Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Storms

Well, it's 3:45 a.m. About an hour ago if that, I was awaken to tornado sirens.

I get up, and turn on the TV and check the computer to see whats going on. Sure enough, rotation west of Sperry, headed this way.

I watch the TV for a bit to really make sure that it's headed this way.

Let me explain for my non-Okie friends, tornadoes can go in a V shaped path from the point of the rotation. So, paths can very a pretty good distance, and even though you are in the path, if you are on one of the outside paths, then, you're pretty safe... if you are in the center, well, not so much.

We were in the center of the path.

So, I woke up my wife, and we watched the weather reports for a while. We didn't want to wake the kids for no reason. I don't want them to feel like we cry wolf or in the case of my boy, grow up scared of storms (And in my bedroom every night it storms).

Things were going ok. It was on track straight for our town, but no rotation had been spotted, and it seemed to be weakening. I was feeling pretty good about going back to bed. Then they cut to a storm chaser*. He said he was a bit east of my town, and was watching the storm. He saw confirmed rotation above my town! Hello, that got my attention, so I did what any self respecting redneck would do, I walked out on the back porch to see for myself.

But when the winds got very strong and hail started pummeling the house so I came back in. Then the tornado indexes shot up on the storm (they had dropped low) and the storm chaser talked about seeing a power flash in town, and another. Did you catch that? IN TOWN.

I was looking out the window at the same time looking for his power flashes, and then I saw one! It was either AT the church next door, or across the street! About the same time my wife said OK as I said NOW!

I hollered at my daughter to get up and head to the basement and I ran up the stairs and grabbed my son and we all ran to the basement! I got my daughter under the stairs wrapped in a blanket. My wife sat down at her feet and our son crawled up in her lap, and they wrapped up in a blanket. I stood posed to cover them up if necessary... then I realized, I didn't have a blanket to protect me from anything.

So, again, I did what any self respectin redneck would do, I came upstairs to get one, and since I was upstairs, I might as well look out the window. I took a quick look, and then as I headed to get a blanket, I grabbed the remote and turned up the TV nice and loud so we could hear it downstairs! I grabbed a blanket, and went back downstairs. I wrapped the blanket over my back, and was prepared to throw myself on my family to protect them from anything that might come.

We waited for a bit and listened... and waited. Then I did what any self respecting nerd would do, and pulled up the radar on my phone. It looked like it had passed, so I came back up and verified it was good, and the family came back up and everyone headed back to bed.

Except me. I decided to blog. I've been in many storms in my life. Gone to the cellar more times than I care to count, but I don't believe I have ever been this scared.

As I sit here typing this, another round of VERY heavy storms above the house. I keep hitting save just in case I lose power.

Anyway, it looks like that's it. Guess I'll watch a bit more TV and then try to go to bed soon... the alarm will go off before I'd like it to.

(oh, and the hail was about pea sized or so)

*Storm Chasers - again, for my non-okie friends storm chasers are people that are a few fries short of a Happy Meal, and when strong storms come out, they get in the cars and chase these storms. Some chase from behind, some from in front! They have their phone, and cameras and other high tech gear (now anyway), and report into the TV station what they are seeing. Now, don't get me wrong about saying they are a few fries short. They really do help the stations let people know whats going on.

No comments: