Tornadoes
Growing up in New York, I don't have any ingrained fear of tornadoes, even though I know they can be extremely dangerous. They were very rare, even if some were within a few miles of Owego (there are linear scars of snapped trees in the hills from one). I knew to go to the basement, and I guess which corner to pick, though it always occurred to me that there weren't enough windows down there to know what direction one was coming from. But they were always something that happened somewhere else. Storms and lightning were something beautiful to watch from the back porch, looking out over the Susquehanna River, the same way mom would get excited about hummingbirds at the trumpet vine.
Visiting Missouri, there were storms and tornadoes in the area. The unknown got to me a little bit, but in the sense of wanting to stay outside and watch the clouds, even though I wouldn't have known what to look for, rather than hiding. The next night I went for a midnight walk with electricity filling the sky and pouring rain and torrents down the streets soaking me. And I was proud of it, not for courage but for freedom. In Fort Wayne, sometimes the tornado sirens went off. At first I didn't know what they were. Why are there air raid sirens going off? Are they testing something? Sometimes I had [mentally-handicapped] clients I was responsible for, but I never worried, even though I did (and still) watch the reports with fascination.
A year ago I took a storm spotter training class from the National Weather Service. It was a lot of fun learning how storm systems work, and I would have taken a lot more of that, but the real focus was on safety, plus some of the things they look for in determining what's going on out there. Don't drive around chasing them - out West the roads are in a grid, but in the East, especially in hills, everything twists and turns and you can end up trapped and heading right for it. And they're more likely to be hidden by rain here. And cool things like how NWS stations are located about 30 miles NE of the main cities because radar doesn't look upward very well - they can monitor the city but their own gooses are cooked if something forms overhead.
They say that once systems hit the Cumberland? Plateau, they are less prone to such bad storms, but tornadoes and other damage can still happen. I was asleep when the local tornado warning came out (~7 PM), but went outside after waking up (not what we're supposed to do either...). It was close to the end of a wave. There was an open area in the clouds above, and others were turning and moving into it. So I called it in. I'm not sure if that's what they were looking for, but they weren't acting right. The guy on the phone did stop himself from hanging up and asked a few more questions. The clouds continued that behavior as the storm moved along the mountain ridge, and I didn't see anything further come of it.
Maybe my attitude will change someday if I actually encounter one - and this is not ruling out the bodily effects of fear: my heart was racing some watching those clouds. But the mind is not there yet. Flippancy? Whimsy? Naïveté? The dysfunction of man? I experienced my first significant earthquake out in California last summer and got by just fine, so I just don't know. They're certainly less scary than trying to talk to a girl.
This isn't to say I don't ache for yesterday's victims, and I'm still finding out just how many other areas got beaten on without having a tornado touch down. Here's the 'best' (or scariest and heartbreaking like the rest) tornado clip from yesterday. =(
Compline in the Treasury has those seven little prayers to choose from, and this was appropriate for last night:Eternal God, the hours of day and night are Yours, and to You the darkness is no threat. Be present, we pray, with those who labor in these hours of night, especially those who watch and work on behalf of others. Grant them diligence in their watching, faithfulness in their service, courage in danger, and competence in emergencies. Help them to meet the needs of others with confidence and compassion; through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Visiting Missouri, there were storms and tornadoes in the area. The unknown got to me a little bit, but in the sense of wanting to stay outside and watch the clouds, even though I wouldn't have known what to look for, rather than hiding. The next night I went for a midnight walk with electricity filling the sky and pouring rain and torrents down the streets soaking me. And I was proud of it, not for courage but for freedom. In Fort Wayne, sometimes the tornado sirens went off. At first I didn't know what they were. Why are there air raid sirens going off? Are they testing something? Sometimes I had [mentally-handicapped] clients I was responsible for, but I never worried, even though I did (and still) watch the reports with fascination.
A year ago I took a storm spotter training class from the National Weather Service. It was a lot of fun learning how storm systems work, and I would have taken a lot more of that, but the real focus was on safety, plus some of the things they look for in determining what's going on out there. Don't drive around chasing them - out West the roads are in a grid, but in the East, especially in hills, everything twists and turns and you can end up trapped and heading right for it. And they're more likely to be hidden by rain here. And cool things like how NWS stations are located about 30 miles NE of the main cities because radar doesn't look upward very well - they can monitor the city but their own gooses are cooked if something forms overhead.
They say that once systems hit the Cumberland? Plateau, they are less prone to such bad storms, but tornadoes and other damage can still happen. I was asleep when the local tornado warning came out (~7 PM), but went outside after waking up (not what we're supposed to do either...). It was close to the end of a wave. There was an open area in the clouds above, and others were turning and moving into it. So I called it in. I'm not sure if that's what they were looking for, but they weren't acting right. The guy on the phone did stop himself from hanging up and asked a few more questions. The clouds continued that behavior as the storm moved along the mountain ridge, and I didn't see anything further come of it.
Maybe my attitude will change someday if I actually encounter one - and this is not ruling out the bodily effects of fear: my heart was racing some watching those clouds. But the mind is not there yet. Flippancy? Whimsy? Naïveté? The dysfunction of man? I experienced my first significant earthquake out in California last summer and got by just fine, so I just don't know. They're certainly less scary than trying to talk to a girl.
This isn't to say I don't ache for yesterday's victims, and I'm still finding out just how many other areas got beaten on without having a tornado touch down. Here's the 'best' (or scariest and heartbreaking like the rest) tornado clip from yesterday. =(
Click to viewCompline in the Treasury has those seven little prayers to choose from, and this was appropriate for last night:Eternal God, the hours of day and night are Yours, and to You the darkness is no threat. Be present, we pray, with those who labor in these hours of night, especially those who watch and work on behalf of others. Grant them diligence in their watching, faithfulness in their service, courage in danger, and competence in emergencies. Help them to meet the needs of others with confidence and compassion; through Jesus Christ, our Lord.