What a night it was! It started out early with some very strong thunderstorms moving just east of us. I was working tonight and one of my cooks came inside and told me I ought to see this out the back door. I went outside and there was a HUGE funnel cloud forming just east of us. We watched it for about 5 minutes and then the tornado sirens started going off. It soon dissipated without touching down.

I stayed outside and watched for a little while and saw 2 more smaller funnel clouds form, go away, form again, then disappear. The tornado sirens went off, then came back on, then went off again.

About 15 minutes later, we were all inside working when the tornado sirens went off again. We didn't think much of it, didn't see anything from our vantage point, so just kept busy. About 5 minutes later this guy came running in the building saying that we'd better take cover as the tornado was almost here. I went outside and there was a huge tornado south and a little west. I think it was the biggest tornado I have ever seen in person, and I've seen quite a few.

We closed down and all headed to the basement of the storage building I have next door. I had 12 employees working tonight. After a few minutes of watching the tornado I became very concerned that it was just too close to my home and family. One of my employees and I hopped in the car to get a better idea of it's location. It turned out to be about 3 miles south of my home and 2 miles south of where my son was spending the night with a friend. We only were able to get within about a mile of it when the sheriff turned us around.

My wife stood out in our front yard and took some digital video of it. By the time she got to it, it was about half the size it was when I first saw it. I have uploaded the video if anyone would like to see it. It is a pretty big file, about 34mb, but if you have a broadband connection it won't take too long. Here is a link.

http://www.gregsusong.com/040827-tornado.wmv