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IT REALLY DID SOUND LIKE A FREIGHT TRAIN

by LyndaRS (Subscribe)

Posted on: Aug 18, 2008 at 6:00 AM MST

Channel: Weather

Location: Hillandale Ave, Belen, NM 87002

We live directly across the street from Timnan Park, on Hillandale Avenue in Rio Communities just east of Belen, NM. When Sunday's tornado storm hit, the roar over our house sounded just like a freight train. I opened the front door, and a whirling flood of water came pouring in. I tried to shut the door again, and couldn't -- not until I threw all my weight against it, the way the gangsters do on tv when they're breaking IN a door! We huddled in the center hall of the house until the roaring sound passed, and then I grabbed my camera and went out in the yard. I got some amazing shots: of the funnel cloud, which by then was behind our house, heading toward the southwest; of a gigantic rainbow hugging the Monzano Mountains to the east; of the flooded street in front of our house; of acres of WHITE hailstones, looking just like snow, that covered the roofs of the houses, all the yards, and the park across the street, as far as the eye could see; and of two large trees in the park that had been torn out of the ground by their roots. As I was walking around the yard taking pictures, I got frostbite on my toes -- in August! Later, after the swirling flood waters in the street had receded, I went over to the park and was shocked to see that the entire ground was covered with a carpet of green leaves, that had blown off the trees. Although more than 4 hours had passed since the storm, there was still an unbelievable amount of ice from the hail all over the ground. I grew up in ''Tornado Alley'', near Fordland, Missouri, and have never seen a storm quite like this!

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