Monday, April 25, 2011

Here We Go Again: Another Stormy Night

It's been almost exactly a year since Millington and Nashville, TN were hit with horrible flooding, tornadoes, straight line winds and millions of dollars in damages.

Now tonight we're sitting here eyes glued to the tv watching the weather reports and making storm preparations.

Right now it's quiet at my house. But just south of here they are reporting 92 mph winds. No, that's not a misprint. Winds clocked at 92 miles per hour. The weather guy is saying it should begin here in 12 minutes.

Some of my friends make their families sleep in the living room on nights like this so they can quick get into a bathroom in case of a tornado. I let my little kids continue to sleep in their beds, but each of the older boys knows when I say NOW they need to grab a younger sibling and get into the bathroom.

We've hidden in the bathroom more than a few times since we've lived in Tennessee.

The irony is we moved to tornado ridden Tennessee when we evacuated Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Less than 24 hours before the storm hit NOLA, I packed the kids, including kid #6 who was just a newborn, the dog and some dirty laundry into the car and headed north.

I had no idea at the time my life in New Orleans would be washed away and I'd be starting all over again. Although the good thing about a hurricane, if there is a good thing, is you get enough warning to get out of the way.

Even when the tornado sirens are going off (they aren't here yet), you don't know where the tornado will hit until it's right on top of you. And you can't out run straight line winds and flooding.

I hear the winds starting to blow outside now and the satellite tv signal is starting to get fuzzy.

It's going to be a long night.

5 comments:

  1. Stay safe! Happened last year while I was on break from school too! I'm really going on vacation next year!

    ReplyDelete
  2. been there.. grew up in Nebraska. First summer in CT we had a tornado warning and made elves go to the basement. My pals here laughed. hang in!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hope y'all made it through okay and were able to get some rest. It's been wild here in Nashville this Spring, too!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I know, I have spent my life dodging tornadoes.
    and where we live in Alabama.....we get the hurricanes too, lucky us! Hope you're safe, they're saying we get two days of it this week, today and tomorrow. love and hugs.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I was over in Ky in my bathroom, too. It was scary. I hope the worst of it is behind us.

    ReplyDelete