The Terror of the First F5 Tornado
The nonstop high plains wind suddenly fell dead still, leaving the evening air hot and heavy over Lubbock, Texas. Impossibly dark clouds hung low in the sky.
Standing in the yard outside her family’s trailer home, 12-year-old Cindy Keele saw the worry emerge in her grandmother’s face. “Go in and put on your shoes,” Keele’s grandmother said flatly. “We have to get to the storm cellar.”
The girl dashed inside. As soon as the screen door slapped shut behind her, hail (冰雹) began rapping against the roof. Keele yelled to her mother, “Grandma says we have to get to the storm cellar!” Then a hail stone the size of a softball smashed through the kitchen window. Another one punched a hole in the ceiling. And then came the sound: the unmistakable, ear-splitting roar of an approaching tornado.
Cindy Keele’s mother was suddenly on the same page. But getting herself, her three kids, and her mother to safety was no simple matter—the shelter was at the opposite end of the trailer park. If they didn’t drive, they’d never make it.
The five moved quickly to the family car, ducking to avoid hurtling pieces. At last, everyone was in the car.
“My purse!” Keele’s grandmother shouted “My purse is still in there!”
Keele jumped out of the car and ran back into the house. She fetched the purse and dashed back into the maelstrom. She almost made it. “As I ran to the car,” she says, “an enormous hailstone hit me in the back of the neck. I was told it was the size of a soccer ball.” The next few minutes were a blur for the girl. Her next clear memory is of inside the shelter.
“I guess there were 60 of us in there, plus dogs and cats,” Keele says. “The sound outside was deafening. And then, all of a sudden, it got quiet.” Cautiously, the group emerged from underground.
“My mother ran straight for our street. What she found was—nothing.” The place where our house had been were pieces of houses, but not pieces of our house. “I’d never seen my mom cry,” Keele recalls softly. “But she was on her knees. She was broken.”
May 11 marks the 51st anniversary of the 1970 Lubbock tornado, the first such storm ever to be classified F5.
【小题1】What did Keele do in the story?| A．She dashed to the room to save her brothers. |
| B．She rushed to fetch her grandmothers purse. |
| C．She drove the family members to the shelter. |
| D．She ran to the cellar first with her grandmother. |
| A．The tornado died down very slowly. |
| B．Hail was the biggest killer in the tornado. |
| C．The tornado came with a deafening noise. |
| D．It was windy and sunny before the tornado. |
| A．Keele’s house was totally mined | B．Keele’s mother got her knees hurt |
| C．Keele lost memory of the tornado | D．Keele was injured by a soccer ball |
