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Thursday, February 07, 2008

Tornado scare

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CC is listening to: Rich Girl--Hall and Oates (Greatest Hits: Rock 'N Soul, Pt. 1)

You may have heard of the wave of tornadoes that swept through the South a couple of days ago. The one that touched down in Memphis was at a place that was 15 minutes away from us, which is the closest I've ever been to one. I didn't see it personally, but it was kind of scary to watch the news and witness a tornado touching down someplace that you know.

If you can picture it, Steve was calm all throughout, and I was running around in the apartment like a chicken without its head going, "What do we do? What do we do?"

Looking back now it's kind of funny :-), but it was scary at the time. Let me see if I can describe what it was like.

It was kind of surreal, really. You go outside and look at the sky. It's dark, but it's not raining yet. The wind is blowing really hard and you could see the clouds--well more like one cloud, a massive, thick gray blanket--just race across the sky. Once in a while, lightning would strike. Not the kind that was far away--it's close and it's clear and it's distinct. Then you hear the crack of the thunder a second later. Your hair's whipping against your face, the ozone is thick in the air. It's the kind of thing where even if you weren't watching the news, the weather felt wrong.

Then the sirens go off. There are tornado sirens in every city that go off when the weather conditions are just right that a tornado *could* form. It sounded like an air raid. Hearing one siren is bad enough. Hearing two go off, essentially two cities telling their people on the road, "Get off the road and find shelter NOW," was very scary.

You go back into the apartment and see what's going on in the news. The weatherman tells you that, according to their tracking system, the biggest part of the storm is due to hit your area at 6:53. You look at the clock. 6:48.

Then he suddenly pauses. "Ladies and gentlemen, we just got a report. A tornado has touched down. I repeat, a tornado been reported touching down in Southaven. If you are in the Southaven area, go to the innermost part of your house now. If you have a basement, go to your basement. Get some blankets, some pillows, maybe a mattress to shield yourself. I repeat, a tornado has been spotted in Southaven. Let's go over to our Hilton camera and see what's going on."

You know that Southaven is a good 20 minutes away from you, but somehow that doesn't make you feel better when you see a big tornado on the TV screen moving across a city landscape, tripping electric poles and causing giant sparks to flash. It reminds you of a lumbering giant: slow, menacing, uncaring about the destruction.

You know that tornadoes are unpredictable. There's no telling which direction they decide to take. What if it's headed your way?

You look around the apartment. What's the innermost part of the apartment? What's the place that's farthest away from the outer walls? Will we all fit under the dining table? What should I take with us? And as you ask yourself that question, another question hits you:

What am I willing to lose?

At that point I turned to Steve. "If that happens, we take the dogs," he said. I started to argue, but he interrupted, repeating very slowly: "We take the dogs. Everything else is just stuff."

I looked back at the TV. The storm system was directly over us now. The rain was coming down hard. The lights kept flickering on and off. We lost our TV reception a couple of times. The street lights outside went out. I walked to the window. "Any hail?" Steve asked.

Apparently one of the signs of an impending tornado is when hail begins to fall. "No," I replied. "Just rain."

I held my breath for the next minute or so until the clock said 6:55. Then the street lights came back on. We got our TV back, and the map confirmed it: the storm system had moved on. Then family started calling, asking if we were okay. That was about the point where I truly felt relieved that it was over.

Someone had captured video of a funnel cloud forming over Southaven. I don't know if it's the same funnel cloud that led to the tornado, but it gives you an idea of what it was like . To view it, click here.

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