Howdy Y'all! Dodging Twisters and Counting Survivors in Texas!
Texas. Land of wide-open spaces, ten-gallon hats, and the occasional bout of terrifying twisters. We're here today to talk about not one, but two of those twisters that tore through the Lone Star State in the spring of 1979. Buckle up, buttercup, because things were about to get hairy!
The Terrible Twister Twins
These weren't your average, run-of-the-mill twisters. No sir. These were monsters, churning across the plains with a vengeance. One touched down in Wichita Falls, leaving a path of destruction that folks there still talk about today. They even gave it a catchy nickname: Terrible Tuesday. The other one hit down near Vernon, Texas, and let's just say it wasn't exactly a day at the rodeo.
Hold Your Horses! How Many Folks Made It Out Alive?
Now, this is where things get a little tricky. Tracking down exact numbers of survivors from a tornado that happened over 40 years ago is about as easy as wrangling a herd of wild armadillos. But you know what? We Texans are resourceful bunch. So, we're gonna do some Texas-Sized Math to figure it out.
Imagine a giant pot of chili, big enough to feed the whole state. That's how many folks were living in Wichita Falls and Vernon back in '79. Now, we gotta subtract a whole heapin' helping of those tornadoes (say about 10 or 15 of them suckers). And let's not forget those flying debris and whatnot – that gotta take out a few folks, bless their hearts.
The Verdict: A Texas-Sized Sigh of Relief!
Alright, after all that fancy figurin', we got ourselves a heaping helping of survivors! We're talking thousands of tough Texans who stared down those twisters and said, "Not today, buster!"
The Moral of the Story?
Tornadoes are no laughing matter. But hey, sometimes you gotta laugh a little bit in the face of danger, right? Just remember, if you ever see a funnel cloud brewing over your favorite Buc-ee's, it's time to hightail it outta there faster than a jackrabbit on a hot tin roof! And who knows, maybe next time those pesky tornadoes will take a vacation to, oh, I don't know, Kansas?
