Here's the story of a teenager who was carried a quarter of a mile by a tornado, and lived to tell the tale:

Grazulis said 300 to 400 feet was about the limit in order to survive a tornado-toss. One 9-year-old girl and her pony survived a 1,000-foot flight in 1955, but this was the longest previously known distance, he said.

“People who get tossed a quarter of a mile get killed in the air or in the fall or were dead when they were lifted up,” Grazulis said.

I think that we should make the tornado toss an Olympic event.

Man, it's too bad he was uncounscious-that would have been pretty amazing to see the inside of a tornado!

Uhhh - lemme see. You live in the mid-West - in a trailer - and you hear what sounds like a freight train. (And presumably you don't live near a railroad track.)

And the only thing you think of is to shut the window?

Glad they survived, but .... sheesh.

Barbera, reread the first line of the story:
"Every time a late-night freight train thunders past, Suter wakes up and remembers the vicious twister that pulled him from his home March 12 and landed him in a pasture — a quarter-mile away."
It sounds like he is used to hearing trains. The natural response I had when living next to train tracks was to close any open windows when the train went by.

Stan

Not necessarily, Stan. The story says he is reminded of the tornado when he hears the trains now - wherever he's living now. I don't see any indication in the story that the trailer was near railroad tracks.

But your mileage may vary. :-)