Thursday, April 10, 2008

What a night....

I got home about 5:30 and there are tornado warnings to the North of us, heading north, so I wasn't worried. In fact I went to bed thinking the storms would hit about daybreak. Well, they were travelling at 50-60 mph. About 2 weeks ago we signed up for the Red Alert Call system since we don't have a siren system. It said that they would have to look up our geographical area and would email me. Well, I turned off my NOAA weather radio due to it going off for counties that weren't close to me. I have it set for 3 counties, but for some reason it is going off for all tornado warnings in the area. At 3:00 this morning, my cell phone is ringing, Nathan's is ringing and the house phone is ringing. We both jumped up and the first thing running through your mind is something tragic has happened...
Well, it was the Red Alert system calling us about strong storms about to move into our area. We turned on the TV and sure enough they were about 20 minutes away. Then they put the Cleaburn area under a Tornado Warning and with the storm tracker it had it in our community at 3:43! Then at 3:20 the phone rings again and it is the Red Alert System warning us of a Tornado Warning. We had the girls in our room and Ashtyn has woken at this time and freaked out about psyco cat outside. Nathan gets psyco cat and puts her in a carrier and she is fine. At this time the air is warm, humid and calm.....
The girls and I sit in the bathroom when we lose our satellite as the storm moves in. Hershey, the dog is sitting on me and Kierstyn and won't move. Finally it passes with heavy rain, lots of wind, but thankfully no damage. We are getting out of the tiny powder bathroom and Hershey will NOT move :*). I had to get Kierstyn out and then step over him. He is so scared of the weather and I think he sensed our nervousness also.
We finally settled down with all 4 of us in the bed, plus the two cats and Hershey. I think I drifted off to sleep about 5:00am only for the alarm to go off at 5:50!
We are all very tired today....but, the sun is shining!

There were 6 reported tornadoes in our area. Lots of damage, but thankfully no one seriously injured. Wow, and this is just the beginning of storm season....

1 comment:

Jenn said...

I thought of you while I was typing my post for Wednesday. Last night was crazy. The boys and I went to the closet when the sirens went off around 4:00 AM (J is in NYC). No damage here either. Glad y'all are safe.