Our fabulous NC weatherman (age: 12-ish) on the local "news" cheerfully informed his viewers yesterday morning that, "...there was a 30% chance of afternoon thunderstorms."
OK. I didn't mind that.
By about 5pm, the sky was indeed getting dark. VERY dark. Almost a large, black weight in the sky. As the first few raindrops began to fall, I curtailed Thing1 and Thing2's outdoor fun and brought them inside so I could make dinner.
The wind picked up and, as I was getting dinner plated and put on the table, I thought I might check the local news and see what was what with the weather -- we were supposed to be taking USMCman's dinner to him since he was 'sitting duty' (translation: monitoring a secure building that's creepy and perfect for a Tarantino horror flick).
I turned on the local news and HEY! it was the weather. How nice. Good timing. Oh look! There's a lot of red on the radar map. Lots...
Then I realized that the weather announcer was saying, "...people aboard the military reservation should seek shelter in the lowest levels of their homes, staying away from windows or glass."
HOLY SMOKES! There was a tornado and it was RIGHT ON TOP OF OUR NEIGHBORHOOD!
Freaked me out.
So I yanked the kids out of their chairs in mid-bite and hustled them (complaining) into the bathroom since it was the only room that was central/interior/windowless. There we sat, listening to the wind howling outside and the rain slashing at our roof. Of course, once we were inside the bathroom, everyone wanted to USE the bathroom, which became a logistical nightmare, since there wasn't enough room to swing a dead cat, let alone give potty access to two squabbling kids. Anyway, there we sat, for 20 minutes...
Luckily, the funnel cloud did not touch down, just a partial formation (?!?) and so there was minimal wind damage. Some hail, no downed limbs.
Looking back at the event, I'm a little pissed that there is no warning siren here on base, like what we had where I grew up in Michigan. That damn tornado siren was tested once a week at noon like clockwork. It was supposed to be a civil defense/tornado siren. I always wondered what would happen if we were bombed or had a tornado at noon on the test day...
Oh well. Next time, I'll remember that "...30% chance of afternoon storms" really means TORNADO! Yeesh!
2 comments:
Damn.
And we were just complaining because it was up in the 80's today.
Sorry.
I'm so glad you are safe. My family had to wait out Camille in a large closet toward the inside of our house. I can still recall the noise and the feeling of terror.
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