I have lived in the midwest for most of my life, so I am quite familiar with the sound of the tornado siren. But this past weekend we experienced one of the closest calls in my memory to date. And maybe it's something about that movie "Twister," but I still get scared, every time, no matter how many times nothing ends up happening. It may be a traumatic memory from the day of my birth, in which my mom tells me she had to go to the basement of the hospital, baby in tow, because there was a tornado warning.
This past Satruday around 5 pm, we were all home, including Melanie (who will cease to be our roommate tomorrow - miss you, Mel), getting ready for a going-away party for a friend of ours, and the sky was perfectly blue and cloudless. I was in the bathroom when I heard the distinct roaring of the tornado siren. How odd, I thought. It's not Wednesday at noon (when they routinedly test the siren - God help us all if there ever really IS a tornado on a Wednesday at noon), so why in the world is the siren going off? Typically when it goes off, it's all stormy outside or at least cloudy. So I followed my usual routine: go flip on the TV to look at the radar. In case you don't live in a tornado-prone area, the siren means that a tornado, or even a funnel cloud that hasn't touched down yet, has been spotted somewhere in the county. So alot of the time you can look at the radar and see that the storm isn't really headed in your direction, and then go about your business. But in this case, on Saturday, there was a storm, with a big purple dot in the middle and a little spinning cloud, that looked like it was making a bee line for our house. We stood and scratched our heads looking at the TV for awhile, because it was still sunny outside. But as the clouds covered our house and it started to rain, the TV meteorologist reported that a tornado had just touched down a couple of miles from our house, and it was headed in our direction.
I admit that I'm a spaz. A little bit of a freakazoid. But I was scared. We took a radio and a sippy cup of milk and ran for the basement. I was picturing how long we could survive under a pile of rubble with the frozen foods in our basement fridge. I thought surely they'd dig us out before we ran out of food. I know, SPAZ.
But here's the weird thing. Nothing happened. It didn't even seem like a very bad storm by the time it got to our house. If I hadn't heard all that stuff on the TV, I never would've known there was a tornado. And it didn't touch down for long, there was some property damage, but no injuries that I heard of. Katy had a good old time, exploring where I hide all the good toys that I never let her see. We had to laugh at how she had no clue what was going on. But it was ok, I was scared enough for both of us.
The Five (#10 Slowly Getting Later Edition)
5 weeks ago
3 comments:
I always say--better safe than sorry! Keep our Katy safe...Love, Kathy
Ah yes, the tornado siren always sends my heart racing as well. Growing up in Wisconsin we had even more storms than I've experienced here. I don't think I've ever been more storm-terrified than the years I lived in an apartment with no basement. At this point in my life I refuse to live in a house without a basement, and tornadoes are the reason. A handful of times since living here I have had to drag Harper down to the basement, usually after she'd been put to bed, to wait out a siren or storm. Perhaps it is not totally rational, but as long as I can go in the basement, I feel like we'll be okay.
I remember being in the basement as a kid. I'd always be afraid but pumped with adrenaline. Now we don't have a basement, but there haven't been tornado warnings when we're home. So I've never had anything to worry too much about. Last summer, though, when Zachariah was 3 months old a tornado came through town suddenly (like you described) and my mom was here. We happened to be at a store, so we spent 1/2 hour in their breakroom with about 20 other people. It was a tiny little room, and I had Zachariah in his carrier under a table. He slept through it.
I'm like Kelsey, though, I definitely want a basement in my next house.
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