Yesterday after Veronica got off of work, we had planned to drive the approximately 50 miles in order to go to a Super Walmart that is in Elizabeth City, NC.
The weather was nice when we left our place but by the time we got to the Elizabeth City area, it had turned cloudy with minor rain. As we were getting real close to the turnoff that leads to the Walmart parking lot, we noticed some very low hanging dark clouds along with a torrential downpour going on.
We didn't notice any rotation in those low hanging clouds.
Veronica parked the car and because it was really raining very hard, we decided to wait until the rain slowed down or stopped before we would go into the Walmart store.
I saw another person park their pickup truck almost directly across from our vehicle.
I could see the guy driving this pickup truck leaning over and looking at those low hanging clouds.
The next thing we knew was that the wind really picked up speed and strength.
The wind got so bad that our vehicle started to shake, shift and move due to the strength of the wind.
Lightening hit one of the tall light fixtures that was in this parking lot...only about 100 feet from us.
When the wind got really bad, we decided to open up the vehicle windows just a bit to counter the vacuum effects the wind might be having on our vehicle. We were hoping that by opening the windows just a bit, it would keep the glass from bursting or cracking due to pressure.
It seemed like quite a while until the winds died down a bit but it was actually only a matter of a couple of minutes.
Once the winds died down, they picked up real strong again but this time in the opposite direction.
After what seemed life a lifetime, the winds and rain slowed down for the most part and we made our way into the store.
When we got into the store, the guy who had been in the pickup truck that was across from our parked car in the parking lot, talked to Veronica and told her that the front end of our vehicle lifted off of the ground as did the back portion of his pickup truck.
We did our shopping and made it safely home.
After discussing everything that we had experienced, we consider ourselves to be very lucky. This whole event could have turned out very badly.
The weather was nice when we left our place but by the time we got to the Elizabeth City area, it had turned cloudy with minor rain. As we were getting real close to the turnoff that leads to the Walmart parking lot, we noticed some very low hanging dark clouds along with a torrential downpour going on.
We didn't notice any rotation in those low hanging clouds.
Veronica parked the car and because it was really raining very hard, we decided to wait until the rain slowed down or stopped before we would go into the Walmart store.
I saw another person park their pickup truck almost directly across from our vehicle.
I could see the guy driving this pickup truck leaning over and looking at those low hanging clouds.
The next thing we knew was that the wind really picked up speed and strength.
The wind got so bad that our vehicle started to shake, shift and move due to the strength of the wind.
Lightening hit one of the tall light fixtures that was in this parking lot...only about 100 feet from us.
When the wind got really bad, we decided to open up the vehicle windows just a bit to counter the vacuum effects the wind might be having on our vehicle. We were hoping that by opening the windows just a bit, it would keep the glass from bursting or cracking due to pressure.
It seemed like quite a while until the winds died down a bit but it was actually only a matter of a couple of minutes.
Once the winds died down, they picked up real strong again but this time in the opposite direction.
After what seemed life a lifetime, the winds and rain slowed down for the most part and we made our way into the store.
When we got into the store, the guy who had been in the pickup truck that was across from our parked car in the parking lot, talked to Veronica and told her that the front end of our vehicle lifted off of the ground as did the back portion of his pickup truck.
We did our shopping and made it safely home.
After discussing everything that we had experienced, we consider ourselves to be very lucky. This whole event could have turned out very badly.
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