violent weather
Everyone on my LJ here okay after this barrage of tornadoes this past week? I heard from two of you over the weekend, so am assuming the storms left you unscathed. Hope everyone else is also all right.
Un-freaking-believable. I do not live in an area where this is common, in fact it is very rare here. However, two weeks ago (April 16) we had to run for the basement when a warning unexpectly went up, out of the blue. It missed our neighborhood, but when it hit (at 8:25pm), it lifted a sky window off the roof of the mall just a mile or two from my house, and elsewhere there were telephone/power poles snapped off and bleachers tangled into a fence at a local ballfield, and other destruction elsewhere. This one was rated an EF0 by the NWS. This shopping mall, by the way, has some movie theaters where we have had some furmeets in the past.
On Thursday morning, I was totally unaware of what had just happened down south. On my way to work, there was a flash of lightning, and the stop lights went out for 10-15 seconds. I drove through some hard rain, then arrived at work just as it let up, and after I was inside the building, torrential downpours ensued. My supervisor told me there was a tornado watch, which was a surprise to me as I thought I heard them say on the radio that the severe thunderstorm warning expired at 7:00am. There were thunderbolts and very hard rain until mid-morning, and then it was done. In the afternoon, another of my associates at work told me that the morning stormy weather had been a warning, not a watch, because they had been tracking circulation on the radar. And, as it turned out, 2 tornadoes did touch down relatively local to where I live... one at Ski Roundtop, and one in Lebanon. These were both rated EF1. Too close for comfort.
That evening, I watched the news, which I normally never do. By now I had heard that some tornadoes had hit the south hard, and I wanted to find out the extent of the devastation. It was a nightmare, far more than I had expected. I'm sure everyone has seen it by now. I was amazed that so many tornadoes could hit in one storm... holy crap! I hope this was a once in a hundred blue moons thing, but can't say it won't happen again in two weeks. Geez, this is scary stuff. I used to be really afraid of these things as a kid, even though as I said we live in an area where it's very rare. It was like they were alive, or an evil entity of some kind, a ghost or spirit, that came and preyed on anyone at random, mercilessly. As an adult, they still scare me a lot, though on the other hand they fascinate me at the same time. Unstoppable power ravaging the earth, yet from a distance they can be a thing of beauty, although eerily so. Despite my fear of them, in some ways I think I could be a storm chaser, that would at least be a way for me to deal with my fear of them. But, I think I'll stick to my hobby of furry art appreciation and fursuiting for the time being, it's much safer.
Seriously, I hope all of you are okay!
Un-freaking-believable. I do not live in an area where this is common, in fact it is very rare here. However, two weeks ago (April 16) we had to run for the basement when a warning unexpectly went up, out of the blue. It missed our neighborhood, but when it hit (at 8:25pm), it lifted a sky window off the roof of the mall just a mile or two from my house, and elsewhere there were telephone/power poles snapped off and bleachers tangled into a fence at a local ballfield, and other destruction elsewhere. This one was rated an EF0 by the NWS. This shopping mall, by the way, has some movie theaters where we have had some furmeets in the past.
On Thursday morning, I was totally unaware of what had just happened down south. On my way to work, there was a flash of lightning, and the stop lights went out for 10-15 seconds. I drove through some hard rain, then arrived at work just as it let up, and after I was inside the building, torrential downpours ensued. My supervisor told me there was a tornado watch, which was a surprise to me as I thought I heard them say on the radio that the severe thunderstorm warning expired at 7:00am. There were thunderbolts and very hard rain until mid-morning, and then it was done. In the afternoon, another of my associates at work told me that the morning stormy weather had been a warning, not a watch, because they had been tracking circulation on the radar. And, as it turned out, 2 tornadoes did touch down relatively local to where I live... one at Ski Roundtop, and one in Lebanon. These were both rated EF1. Too close for comfort.
That evening, I watched the news, which I normally never do. By now I had heard that some tornadoes had hit the south hard, and I wanted to find out the extent of the devastation. It was a nightmare, far more than I had expected. I'm sure everyone has seen it by now. I was amazed that so many tornadoes could hit in one storm... holy crap! I hope this was a once in a hundred blue moons thing, but can't say it won't happen again in two weeks. Geez, this is scary stuff. I used to be really afraid of these things as a kid, even though as I said we live in an area where it's very rare. It was like they were alive, or an evil entity of some kind, a ghost or spirit, that came and preyed on anyone at random, mercilessly. As an adult, they still scare me a lot, though on the other hand they fascinate me at the same time. Unstoppable power ravaging the earth, yet from a distance they can be a thing of beauty, although eerily so. Despite my fear of them, in some ways I think I could be a storm chaser, that would at least be a way for me to deal with my fear of them. But, I think I'll stick to my hobby of furry art appreciation and fursuiting for the time being, it's much safer.
Seriously, I hope all of you are okay!