Handguns and Tornadoes...

S

Seaman

New member
On Thursday, the sky turned dark, kinda yellow/purple, sound outside went like a noisy machine shop, rat-a-tat hail, heavy rain, lightning, booming thunder, and the walls started shaking...we were hit by multiple tornadoes.

Rushed family down into basement and all of a sudden it hits me...the guns!!! gotta save the guns!!!

Ran upstairs and managed to grab 3 handguns: an S&W M22-4, a Sig P239 Tactical, and a Springfield Armory Micro 1911. No time to grab any long guns. Quick back down to the basement. Had visions of Mausers, Colts, Sigs, Steyrs, Walthers, S&Ws, Martini-Henrys, trapdoor Springfields, Krags, Lebels, etc flying thru the air and scattered into the next county.

My wife thought I was nuts to go back up to rescue a few handguns, but hey, we are talking guns here.

What 3 handguns would you save if you had only 30 seconds to do so?




PS: 10 houses were destroyed, and I mean totally, one neighbor said he watched thru his basement window as the tornado just launched household property items upwards from a house across the street. Thankfully, we were not hit.
 
Scary for sure. Glad you and yours are safe. Would grab me 'ol Gaston and me extra mag, just like always...... Everything else is already in the basement safe that I cannot live without....:D
 
Wow! thank God y'all were spared such a loss!
I guess if I could save only three... it would be my all original 1917 DWM P08 Luger and original Walther 1941 P38 (all matching serial #s on both and original holsters) and my old favorite S&W Model 66 Combat magnum 357 snubbie that I've had for 26 years,all the rest are relitivley new and could be replaced.But.. but... what about all my rifles and shotguns!! oh the misery of it all!! Again glad y'all are safe and sound. Now go and help your neighbours in their hour of loss.
God bless
Grant
 
First, it is good to hear you and your family are safe. We have had some very devastating tornados in our area since last April.

Guns are not the first thing I would worry about. The most importatnt thing is my wife, myself and our pets. I do have some guns in my safe room, but insurance can cover the rest along with the home, vehicles, boats and a life time collection of personal possessions.

The tornado last April cleared a wide swath across the lake area where my home is at. It put huge trees, trucks, cars, appliances and torn apart boats all in the lake. There is no doubt gun safes would or could of been deposited in areas of the lake up to a hundred feet deep. The lake clean up effort just ended in time for this year's tornado season.

Your wife is right, next time forget about the personal items and save your family and yourself. They need you far more than a few guns.
 
"My guns are already in the basement. " [Gunluver]

Basement here is quite humid, despite the de-humidifier. Years ago was working on a Zulu Wars era Martini-Henry carbine and left it on the shop table for a couple of days...came back and there was corrosion forming on it. Also, we have had 3 floods. Not a good place for a gun safe.

Of course saving the family is number one.

Would miss some of the older collectibles, and especially my new custom shop S&W M22-4, the finest combat revolver ever, case-colored in beautiful hues of blue and patina bronze, a regular carry.

Thank you all for your kind words...amazingly, there was no loss of life.
 
Glad to hear you made it out ok. I would have my big gunsafe in the basement if I were in a high risk tornado area. Also if in a safe make sure your Name, adress, and phone number can be found on the safe. Though I have seen cars that went through tornadoes they looked like they had been sand blasted. But it gives the chance if it gets blown away that when found some one could contact you to come and get it.

Note I once helped a friend to remove a pontoon boat from the roof of his house. It had been moved from a marina on the lake by a tornado. The thing is the lake was 9 miles away.:eek: I saw the marina the next day. It looked like a toddler dumped his toy box in a bathtub. I used the info on the boat to find the owner. He came with the trailer for it, and paid us a bit for contacting him, so he could have his boat back.
 
I live in the heart of tornado alley and have seen a few but have been lucky enugh to not been threatened. However my most valuable guns are directly above my "storm shelter" whis is a 10x20 room with an 11" thick concrete lid and steel pillars, so in the case of a tornado I can secure my family and then the guns. The only reason I dont keep the guns in the shelter is because of high humidity down there.
 
Only 3? My Glock 30, model 10, and S&W 1911.

Of course, my S&W 340PD would have already been saved, because it's on me. :D

In reality, I'd be running downstairs with an armload of guns.
 
Ruger Redhawk .44

Colt Combat Elite 1911

Sig P226 + Trident

But I wouldn't grab handguns first. My Noveske AR, my Uzi and my Remington 700 would be what I would try to save.
 
"Only 3? ...Of course, my S&W 340PD would have already been saved, because it's on me." [wayneinFL]

Hey Wayne that's cheating, actually I had a Sig P238 on my ankle, forgot about that one.

"In reality, I'd be running downstairs with an armload of guns." [wayneinFL]

Uh...Wayne...dude...its like 30 seconds, 30 seconds to air time...since my guns are locked away and chained too, you can't do the mad armload move quickly. What's odd is, those 3 (well 4) handguns are the ones I would choose to keep (had I had time to think it over), so kinda interesting that I managed to grab them up so quickly.

Afterwards my kid says to me: "Pops, you're unflappable."

Nice to hear the kid express a multisyllabic word.

Made me smile.
 
First off, Seaman, glad to hear you and yours are safe and no major damage.
Secondly, not trying to hijack this thread, but since I haven't seen anyone mention this yet.

I found out a while back that standard homeowners/renters insurance only covers typically a small amount for firearms, like $2,000 - $3,000. Luckily I didn't have to find this out the hard way, I added a rider to my policy that really wasn't that expensive and added $10,000 of dedicated firearm coverage.

I'm sure most of you know this already, but just didn't see anyone say it, so I thought I would, especially since we are getting into severe weather season.
 
Hmmmmmm , , , after experiencing three tornadoes in my lifetime . . . the answer is simple for me . . . none. My job is to make sure my family and pets are safe . . . guns can be replaced . . they can't. . . . nor can I if I rush upstairs to rescue material things. :)
 
A friend of mine was a LEO (now retired) and gun collector, and went through the same ordeal, except his house was wiped out by the tornado. He didn't try to save any guns, because he lived in a mobile home, and knew he had to get his family out right then. He grabbed his wife and kids, and took cover in a nearby ditch, and his house and guns were the last thing on his mind. Because of that, they lived. Had he gone back for guns, his family would've panicked, probably gotten killed, and he would have probably gotten killed in the house. His guns were blown from here to Timbuktu, and not all were recovered, but even your most rare, prized, or valuable firearm cannot replace a life.

When I have to get out of the house due to tornadoes (which is usually at least a few times in the spring and early fall) my carry piece goes with me, and that's about it, unless I know I have time to grab other stuff.

Jason
 
I had a similar event happen to me a few years back. I was in the back yard trying to see a tornado that was supposed to be moving about 5 miles to the south of us, as being reported on a local radio station. I saw it as it passed. When it just got out of sight many miles away, a weird feeling came upon me. I looked directly above me and there was a second tornado. It almost looked like I could reach up and touch it. Ran into the house and yelled at the family to hit the basement. I ran upstairs and grabbed my Beretta 92FS and a couple of loaded magazines. Not so much to save it, but I had it in my head that if the town got wiped out from the storm, I wanted something to protect what little I had left from looters. Luckily, that second tornado never touched down. The first one was on the ground, one death and many homes lost.
 
Its' easier to replace a thing, than a life.

Wife , her sister, the dogs and myself tumbling down the steps, is SOP, here.

I'm due south of the Dexter hit and northwest of the Ida touchdown, those are my priorities.

What's staged on upper floors are not important.
 
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It's gonna take one heck of a torando to get my guns out of my gun safe.

The only one not in the safe is my 642 and its in my pocket.
 
All but 3 of mine at a time stay in the safe at all times. My EDC, , my inexpensive HD 12 ga. and a inexpensive revolver stashed around the house are the only things not locked up.
Just in general to deter theft and after being in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina and the central Alabama tornadoes in the last year I never leave any other than those out.
I live in a house with no basement and my name,address, DL# and cell # are permanently marked on the safe inside and out in case the chains break away from the concrete and its tossed during a tornado.
 
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