I think the big news around here this week though has been our crazy weather. For February, it sure has been active already. Living where we do in the midwest means we are pretty used to tornado warnings. As long as I can remember they have just been something that we have. When I was in high school if it was time to pack down to the cellar I made sure to throw together a backpack of all my precious belongings so they wouldn't blow away. You know, the important things....yearbooks, pictures of my friends and I, probably favorite CD's and books, my stuffed animals....come on. I couldn't live without all of these things! HA In 1990 when I was only 9 year old a tornado ripped apart the town next to ours and I saw the tornado in the sky. We were standing out in my Memaw's yard watching it. Probably not so safe but I'm sure there were a lot worse things I did as a child. In November 2005 one came through the city that I live in now and was devastating. Many people died, lost homes, etc. So since then everyone around here is a little more afraid.
This past week we were woken up at 5am on Wednesday morning to the storm sirens going off. We always kind of take our time getting to the basement unless it looks super serious on the radar. Let's face it - when you live where we live, a tornado warning in the next county over doesn't cause much alarm. It has to be within 5-10 miles for us to really get excited. Once they said one had been spotted we moved us and Rocko to the basement. Tabi was less than excited to have her sleep interrupted of course. That one was pretty much a false alarm that caused nothing but all of us being exhausted for the rest of the day.
Yesterday however was a different story. Yesterday I knew we were supposed to have storms but honestly you just never know if anything will happen or not. I went back and forth on going to a meeting or not but decided at the very last minute to do so. I figured I could get home before it got really bad outside. Tommy had left work early to go pick up our kids from school. A lot of the schools dismissed early due to the threat of extreme weather. While at my meeting the sky darkened, the wind picked up and the texts started coming in on my phone. My mom, my sister, the local weather station...we were all distracted in the meeting to say the least especially when the sirens started going off. By the end of the meeting my mom said the worst had passed us so I would be okay to drive home, however another one was coming so I had better hurry. I had already told Tabi to get in the basement and grab Rocko. I called Tommy and told him to hurry his butt home. I wanted us all home, together, in the basement. It looked ugly outside. And it feels weird when a tornado is coming also. If you've been around one, you know what I mean. I made it home about 5 minutes after Tommy and the kids and they started saying there was a sighting near our house. We all barreled to the basement when I told Tommy that it was about a mile from us. While in the basement someone from our country club posted the picture below. This is taken at the top of our hill from our house. Um. Okay. So that is actually scary. Like I said, normally we don't get too freaked out but that sucker is huge and ugly and black and WAY too close for comfort.
We rode out the storm in the basement until it passed and luckily not much happened here. It did not touch down here thank God but unfortunately it did touch down not so far from here. There was a lot of damage and loss of life. The devastation is so sad and it's so scary that this exact same storm that you see here is what caused all of that. If all this is already happening in February, I am afraid to see what spring and summer hold for us. Ugh. Thank goodness for a basement!
Wow! That is an ominous picture! Glad you and your family were not in its direct path!
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