Dude, it's totally funneling!
September 17, 2010 11:01 AM   Subscribe

In light of the storm that tore through the metropolitan New York City area, we now have Bro-nado. (YT)
posted by functionequalsform (48 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
Holy shit.
posted by monospace at 11:04 AM on September 17, 2010


Dude it's funnelling.
posted by punkfloyd at 11:06 AM on September 17, 2010


I wonder if there was a double rainbow after?
posted by chococat at 11:06 AM on September 17, 2010 [2 favorites]


My god. They literally have zero survival instinct.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 11:08 AM on September 17, 2010 [22 favorites]


Whoa. It's a double tornado...
posted by schmod at 11:11 AM on September 17, 2010




We got bros.
posted by brundlefly at 11:13 AM on September 17, 2010


those heroes got some great footage
posted by lulz at 11:13 AM on September 17, 2010


First bedbugs and the hottest summer on record and now this. In a search for authenticity, God has gone old-school.
posted by griphus at 11:14 AM on September 17, 2010 [3 favorites]


My god. They literally have zero survival instinct.

It's Brooklyn. They're too traumatized by the bedbugs to even think of survival during a tornado.
posted by Bighappyfunhouse at 11:14 AM on September 17, 2010 [5 favorites]


My god. They literally have zero survival instinct.

And yet, tragically, New York City is now a place where they can survive.
posted by Combustible Edison Lighthouse at 11:16 AM on September 17, 2010 [2 favorites]


Also, that would have been a great moment to ice them.
posted by monospace at 11:19 AM on September 17, 2010 [5 favorites]


Must've torn their mansierres right off the clothesline.
posted by Mike D at 11:22 AM on September 17, 2010


Here's a video of the aftermath. "Holy shit" is about all this guy can say, too.

Another aftermath video that's much better.
posted by beagle at 11:22 AM on September 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


I somehow thought a Bro-nado had something to do with frat types getting sucked into a tornado.
posted by kmz at 11:35 AM on September 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


In the rainbow video, I rooted for the guy. In the tornado video, I rooted for the tornado.
posted by DU at 11:38 AM on September 17, 2010 [5 favorites]


Here's a video of the aftermath. "Holy shit" is about all this guy can say, too.

Long Island has turned on its side!
posted by iamck at 11:40 AM on September 17, 2010


More fun storm watching and reading.
posted by oinopaponton at 11:47 AM on September 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


Director's cut.
posted by zerobyproxy at 11:50 AM on September 17, 2010


NYT reader's photos of the storm and its aftermath (flash interface)
posted by hippybear at 12:01 PM on September 17, 2010


And yet, tragically, New York City is now a place where they can survive.

Pfff. I give em two years each, tops.
posted by hermitosis at 12:08 PM on September 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


Dude, it's bro-mageddon.
posted by slackdog at 12:09 PM on September 17, 2010


I was really hoping that this would be a mashup video of various bros taping tornados, a la this Viral Video Film School about bears.
posted by NoraReed at 12:14 PM on September 17, 2010


Yikes those look like 40 to 50 year old Sycamores. Too bad they'll be replaced by some crappy city proof tree. That's one hell of a storm. Bro.
posted by Gungho at 12:14 PM on September 17, 2010


Holy crap! Some weather happened in New York!
posted by kcds at 12:15 PM on September 17, 2010


What does this mean?
posted by Anything at 12:22 PM on September 17, 2010 [2 favorites]


My god. They literally have zero survival instinct.

They do, though-- or at least the one trying to convince the cameraman to come back inside does. You can hear him trying to figure out which would be worse: dying in a tornado or losing the mystique of being perpetually "laid back" in front of his bromies.
posted by oinopaponton at 12:25 PM on September 17, 2010


Did somebody do an autotune yet?
posted by monospace at 12:31 PM on September 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


That was not a tornado. It was a pretty bad storm with high winds, which can cause pretty bad damage. If they were in the middle of the tornado I bet things would've gotten far worse.
Also, in any bad storm with high winds: People, get away from windows!!!
posted by dov3 at 12:54 PM on September 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


A big city is about the worst place to have a tornado. the more crap you got lying aroud, the worse it is.
Yeah, they will pyobably replace the lively old sycamores with dome city proof trees, or maybe nothing.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 12:58 PM on September 17, 2010


So my BF was teaching a class in a room with big windows during this storm.

It apparently made a lecture on Computer architecture very ...dramatic.


i asked him if he managed to slip in a "It's ALIVE' and he said no. Some people have no sense of drama
posted by The Whelk at 1:42 PM on September 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


My first thought was, "How many balconies do those guys have?"
posted by ekroh at 1:44 PM on September 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


Great apartment. Is it vacant?
posted by Capt. Renault at 2:01 PM on September 17, 2010 [2 favorites]


So I watched the vid in my Stats class on silent... and now back at home watching it with audio... all I can say is:

"Look at the tree... look at the fucking tree...!"

Crazy metropolitan madness I have to say.
posted by JoeXIII007 at 2:12 PM on September 17, 2010


Is it just me, or was that video totally lacking a tornado?
posted by kaseijin at 2:23 PM on September 17, 2010 [9 favorites]


A bit more seriously: Having lived in the north Texas area for most of my life, I always find myself a bit bewildered and bemused at the way people in less...turbulent...climates react to what is basically a normal thunderstorm in around here.
posted by kaseijin at 2:28 PM on September 17, 2010 [4 favorites]


In 2001, less than a month after the big national news of 2001, a tornado spun up in College Park, Maryland, where I went to school, killed two girls on campus, and then cut a messy stripe north through Prince George's County to Laurel, where I live. I don't listen to the radio much, so I wasn't really aware anything was going on other than some nasty-looking storms. I climbed into the old car, headed to Office Depot for a composition book and a cartridge for my pen, and was pretty pissed off when the lights went out, just before it was my turn at the register.

Of course the registers died. They always do. The big electric sliding door died, too, so I helped two of the guys on staff to force it open, and we all stood there, in the weird grey-green light, and watched the black clouds on the other side of town. A guy who claimed to be from Texas pointed to a little pinched place on the clouds, right about where the high school stands, and said that it was a tornado. He was sure. Another guy held up a small videocamera.

"I don't think that's a tornado," I said. "That's just a cloud."

"You can't always see the funnel," the Texas guy said.

"I'm pretty sure that's not a tornado. Why do you think it's a tornado?"

"I heard on the radio that there's a tornado in College Park, heading this way."

"Shouldn't there be sirens or something?" I asked. I was still annoyed by the whole register issue, so I was feeling like asserting my brilliance. "That's no tornado. We don't get tornadoes here."

Thinking I'd beat the rain, I left, climbed back in my car, and drove to my place on the other side of town, and turned on the TV. Apparently, the tornado watch had turned to a warning, and yes, it was coming this way. I hunkered down, as best I could, but never saw a thing.

I'd chased one, a few years earlier, after hearing on the news that there was a tornado touching down in Tuxedo, Maryland, but arrived too late, and just saw the Baltimore-Washington Parkway swimming in a sea of shredded leaves and branches. What a disappointment.

The power failed, the lights went out, the dog retreated under my desk, and it was loud for a while. Afterward, I climbed on my bike, took a flashlight and some tools, and went out exploring. The tornado had peeled the roof off my favorite thrift store and dropped it on the house I'd tried to talk my mother into buying in '98. Whole apartment buildings lost their roofs, and there were powerlines, branches, and huge pieces of debris everywhere.

I headed for where it was worst, where one of my best friends lived, and her place was fine, but on the next street over, a whole house was blasted apart, peeled like an orange, with a family huddled in their car as all the neighbors came by for lookie-loos.

On the other side of the neighborhood, the temporary classrooms of the high school were in ruins, having been blown apart by the pinched cloud I watched from the foyer of Office Depot. I looked around, asking people here and there if anyone needed any help, and offering to lend tools and a strong back, but folks had it covered.

"Nice bike, fatty," a roving group of teens yelled as I pedaled for home.

Fatty? My BMI is perfectly acceptable, you little assholes.

I rode across town to find a safe driving route, then headed back for my car, so I could drive to a nearby town for batteries for my portable TV. I dodged the branches and the occasional crumpled sheetmetal shed, bought batteries, and laid them on my seat beside...well, shit.

The composition book and ink cartridge were sitting there. I'd absent-mindedly just walked off with them in the midst of the tornado conversation. I'd looted Office Depot.

I felt a little flush of shame, then some wry, mean-spirited pride.

I'm a looter, people. Don't mess with me. Nice bike, fatty!? BLAMMO! I'm hardcore, y'all!

Back at home, I set up the TV, curled up with the dog, and watched the bad news roll in.

"We have video of the tornado in action right here," the local anchor said, and a very, very familiar scene rolled. In it, a little pinched black cloud touched the horizon on the Southern end of Laurel, and there I was, right there.

"Shouldn't there be sirens or something? That's no tornado. We don't get tornadoes here."

They launched a lecture on the seriousness of tornado warnings on the strength of my response, as if to point out that yes, that guy is a total idiot. There were no reports of looting, but I knew something they didn't, and I drew a little tornado on the first page of my purloined composition book, lit by the dim grey wash of an old black & white portable television, ran myself a glass of water, and just sat there in the dark, listening to my dog snoring gently beside me, thinking about what a long, complicated month it had turned out to be.
posted by sonascope at 2:47 PM on September 17, 2010 [27 favorites]


A bit more seriously: Having lived in the north Texas area for most of my life, I always find myself a bit bewildered and bemused at the way people in less...turbulent...climates react to what is basically a normal thunderstorm in around here.

Weather in NYC can get pretty turbulent. This was a severe storm - tornado or not, it managed to pull sidewalks out of the ground in eastern Queens by tearing up the huge trees that had roots underneath them. It tore roofs off places. The pictures from Brooklyn don't really cover the worst damage, which AFAIK was in eastern Queens in Bayside, Great Neck, places around there. The worst damage was relatively localized. Most of the rest of the city got a brief but heavy thunderstorm under very dark clouds.

That said, I also find myself a bit bewildered and bemused when southern folks freak out about driving in an inch of snow.
posted by wondermouse at 3:04 PM on September 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


That said, I also find myself a bit bewildered and bemused when southern folks freak out about driving in an inch of snow

that's because nobody in the south KNOWS how to drive in an inch of snow and we slide all over the place and into each other. Trust me, you don't wanna be on the road then with us either.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 3:14 PM on September 17, 2010


Ya, a co-worker of mine's house in Queens was pretty much wrecked by a fallen tree.

Still, also being from North Texas originally, yesterday's storm wasn't anything like tornado season down there.

These guys really could have been hurt, though maybe I just think that because growing up I really got drilled about: "get away from windows! move to the center of the building! get underground and shield yourself as much as possible!"

It's awesome footage, and fun to watch, but the risk of injuring themselves was pretty high.
posted by rosswald at 3:38 PM on September 17, 2010


I somehow thought a Bro-nado had something to do with frat types getting sucked into a tornado.

DUDE... DUDE... that video would be WAAAAY better if that had happened.
posted by RedEmma at 4:00 PM on September 17, 2010


In 1990 I lived in the very sketchy neighborhood north of the MSY airport in Kenner, LA, which was (and AFAIK still is) pretty much the crack cocaine distribution center of southern Louisiana. The previous tenant in our rental house had been a crack dealer, a fact we quickly figured out as for the first few months there we would get the occasional knock on the door from someone wanting to buy drugs.

So anyhoo you could always tell which house the new crack house was if you lived there partly from the steady stream of customers and partly from the payola pickup, which they didn't even bother to hide. For about a year the place was across the street and every Thursday afternoon a cop car would pull up promptly at 2:00 PM, honk, and a kid would run out with a brown paper bag for them. Subtle.

So in 1990 a tornado ripped through the nearby industrial park and just about exploded a fair sized metal warehouse, dropping insulation and steel siding and bits and pieces of this and that over an area of a couple of square miles, but mostly in our front yard and for a couple of blocks around.

At this time the crack house was around the corner, about a block away. Within two hours of the storm a Kenner city garbage truck came up and the workers cleared up every bit of debree and totally cleaned the yard of the crack house. Then they drove off, leaving the rest of the neighborhood for the residents to deal with.
posted by localroger at 4:22 PM on September 17, 2010 [6 favorites]


A TREE BLOWS IN BROOKLYN

C'mon, guys. Almost fifty comments before the obvious pun?
posted by Sys Rq at 6:08 PM on September 17, 2010 [4 favorites]


Also from North Texas, and the damage in my Park Slope neighborhood is totally on par with the worst storms I experienced growing up. Sneer if you want, though, it's fun!
posted by unknowncommand at 8:50 PM on September 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


Yeah, and now they've confirmed that two tornadoes did indeed touch down in the boroughs, as well as a macroburst. So yeah. I don't think that's really anything to be bewildered and bemused about when it comes to people freaking out about it, especially in such a densely populated area. It's amazing there weren't more deaths.
posted by wondermouse at 11:01 PM on September 17, 2010


My god. They literally have zero survival instinct.

Is not nature wonderful. It finds a way of weeding out the weak and leaving only the strong. Sadly, these 'bros' were spared. Nature is fickle.
posted by Fizz at 5:19 AM on September 18, 2010


I kid, I kid. Glad no one died but these guys are idiots standing next to windows with a tornado outside their front door.
posted by Fizz at 5:20 AM on September 18, 2010


More fun storm watching and reading.

Ok, I'm dying for theories about the horseshoe crabs on the sidewalk. That's fucking funny.
posted by mediareport at 5:53 AM on September 18, 2010


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