!TORNADO!

In the summer of 1968 Richard Olsen was visited by a tornado. At that time Richard was in the National Guard Summer Camp in Rapid City, South Dakota. One weekend he and his friend were off duty and they went to one of the drive-ins to get something to eat. The waitress came over, and just as they were ordering their food a big gust of wind came. The wind got faster by the second and Richard's friend told him it was a tornado and to get down on the seat of the car. Richard noticed the waitress was having a hard time running to the restaurant and that while she was trying to open the door her face was getting cut up from all the flying rocks. As the wind got stronger their car started staggering.

"I can't say that I wasn't scared," Richard said. "That was the first time I'd ever been in a tornado. It was weird because one moment it was nice and sunny outside and the next it was dark from all the dust and things flying all over the sky around us. My friend and I looked over to the east where a motel was located and we saw its roof come right off, twirl into the air and then collide with another motel."

After the tornado passed, Richard and his friend went to the motel and restaurant to see if everybody was okay. There were no major injuries but there were some people who were bleeding from all the rocks that were flying around. Richard also came across a car that was wrecked from the tornado. It had a piece of 2x6 wood inside it that had broken through its front window, and it seemed like all the broken glass from the windows had been pushed inside the car from the pressure.

There was one funny thing about the incident that I recall," Richard said. "A guy with just his pants on came out of the motel and asked us what the heck had happened to his car! He appeared to have been sleeping through the whole thing!"

By: Richard Olsen

Interviewed by: Chris Fitka