, just work here. Went to high school in Montgomery, actually, but been up in Birmingham since college.

Sweet. I'm in Birmingham from time to time for work/pleasure. Next time I'm passing through, I'll honk.

Dorothy and her Tata were never seen again.

Tornado at S&M Equipment Company. The jokes just write themselves.

"I'll get your my pretty! And your little Ford too!"

@nosirrahg: My house is 4 miles from the epicenter of the Northridge quake in January of '94. Earthquakes radiate all around, and soil densities can make damage 'hopscotch' around. There were overpass collapses 15 miles from the epicenter, yet most west San Fernando valley overpasses (much closer) did not fail. Earthquakes make a mess and toss the contents around, but suburban frame houses don't typically collapse (they can slide down the hill if it is a hillside construction). My mid-1950s house hase stood up to two BIG quakes (Sylmar in 1971 and Northridge in 1994) and countless aftershocks and minor temblers. Hurricanes and tornadoes frighten me far more than 'quakes do.

@Mark Miller, @Skydiver: You know I may have had the wrong idea about
"S & M Equipment Co."
You see, I just remembered that sex-toys are actually ILLEGAL in Alabama.
Perhaps what threw me off was their ad for someone "with a Class-A CDL, willing to work long hours, and service our equipment."

@Skydiver: "The jokes just write themselves", ...indeed.

(Tornado frequency map)

@Ash78: @Nayrlladnar: @IcrashtheonesIlovethemost:

Good to know we have a bit of Bama native granfalloonery goin on here.

And I feel the same way about the whole tornado deal. Growing up in Tuscaloosa, I realized after a while that as long as you don't see it comin down the road, do whatever the hell you want.

@charles_barrett: We'd be in the wake of the New Madrid Fault zone here, so I may get to experience all three before it's all said and done. There's really no such thing as "soil density" in the Delta region; if/when the New Madrid Fault gives way it won't be pretty if it's of the magnitude of the big one back in the early 1800s. I'm pretty sure most insurance companies quit offering earthquake insurance in this area after Katrina and the chaos that erupted after that...a major New Madrid quake could be like Katrina multiplied many, many times.

We were in LA on vacation a couple years ago, and I remember being surprised at the map in the daily newspaper of earthquake activity and intensity in the area for the week...I guess you get used to it after awhile, just as we sort of get used to tornadoes here.

On tornadoes though, the television stations in this area do a great job now as mentioned above of being able to pinpoint a tornado's location, down to being able to zoom in at street level to show where the tornado is, and where it's headed. Most cities also have pretty good siren systems here too, so if you're in your car you're apt to hear the siren and seek shelter (though I can't hear them in my office downtown).

I live in Paso Robles Ca. (remember a couple years back?) My Dad lives in Parkfield, his house is less than two mi. from the San Andreas. I find earthquakes quite entertaining, just step outside and enjoy the ride! Nice thing about them is the really big ones only happen every 20 to 70 years, not every F***in year. So...earthquakes FTW. BTW this is also home of #98 Jake "earthquake" Zemke. Go figure.

Having experienced both earthquakes and tornadoes...I'll take tornadoes, although I'm not happy with the hail which almost always accompanies it.

A car which looks like a golfball is bad.

Like earthquakes, tornado damage can be very hit-or-miss. If it hits a neighborhood, and isn't an F-5, suck-pavement-off-the-ground Jarrell, TX, type of 'nado, then you'll see untouched house, untouched house, totally flattened house, house with a pickup thrown into front yard, on its roof, but no other damage, untouched houses for two blocks, then six houses which aren't even good for firewood, the pieces are so small. It's kinda eerie.

Radar had improved so much in the past 15 years, it's incredible. Used to be, "you people in this 20 mile long path from X to Y, and five to seven miles in either direction of the cneterline, kiss your asses goodbye...maybe."

Now, it's "if you're on the corner of Wind and Blown streets, find a ditch, **NOW**. Those of you who didn't put your vehicles in the garage on Hail and Damage streets, too late." Pretty cool.

"It is not THAT the wind is blowing.....
but rather WHAT the wind is blowing, that will kill you"

@charles_barrett I agree, been through a big quake near San Fran while driving a Mercedes Benz, and only knew that we had from the frantic radio news cast.
Water bed a rocking and not from our doing due to another big quake .
That s*%t don't scare me, garden sheds, Mazda's and trees falling from the sky is another story.

You're leaving out the trailer parks.
The rules for tornadoes say to LEAVE the trailer and just face it -- get in a ditch or just stare it down, but leave your trailer. That's sad.

@Novaload: I thought trailers were called Tornado Magnets.
Rules are LEAVE the tornado magnet...

Jesus you people. I grew up in earthquake country.

We get a major earthquake once every 10 years or so. You tornado people can set your watches (or at least calendars) by them.

When an earthquake hits, it's usually over in 30 seconds. TV coverage, however is good for two weeks. Bonus if you're at the World Series.

If you've got a Coleman stove, a French press and a Weber grill, you can pretty much ride out any earthquake in style.

Us Californians talk up earthquakes because we're secretly jealous.

The closest I came to experiencing a tornado was one that was part of the Oklahoma City outbreak a few years ago--was in Wichita at the time.

Basically, I was heading out to class, my pants got soaked, went back to the dorm to get another pair, found out a tornado was just a few blocks away from the intersection I had to cross the start my journey. Very lucky, indeed.

Also: my father lives in a part of Louisville a mile from the Ohio River where a tornado can come over from Indiana, go over his house, and land just a 1/2 a block east, an event that happened pretty recently.

That's all I've got.