In 24 hours, no less. I spent yesterday afternoon and evening hunkered down in my basement with my doggies, waiting for the world to be rearranged. Thankfully, me and mine were spared. Other towns just to my south were not so fortunate. Utter devastation. This isn't supposed to happen here. Sure, every year we get an EF-0 or EF-1 twister that blows the lawn furniture around, maybe peels some shingles off a few roofs, but nothing like this. This was no joke, and I'm glad I took it seriously. I did come up a few times, thinking it was over, but each time I did a new warning would be issued in minutes, the 2nd and 3rd wave storms following the same path as the first. Intense is not strong enough a description. I've heard surreal used a lot today, I've used ugly, usually capitalized - UGLY! It was that.
My neighbor, braver and/or more foolish than I, actually saw the tornado, in the distance, from his upstairs window. I saw enough warning signs in the sky and clouds as the thunder began to rumble that I closed the horses up tight in their shedrow and was not surprised to see the tornado warning as soon as I got back inside. I also saw, through the opaque basement windows, the light outside grow dim and take on that greenish-black color of a bad bruise. If I never see that tint again it will be too soon.
This was not my first tornado experience. Naturally, tornadoes are my one phobia. I dealt with this throughout my childhood by educating myself about them as much as possible. I probably should have become a meteorologist. So I already had a plan and knew just what to grab when the warning came up on my screen. Dogs, flashlight, cell phone; check, check, check. Grab 'em and go. I was anxious but not scared. I felt prepared. I am more freaked about it now than I was at the time. Probably because I have been looking at pictures all day, letting the what-if's run through my head.
We had tornado warnings one day last summer. We were watching tv and the meteorologist said: if you live in this red box (literally, our neighborhood) and you're not in the basement, you need to stop watching and go to the basement NOW. Freaked us right out. The tornadoes were smaller and didn't touch down here - one was about 5 miles away. But nothing like the other day in your neck of the woods. Sheesh. Not fun.
ReplyDeleteI waited out a few warnings in Charleston when A-boy was a baby. Bathtub, internal bathroom. Stupid slab house.
Anyway, I'm glad you are all safe.
Ack. xo
I myself have never been through any natural disaster. Although I was visiting my best friend in Denver and was working at her house when the sirens went off. I didn't know what they were at first but then it dawned on me what they were for. At that exact same moment my friend calls me and tells me I need to head to the basement with her dogs. Freaky! Thankfully the tornado passed to the north of us, but wasn't my cup of tea. Glad I am in Idaho...although tornados are not impossible they are unlikely.
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