February 10, 2009
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A winter tornado
Anxiety levels were high today. Tornadoes sprung up this afternoon over by Alice and Chris's houses and tracked NW right over where I live.
Hubby and I were at work, it was gut wrenching knowing the kids were up in Edmond at school. The storm did damage a mile south of our house close to school and daycare. The public schools were locked down til 5 PM and little lady was in daycare. I found out pretty soon that the daycare center was fine and little lady was oblivious to what was going on.
As soon as it looked safe I headed to my car to make the 13 mile drive home. No sooner had I got on the road and the sirens went off. I found a radio station with a live audio feed from Gary England. So I knew the storms were well to my west.
I high tailed it up the road and got to daycare to find out the school kids hadn't been released yet. Little Lady's Pre-K teacher said they probably wouldn't even let kids leave school til the worst was over.
As we got in to our neighborhood there was a lot of roof and fence damage and a couple of mangled trampolines that had been blown out of their yards.
We got home to find out there was no power so we got flashlights and the weather radio and went to our safe place to keep little lady calm.The schools released the kids at around 5 PM and hubby picked up kiddo on his way home. He was in the safest place, the school has several steel lined classrooms with steel doors that are used in these situations. He wasn't the least bit fazed apart from being hungry!!
I was a lot happier once everyone was home and the power was on. Having a warm meal in our tummys certainly made things seem a lot better!
Photos taken from my front porch.
Comments (19)
I'm glad you and your kids were okay. Those storm cloud photos look really bad. It's still lightening and rumbling around here... but the worst we have had tonight is a bit of hail. Nothing near as bad as OKC ended up with.
Glad Keith was able to get in contact w/you. I was really scared for you all. Keith told me what had happened before he could get in touch w/you and I was almost into a panic w/worry.I'm so glad you are all ok. Some neat pictures there too. Lets hope nothing that close again! HUGS!
Glad to hear your family ok. I have never lived where there are tornadoes and never to. We only have a volcanoes that can pop their tops. Stay safe and warm.
I do hope our thunder storm doesn't turn into what you had to deal with today. I really hate it when it comes in the dark. Heard about all the damage over your way. Glad you are safe and hopefully all your property is undamaged.
@TheSunnyC -
Everything looked fine when I got home. I was amazed our back fence was still up, it's kind of rickity.
I am so glad that you are all safe. I can't imagine what it is like living in a place where tornadoes are so "normal" ... I've been through a very small one, hunkered down between some brick walls, it was the only place to take refuge ... the tornado went directly over us and blew out the windows of my truck ... I may have told you this story before ... the truck was full of broken glass, so I believe it was God's little voice telling me to get out of it and to the little safe place where we waited until it blew over. That one tornado was enough to last me a lifetime!
This is impressing and the photos say the all .
I am glad all of you ware OK and you don' t have damages .
On the second photo the right corner in the bottom of the picture looks like a lion ' s head lying and asleep .' ( lean slightly your head on the left ).
Love
Michel
yikes... scarey stuff you Oklahomians go through... love the pictures, but dang woman don't be sticking your head out there trying to shoot tornadoes...they already took Dorothy, sure as heck don't want them taking another good witch
@ThePorchswingpoet -
Don't worry, I am the biggest fraidy cat when it comes to tornadoes. As soon as the sirens go off I get us all in our closet. This was the start of a 2nd round of storms, no tornadoes but a heck of a lot of rain, wind and thunder.
This morning as i read the newsfeed scrolling across BBC my thoughts went to you and yours. It is frightening but as a parent all the thoughts do is go out to where the scattered family members are. When our kids were little we had one afternoon of mayhem killing many. I was driving home through the storm. I had a contract outside of the city a good 40kms from where the kids were at summer camp. I drove through what later would be called tornado alley. Hail, rain the windshield wipers could not hope to contend with, water on the highway that was creating ruts and pull. I watched over eight tornados develop around me, and of course all I could think of was the radio reports of carnage in the area D was working. It was terrifying. No cellphones yet so I just had to drive and hope without knowing, and I really didn't fear for my safety amongst the tornados that swirled around me -just thoughts of my family. It is a feeling of concern that I obviously haven't forgotten. I am glad that you are all safe..-g
when i wrote the word carnage i wondered if i was exaggerating having put the experience and stats tucked somewhere back in the memory banks. here is the link about the day... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmonton_Tornado . the clouds are quite amazing such enormous power and we think we are so much in control... how puny we are. hope the kids are going off today without anxiety. you too.
@bumblefish - Yikes, that was a devastating tornado. It certainly does remind us how fragile we are.
Was thinking of you, Alice and Chris yesterday when I heard about the tornadoes. Have you heard anything from Alice or Chris? I thought Alice might comment afterwards, but haven't seen anything here. So glad you are all alright, and that you didn't suffer any damage. We were just watching the noon news, seeing pictures of several large homes badly damaged.
Of course, as a parent, your first thoughts go to the kids. The uncertainty is awful, isn't it? Thank God you are all OK!!
@mimiwi - Alice and Chris are fine and no damage to report. I called Alice to check in with them yesterday afternoon. They spent sometime in their neighbor's storm shelter including little Rosie Joy.
So glad to hear that. That eases my mind. That is one bad side effect of being on Xanga, and making so many friends here. Whenever bad weather hits anywhere here in the U.S.---and sometimes abroad---I am usually worrying about someone from Xanga!! Thanks for the quick answer!
So glad to hear that you all are safe & no damage. I know how scary that is to be apart from your family during something like that.
My stomach sank when I heard it was Edmond! So glad to hear you are all ok!
I never knew you had those things in Winter. Thankful that no one was hurt. It must have been very worrying as regards the children. Dramatic photos though Gill.---Tim
phew, glad you made it through all that Gill, fantastic photos too!
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