At about 5:10 yesterday, I got a call from Pops {the M kids Grandpa}. He asked me if I was watching the weather, to which I cheerfully replied that it was just raining--nothing to worry about {I love thunderstorms}! Well, he says, there are tornado warnings south {I think--he used lots of directional words and I'm not overly familiar with the area...or NESW :/ } and you need to take the kids to the basement. I was a little skeptical that we would have a tornado, but who am I to argue with Pops?
I must also include here that the oldest M kid, Jac, is TERRIFIED of strong winds/thunderstorms etc. as well as the basement. So, as I definitely did not want to deal with hysterical children {I had all 5 yesterday} I turned going downstairs into a game and we ended up sorting/folding laundry while we waited.
At this point, I thought of calling Marsh and letting her know that there could be a possibility of tornadoes in our area and she should go down to the basement. While I was on the phone with her, we heard the siren in the middle of town that signaled people to find shelter. So we did in our respective locations.
I came up periodically to check on the weather and didn't notice too much of a difference from a normal thunderstorm. I was back on the phone with Marsh and described the cloud formation that was right above the house. It seemed like there was a definite distinction in the sky: stormy gray and dark angry clouds. Sort of like in the cartoons when there is a dark black cloud hanging over someone. The clouds seemed to be moving quite fast, and in the distance I thought maybe I was seeing a tornado, but wasn't sure because over towards church I could see patches of blue sky and it just didn't look like our area would get a tornado. The siren went off again, and I came back inside from the porch and collected some snacks and things for the kids just in case something did happen.
Around five to six, Pops called me and said that a tornado touched down in the next town over from us--less than a ten minute drive--and so it should be alright for us to leave our hideaway. Whew. The kids had no idea what had gone on and their only complaint was that I didn't give them any of the snacks--other than that, they had fun
This morning at school, both Marsh and Jimmy Dean told me that I had seen a funnel--the beginnings of a tornado. Wow. It was the providence of God that it didn't touch down in our town, especially because the surrounding towns all had sightings/touchdowns.
So, my first experience with tornadoes was....a really cool experience--overall anyway :)
The following link is a recording of the weather on someones cell that lived south of where we were, if you want to watch--I saw the same thing, but much more up close and personal.
{I didn't know how to show just this one clip, so excuse the other videos}
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P602zP0d_l4
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