06/16/2024
Hello all, I'm still on standby for any chasing, but the season is transition to hurricane hunting soon. There should be a rise in tropical storm activity as the El Nino becomes La Nina...
I captured some thoughts about paranormal like activity during the anniversary of mass casualty storms and would love to hear your thoughts and experiences. Here it is:
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Ghosts in the Storm - Paranormal Activity at Mass Casualty Locations
(...especially on the disaster anniversary?)
Have you ever experienced?
I recently read the book “Dixie Spirits” by Christopher K. Coleman. Chapter 31 the author discusses paranormal accounts at the Curtis-Lee mansion, said to be one of the many haunted homes or locations related to Robert E. Lee.
I think that to say the Civil War of the United Stated is a mass casualty event would be over-simplified and understated. The violent deaths of so many Americans over the period of the war, and especially in the more famous battles must have some effect on the spirits of those involved, but especially towards those people who met death suddenly, and perhaps even less expected.
With so many accounts of ghosts, spirits, or whatever one calls these anomalies in our reality, There has to be some kind of explanation for the statistical rise of these paranormal observations at locations of mass casualties and violent deaths beyond imagination or pareidolia. There are numerous reports where people involved in these sightings were unaware of the history of a location and were not in that place at a certain time to look for ghosts.
While reading about these “haunted” locations I remembered some anomalous situations that I have had during storm chasing, where a location had experienced a terrible weather disaster in the past. I noticed these observations were more numerous and “felt” stronger when I was at a location on a date that coincided with the exact days or times of destructive and deadly weather events. Especially when the weather event was a huge tornado that erased portions of the location or rendered an entire town to rubble and death.
One such event for me was on the anniversary of the Lubbock, TX F5 multiple-vortex tornado(s) which occurred on May 11, 1970. This storm erased something near 9100 homes, killed 26 people during the storm, and is responsible for untold trauma and death which occurred directly from injuries and indirectly from the trouble inflicted on human lives. Originally, the storm was rated by Ted Fujita as F6 that made it one of two tornadoes ever to receive this rating. Later, it was downgraded to F5, probably due to political pressure as politicians were worried that nobody wanted to rebuild or live in a F6 tornado area. The force required to displace the heaviest objects observed inferred that the winds must have reached nearly 300 miles per hour.
The afternoon of May 11, 1970 in Lubbock, TX was sunny and dry, with clear skies. By six in the afternoon, a dry line pushed into the West Texas panhandle area and thunderstorms were firing off by 6:30pm. About 9:35pm the documented tornado touched down in the City’s southeastern area and erased %25 of the city. The destruction followed an 8.5 mile path, which expanded up to 1.5 miles at the widest point, through this portion of Lubbock, TX. The tornado finally lifted somewhere near the city airport. There were at least 26 deaths and billions (in 2024 USD equivalent) of damage. As mentioned earlier, deaths resulting from the event continued on as well as a horrific disruption to peoples lives. There are no photographs of this storm since it came as the merchant of death and destruction, all in the dark of night.
I lived near Lubbock TX for quire some time after 1976. I remember going to Lubbock with my dad shortly after the tornado and seeing the destruction myself. It was life changing to witness the aftermath of such a powerful force of nature. Also lingering in my memories are the odd visions of a wooden tool shed/shack standing near the stripped foundation of a cinderblock building, as well as seeing the debris trapped inside telephone poles where the storm had opened the grain of the wood and suddenly released it – with a soda-straw clean through it…
During my stay in Lubbock and on occasion when I visit or pass through I go to see the locations where the death and destruction are still surreal but vivid memories. When I am at these locations around May 11th the feeling of uneasiness is extreme. Perhaps it is from an overactive imagination, but I try to be objective about it. I am a scientist and engineer, and I don’t subscribe easily to things I can’t measure.
I have had aberrations in my captured images and videos that I didn’t see on the field monitor, but I discovered when post-processing for production. I have had weather sensor malfunctions and numerous anomalies in other equipment, especially radio gear. I try to explain away these coincidences to myself by thinking there is a lens flare, noise in the image sensor or some other natural physics phenomenon as the cause for these, but there is no hard evidence to explain these incidents one way or the other.
When I have tried to discuss this with others, often times they act like I am a little crazy or one of “those”. I haven’t told anyone about this in years, but I am less worried nowadays about what someone thinks about my mental state and more interested in figuring out a way to measure and/or document this.
So, if you read this far, I thank you so much. Also, I would love to hear about your experiences, especially when weather and the paranormal intersect. If this resonates with anything you have been a witness to, please send me a PM or comment below.
Let’s go hunting for it all: From severe storms, to paranormal, to cryptid-zoology...
Kooky Kenny
Chief Engineer and Storm Chaser at:
wegotcows.com and wegotcows.tv
“...I gotta go Julia, wegotcows”, Dr. Melissa Reeves, May 10, 1996
(Twister scene - Two F[2/3] tornados and likely “The Same Cow”)
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