GLENN'S TORNADO PAGE

3:30 p.m. - I'm driving the school bus route out towards Saragosa, and I notice dark cloud formations building to the north and northeast. Although I have my two-meter Handie-Talkie (HT), a hand-held radio transceiver, I forgot to bring my external speaker, and I can't hear the radio over the motor noise. Since I can't hear my radio, I can't hear what W5QGG, the Sky Warn Network Ham Radio located at the National Weather Service office at the Midland Regional Air Terminal; I'll just have to rely on my eyes to monitor the clouds for now. I keep wondering if W5QGG will activate the "Weather Net" today, and keep trying to monitor the radio over the motor noise as I drive my route. [Note: There are over thirty or forty "Hams" in the area trained as spotters and ready to go when needed. They all communicate with W5QGG, using a communications link called the "West Texas Connection" in the 2-Meter radio band (144 MHz - 148 MHz).]

4:00 p.m. - I just finished my bus route; my grandfather met me and is giving me a ride home. I have to get ready to practice with my Country band at seven o'clock. We have been practicing with Josie Rhyne, a sophomore, for a Senior Dance in honor of their upcoming graduation.

4:05 p.m. - W5QGG activates the weather net. I check in on my HT, offering my assistance even though the storms are not yet in our area.

4:14 p.m. - Our Athletic Director, Mike Barrandey, invites me to accompany him to Balmorhea Lake for some fishing. I take my radio and continue monitoring W5QGG from the lake a mile north of Balmorhea.

4:25 p.m. - We are fishing near the store, just north of the old dock. I Explain to Mike about the weather net and tell him they might call me and ask that I move to specified places if needed. Mike says "Okay."

4:34 p.m. - Mike tells me "The fish will never bite today; the air just feels too heavy." The wind is very still here near the ground, but clouds are really boiling above us to the north and northwest. Midland Weather Service advises me by my HT that most of the activity is "way north of us and moving northeast," indicating no problems here.

5:00 p.m. - We gave up fishing for the day and came home. I keep watching the sky while my wife fixes supper.

5:15 p.m. - I'm starting to feel nervous and restless; I couldn't eat supper when it was ready. I drove about two miles north of Balmorhea on FM 2903 to IH 10 to watch the clouds. Just before I left home I saw a "tornado watch" emblem on the TV screen, and saw that Reeves County (which includes Balmorhea, Saragosa, Toyah, and Pecos) is included in the watch area. The clouds we had seen earlier have moved off to the northeast, but new ones are building up to the north and northwest of me, near the junction of IH-10 and IH-20, about 20 miles west-northwest of us near the north end of the Davis Mountains.

5:30 p.m. - I'm watching the clouds move northeast or east-northeast, but they are building to the west and southwest faster than the main cloud can move off. I offer occasional comments to W5QGG via radio and watch a couple in a brown car; they had taken the off ramp from I-10 and stopped at FM 2903 and are watching me as I report on the clouds. After about five minutes, they approach me for directions to Pecos and ask where they might buy gasoline. I give them the directions in Spanish, and warn them that we are in a tornado watch area and told them about the possibility of tornados and hail in the area where they would be traveling. They thank me and depart.

6:00 p.m. - The clouds are worse-looking now...boiling...scud (small underlying clouds) moving quickly west, southwest, or south at different times even though the cloud is moving northeast. Dark swirling masses of clouds have developed and begin to mature over the area of the I-10 / I-20 junction about fifteen miles to the west of me. I keep hearing other spotters in other parts of the state as they report what they are watching, but our cloud is getting some real attention now. Even worse activity than ours seems to be developing in the vicinity of Hobbs, and around Jal, New Mexico, a hundred miles or so to the north of us, and another bad one is around Crane, Texas to our East. George Douglas N5ENY, Barstow, Texas, is watching our cloud on the northeast side. George Toone WB5FBJ, is mobile with his dad, Dale Toone, traveling home to Saragosa from Seminole, Texas; he's around the Pecos area now.

6:15 p.m. - I rush home and eat a quick bite to avoid hunger during our planned band practice, but I've got a gut feeling that I really ought to cancel our rehearsal in order to help watch and report on the clouds. I keep interrupting my meal to go outside and look at the sky.

6:30 p.m. - It's time to get the equipment ready for the band practice, but I can't find the other members. I tell my wife I'm going back to my weather watching, and return to the intersection of I-10 and FM2903.

7:00 p.m. - I return to the band hall...only Josie Rhyne is there. I ask her to wait while I go search for the others (Larry, my brother, and the Matta brothers, Peter and Chuy). I still can't find them anywhere, so I keep driving around watching the sky...it looks ominous: clouds moving differing directions at different altitudes at the same time. I report this information to W5QGG. The sky looks wicked and full of energy, but here at the ground level the air is deathly still. Clouds just keep building and building without moving off...they really look as restless as I feel.

7:30 p.m. - Everyone is finally at the Band Hall for rehearsal now, and we prepare for practice. When I described the cloud formations to the group and explained to them the W5QGG weather network. W5QGG calls and says the thunderstorm here is a level 6 (the strongest level) with tops at 62,500 feet. I explain the significance of that to the band as we continue getting our instruments ready, and I continue to monitor my radio.

7:40 p.m. - My brother, Larry, says he needs to go buy some cigarettes. W5QGG has advised me that I'm the only spotter on the south / southwest side of the storm, and I want to watch the clouds some more, so I tell the group I'm going with Larry. As Larry and I are leaving to get his cigarettes, he expresses his feelings that I'm exaggerating the potential of the storm as well as my own importance. My car keys are locked inside the car! And my coat and the spare battery for my HT are locked in there as well; worrying about the storm, I had also left my cap back in the band hall.

7:45 p.m. - Larry and I are driving north to Main Street in his pickup; while he drives, I keep watching the clouds. It looks real bad just northwest of the Balmorhea city limits; I tell Larry to forget his cigarettes for now, I need to see this cloud better.

8:00 p.m. - We are parked just west of town on Texas Highway 17. It's raining a little now. Directly over us, the clouds are moving violently towards the southeast. Reeves County deputy sheriff Flavio "Floyd" Estrada approches us from the west, circles around and parks behind us, and motions for me to get in the patrol car with him; Larry takes off to get his cigarettes. Floyd has been watching the storm for some time also. It's really raining hard now. Floyd and I agree that we are directly under a wall cloud!

Charles Towry, radio W4LCC, of Balmorhea (a fellow teacher), is coming back to Balmorhea from Fort Stockton. I hear him telling W5QGG that he's passing Carrasco's Mercantile, one mile east of Balmorhea, and that he is experiencing "pea-sized...no, marble-sized...no, golf-ball sized hail!" The Hail stops rapidly, and Charles reports to W5QGG that he is seeing rotation directly above him. I can't see it from here, but we listen as he makes his report to Midland Weather Service.

8:05 p.m. - W5QGG tells us that the National Weather Service has issued a "tornado warning" for Reeves County based on all of our reports and the radar screen. Floyd says, "Let's go to the Jeff Davis County line so we can get out from under this thing and see it better." We drive to the west, a little south of Toyahvale on Texas 17, and look back at the storm. Meanwhile, Mr. Towry is driving out to Balmorhea Lake to get farther south also. Now he's telling us over the weather network that he is "definitely seeing rotation in the clouds!" Floyd immediately starts driving toward town at a very high rate of speed while he gets on the sheriff's office radio and asks his dispatcher to call out the Balmorhea Fire Department and Balmorhea State Park Superintendent Darrel Rhyne. We overhear Texas Department of Public Safety Highway Patrol Trooper Rob Bourland saying that he's fueling his car at Wafer Oil about four miles East of Balmorhea near milepost 210 on I-10, and that he's looking at a funnel cloud crossing the interstate right by him! We are almost on the interstate now, passing the Tarín home on Texas 17, and I relay Trooper Bourland's information to the National Weather Service by radio via W5QGG.

8:10 p.m. - We had screamed through Balmorhea, heading towards Saragosa with emergency lights flashing. Passing the old experiment station farm (near milepost 210), we notice a large green highway information sign which had been blown over. Floyd had just pointed this out to me when I indicated to him the two milepost signs at milepost 211 twisting around back and forth 360 degrees as fast as they could turn. Days later, I would come back and see how warped the wind had made them!

8:12 p.m. - I call George Toone, radio WB5FBJ; he's just arrived at his parents' house on the east edge of Saragosa. I ask him to phone my wife and have her unlock my car and get my brother Larry to bring the car to me at the I-10 Chevron Truckstop as soon as possible; I know I'll need another battery for my HT soon, and probably my jacket as well.

I don't know how fast we're going, but Floyd is driving incredibly fast! He has to keep wrestling with the car to keep it on the road. A couple of times it felt like we were picked up and moved back and forth on the highway. We exit the interstate at milepost 212 and turn north toward Saragosa. As we pass under the underpass we see eight or ten cars and a WTU Electric company "cherry-picker" truck parked on both sides of the road underneath. As we speed by, I notice the grim, awestruck, pale, frightened faces of the people beside the cars.

8:15 p.m. - Power lines are down everywhere you look. We should be seen buildings and houses by now, but we don't. Floyed pauses at a downed power line stretching across the highway and asks me if I think it's safe to cross. I tell him I think it'll be okay if we go slow at its lowest point. It doesn't look hot, but still we worry. There's too much adrenaline pumping through our bodies for either of us to be scared...Floyd crosses over the wire and we speed on toward Saragosa.

Time has no meaning for now...it seems like everything is happening at once, yet disconnected and in slow motion. Other rescuers are arriving now - Sharon and Larry Lippe, followed by Darrel Rhyne and Park Ranger Mike Henderson, Trooper Bourland, and others. Very soon I found myself and George Toone WB5FBJ communicating on three radios simultaneously; our two meter ham radio HT's, Floyd's Sheriff's radio, and Trooper Bourland's Highway Patrol radio. Somewhere during all this we asked Mr. Towry W4LCC to get permission from Balmorhea School Superintendent Bob Clanton to bring a bus to transport the injured and for permission to use the school's facilities as a temporary emergency shelter and base of operations. Permission is granted; Mr. Towry heads our way while Mr. Clanton heads to the school.