Tornado Photos
What Can You Remember?
Tell us what you can remember about the August 11, 1999 tornado in Salt Lake City
Viewer Tornado Stories
Robert Seneca
August 11, is what today is thoughts take me back to the year of 1999 when Salt Lake experienced it's first and only tornado and I was in the middle of it downtown working on the Central Plant for the LDS Church. Mike and I were walking back from West Temple after inspecting the Landscape work north of the Genealogy Library when we saw the darken skies over the Oqquirh Mountains and lightning.
Told Mike that we better get back to the trailer to close out our computers just so we don't lose anything we had been working on. Just as I started closing my programs is when the power went out. Got mad that I wasn't able to close out fast enough not knowing what really happened outside. Got up to look out the west window in the conference room that's when we saw the twister. Mike, Gary and Myself were in awe of what we saw. I thought it was dust devil and Mike said in a panic voice that it's a tornado and we need to get out of the trailer!
Told Mike where are we going to go? The building is too far away we won't make it in time! So we stayed in the trailer and hoped for the best. What a day we had that day never will forget that. In looking back on all the events that we experienced on that job it's lucky that no one really got hurt on that job. FLOODS, LIGHTNING STRIKES, SHOOTINGS AT THE TRIAD, SHOOTINGS AT THE LIBRARY, CRANES TIPPING OVER, BOILERS BLOWING OFF! Just a lot of chaos but one thing that keeps me thinking success at this job, we got it done even Coates finally got their work done. What a ride this job was from day one and Alan Rudolph.
While ready for what ever, the only thing that was on my mind at the time was Tessie, where she worked a mile away and to me it seemed that the tornado was heading her way so I called her before the tornado hit me and was able to warn her even though the tornado changed directions just thinking of what kind of structure she was working in a stilted building. Was scared for her!
Suzie Hansen
I really wish I would have had a camera!! However, your news person said to write any experiences we had, as well. My daughter and I needed to leave a little early from a luncheon/meeting to honor those who were in charge of High School level blood drives and as she was Studentbody President at Tooele High School that year, she was responsible for that at THS, it was held up by the ARUP offices by the University of Utah.
As we headed West on 4th South, we saw a big column of 'smoke'. At 5th East we went North to South Temple St.and as I usually do, I put my turn signal on to turn North on State Street to go to North Temple and then home, however we were so fascinated with that 'smoke' that we kept going straight. We turned on the radio to see if there were any reports of a fire, but couldn't find anything. We didn't hear any sirens and tried to get through to a radio station to no avail, and then we got close enough that we could see all kinds of debris swirling up inside the column, that's when we realized that it was a tornado. It was so exciting!!
We were high fiving each other, feeling like we had witnessed History in the making! It kept coming toward us, and just about as we were directly South of the Salt Lake Temple, you could see the 'eye' of the storm on South Temple Street as it swirled around... and people were walking practically sideways to be able to keep their footing. At about 1/2 a block West of West Temple St. my daughter had to get out and move some siding that had blown off one of the buildings. It then calmed down and went over us and as we were about to get to 2nd West a police officer came down and blocked the road West. We turned North on 2nd West and saw the people leaving some trailers on the East side of 2nd West to assess the damage to the outdoor fair that was being set up and watched as the power lines were hitting each other and sparking -- then turned West on North Temple and headed home.
On the way home I called my husband to tell him that we had just driven through a tornado... he said, "What?" I said, "we just drove through the middle of a tornado!!" He then told me that he couldn't hear me because I was shouting and when the other phone at his work rang and he answered it I hung up. We were excited to get home and turn on the news! In the meantime, a lady came into his place of employment and asked him if he had heard about the tornado that had gone through Salt Lake and that there was reports of a death and lots of injuries. He then put that together and started calling me on my cell. I was in a 'dead zone' and the calls didn't go through, so he left frantic sounding messages. When we got home and turned on the news and saw and heard of all of the destruction - we were shocked! We had been in a total adrenaline rush, and could relate to those 'crazy people' who followed tornadoes. My comment was, "It's too bad that so many people had to suffer so that we could have such a wild and crazy experience".
I finally got my husband's message and called to put his mind to rest, and as we were watching the news, we realized that had we turned to go up State Street to North Temple we would have been right by the Conference Center that was under construction when the crane had been blown down. We were able to just barely get out before they closed North Temple going both West and East and we would have been stuck for hours!! It was amazing to think of how different it would all had been had we stayed for dessert!!
August 11, is what today is thoughts take me back to the year of 1999 when Salt Lake experienced it's first and only tornado and I was in the middle of it downtown working on the Central Plant for the LDS Church. Mike and I were walking back from West Temple after inspecting the Landscape work north of the Genealogy Library when we saw the darken skies over the Oqquirh Mountains and lightning.
Told Mike that we better get back to the trailer to close out our computers just so we don't lose anything we had been working on. Just as I started closing my programs is when the power went out. Got mad that I wasn't able to close out fast enough not knowing what really happened outside. Got up to look out the west window in the conference room that's when we saw the twister. Mike, Gary and Myself were in awe of what we saw. I thought it was dust devil and Mike said in a panic voice that it's a tornado and we need to get out of the trailer!
Told Mike where are we going to go? The building is too far away we won't make it in time! So we stayed in the trailer and hoped for the best. What a day we had that day never will forget that. In looking back on all the events that we experienced on that job it's lucky that no one really got hurt on that job. FLOODS, LIGHTNING STRIKES, SHOOTINGS AT THE TRIAD, SHOOTINGS AT THE LIBRARY, CRANES TIPPING OVER, BOILERS BLOWING OFF! Just a lot of chaos but one thing that keeps me thinking success at this job, we got it done even Coates finally got their work done. What a ride this job was from day one and Alan Rudolph.
While ready for what ever, the only thing that was on my mind at the time was Tessie, where she worked a mile away and to me it seemed that the tornado was heading her way so I called her before the tornado hit me and was able to warn her even though the tornado changed directions just thinking of what kind of structure she was working in a stilted building. Was scared for her!
Suzie Hansen
I really wish I would have had a camera!! However, your news person said to write any experiences we had, as well. My daughter and I needed to leave a little early from a luncheon/meeting to honor those who were in charge of High School level blood drives and as she was Studentbody President at Tooele High School that year, she was responsible for that at THS, it was held up by the ARUP offices by the University of Utah.
As we headed West on 4th South, we saw a big column of 'smoke'. At 5th East we went North to South Temple St.and as I usually do, I put my turn signal on to turn North on State Street to go to North Temple and then home, however we were so fascinated with that 'smoke' that we kept going straight. We turned on the radio to see if there were any reports of a fire, but couldn't find anything. We didn't hear any sirens and tried to get through to a radio station to no avail, and then we got close enough that we could see all kinds of debris swirling up inside the column, that's when we realized that it was a tornado. It was so exciting!!
We were high fiving each other, feeling like we had witnessed History in the making! It kept coming toward us, and just about as we were directly South of the Salt Lake Temple, you could see the 'eye' of the storm on South Temple Street as it swirled around... and people were walking practically sideways to be able to keep their footing. At about 1/2 a block West of West Temple St. my daughter had to get out and move some siding that had blown off one of the buildings. It then calmed down and went over us and as we were about to get to 2nd West a police officer came down and blocked the road West. We turned North on 2nd West and saw the people leaving some trailers on the East side of 2nd West to assess the damage to the outdoor fair that was being set up and watched as the power lines were hitting each other and sparking -- then turned West on North Temple and headed home.
On the way home I called my husband to tell him that we had just driven through a tornado... he said, "What?" I said, "we just drove through the middle of a tornado!!" He then told me that he couldn't hear me because I was shouting and when the other phone at his work rang and he answered it I hung up. We were excited to get home and turn on the news! In the meantime, a lady came into his place of employment and asked him if he had heard about the tornado that had gone through Salt Lake and that there was reports of a death and lots of injuries. He then put that together and started calling me on my cell. I was in a 'dead zone' and the calls didn't go through, so he left frantic sounding messages. When we got home and turned on the news and saw and heard of all of the destruction - we were shocked! We had been in a total adrenaline rush, and could relate to those 'crazy people' who followed tornadoes. My comment was, "It's too bad that so many people had to suffer so that we could have such a wild and crazy experience".
I finally got my husband's message and called to put his mind to rest, and as we were watching the news, we realized that had we turned to go up State Street to North Temple we would have been right by the Conference Center that was under construction when the crane had been blown down. We were able to just barely get out before they closed North Temple going both West and East and we would have been stuck for hours!! It was amazing to think of how different it would all had been had we stayed for dessert!!
I work at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. I have been there for 15 years. I was working that day . I am in the dishroom there. I was doing a job that took me to the Underground Parking.I missed Viewing the Tornado. Odd thing is I worked on the 10th Anniv.
Curtis Christiansen @ 1:42 AM MDT, Aug 12, 2009
I was driving on 5th So in downtown Salt Lake for work and about to turn into where the tornado hit. I was stopped by emergency vehicles and heard on the news that a tornado touched down in Salt Lake right where I was supposed to be going. I felt really lucky that day.
Sheila Perry @ 10:01 PM MDT, Aug 11, 2009
i remember i was in day care and my mom worked down town i ws crying hoping it wouldnt hit where she worked.
Stevie Jolley @ 4:48 PM MDT, Aug 11, 2009
more comments