You may remember two weeks ago when I was iced in my house...stuck there for days, because the roads were to icy to maneuver. Complaining that I just wanted to be able to leave, thankful to have power....
Fast Forward two weeks......
Yesterday, I was at work no different that any other Tuesday. The weather was beautiful in the 70's.
Grammy called me and told me that her tornado sirens were going off at the house, and to be careful....I laughed and said it's sunny and warm...and February, I'm sure it's just a thunder storm...no worries.
Not even a half an hour later Uncle Clint came into the office and said we need to go ahead and leave so we don't have to drive through the hail...I'm a good listener...I turned on the radio so I could listen to the storm and started on my 20 mile drive home.
The storm seemed to be moving in the exact path as me...except opposite, it was going north east and I was headed south west...I was a little concerned....I tried to call Grammy...my phone wasn't working..I tried to call Clint...my phone wasn't working...Finally I got a hold of Scott, I told him the radio makes me think I'm driving into a storm that may have a tornado in it...he looked on Weather.com and said he thought I'd be fine...
So, I kept driving.
Meanwhile, the radio was talking about how you may not be able to see the tornado...and the crossroads were making it seem more and more like I was about to meet this storm face to face.
You know how in Florida you can drive on one road, be dry and see where the rain starts? Okay, imagine that...except for instead of regular rain imagine a black wall, imagine you are in the day light and you can see yourself driving into the night (rainy night) That's what I started to see. I was getting a lot nervous, I stopped at a stop light when the wind started swirling. My car started rocking, the light turned green and the cars next to me did not move. This wall of storms was almost on top of us.
At this point the BEEPING started...you know the beeping I'm talking about, this is only a test if this weren't a test, this wasn't a test. "The National Weather Station has spotted a tornado" (that's almost on top of you) blah, blah, blah, (I missed this whole part) "if you are in a mobile home ABANDON your mobile home, if you are in your automobile ABANDON your automobile I repeat if you are in your mobile home ABANDON your mobile home, if you are in your automobile ABANDON your automobile." WHAT I AM IN MY AUTOMOBILE where do I go? what do I do?? I was frantically searching my brain for what you're supposed to do in tornadoes (I never listened I would NEVER go out in a tornado, I'd be in the bathtub). At this point I was pretty sure I was going to die, I didn't know if I should try and get out of my car and go into a building. I called Scott again he's from Oklahoma maybe he can tell me what to do. And if not at least he'll be on the phone with me when I die. (I was bawling my head off, which if you don't know Scott does not handle tears. He gets annoyed?) He told me to turn around, but I wasn't sure if that was right I was right in the middle there were two storms both on the same path. At this point I got text from a friend (who I haven't talked to in a while, to tell me to be careful) at that point I knew I was going to die, it was obvious God had said friend text me to make me happy before I died.
Obviously, I didn't die, I drove through two bouts of hail and finally made it home. My family is all fine, there was very bad damage a mile from us and a mile from Uncle Clint, Uncles Clint and Ken lost power. The storm I drove through did not touch down on top of me, but caused damage within in a few blocks on either side of me.
I am so sorry for the people who lost their lives in yesterday's and for their families. I am so THANKFUL to not be counted in that list.
Scott and Clint have both apologized a ton because they both feel responsible for putting me in a dangerous situation. Neither of them knew the complete situation and they are both WONDERFUL.
2 comments:
Glad you're alive! We heard about the tornadoes in OK and I told my Scott that I thought they were near you. I even check my address book to see if I had your address to see where they were in relation to you! I wouldn't have known what to do either! Our sirens went off later that night, and Reeses and I went into our closet to be safe - but Scott and Milo hung out in the bedroom. Dumb boys.
i'm glad, too!
i wouldn't have known what to do. i would have cried, too.
or maybe died.
you're a survivor!
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