9:35 p.m. We're under a tornado warning...again. I was in the bathtub with Hannah when the tornado siren sounded. Yeah. I was ready.
Now we're all outside, listening to Carl's truck radio as rain lightly falls, thunder sounds, and dogs bark nearby. The Presbyterian church next door is a city shelter and I can see people in the light of the basement, waiting in fear.
"You need to be in your shelter right now. Do not wait. If you are in Labette county, please continue to stay in your shelters," the DJ is warning. "This is a very dangerous storm." We're in Labette county, but, well, yeah, yeah. I don't feel cavalier, just jaded. I went to the cellar once or twice in my youth for no reason. The cellar, with it's imagined snakes and spiders, frightened me more than the weather outside.
"You're blogging???" my girls continue to ask. Yeah, I'm blogging. I'm trying to capture this experience from the perspective of someone who has lived through hundreds of tornado watches and warnings.
"Buckle down. The Parsons police department has confirmed damage in Dennis, KS," the DJ just reported, a direct quote.
Heavy, heavy rains nearby and power is out. The safest place to be is in a basement, but we still sit outside, smack dab in the middle of Tornado Alley.
Hailey's fourth grade teacher just came over from the Presbyterian church because she saw us sitting outside. She wanted to see if I was watching the storm on my laptop (I was). Her son is a DJ on the radio station we're listening to, which they could hear from outside the Presbyterian Church. Small towns. I love it. We talked about the summer, about Hailey's new sunburn, about the turtles Katie had in a box, ready for a rush to shelter.
UPDATE. Our town has just been named as being in the line of the storm, with 70 m.p.h. winds. We'll see. The air remains eerily calm here. Hannah is laying on the concrete on her Spiderman beach towel with a pillow. She's nearly asleep amidst the danger.
It's now 10:19 p.m. an the all-clear siren is sounding, along with every dog in the neighborhood, to tell us the we are safe from tornadoes once again. I think I'll go inside, finish my gin and tonic, and relax. Whew. What excitement! Welcome to tornado alley.
3 comments:
OK, you are FREAKING ME OUT. If you won't go to the basement, you should AT LEAST get off your computer! Turn the thing off, make sure you've got a badass surge protector, and go in out of the rain! sheesh The gin and tonic sounds fine, though.
Laurie: All is well. I have a laptop and sat out of the rain (actually, barely sprinkles) in the garage, ten feet from our underground concrete storm shelter, watching Doppler radar on weather.com. I could hear the neighbors outside on their deck.
This morning it's beautifully cool and still. I haven't turned on the TV yet to see what damage has been done, but we remained untouched.
Happy Sunday!
I can so relate to this living in a hurricane prone zone. After a while you just have to weigh the trouble of going to another shelter with riding it out. In 13 years my family has evacuated only three times. Glad you all came through the storms okay.
Post a Comment