Riding out the Storm

[Ann Kendig]

Last night was one loooong night.   I checked the weather and saw there were thunderstorms heading our way...again.  Ugh, I hate storms!!!  I admit it, I'm a big baby when it comes to storms, always have been.  I thought this year I would be safer from the big, bad storms.  We have no basement where we live and I have been pushing DH to move so we could have a little bigger house, a nice sized yard for the doods AND you guessed it, a basement!!   We had some land in the country and decided not to build on it, so we sold it.  That process started last November.  Then we put our house up for sale, got a contract on it pretty quickly and then the sale fell through.  *sigh*  

I was really hoping to be moved, or close to it, before tornado season.  Last year, in October, an F2 tornado hit Cridersville, a town a little over 8 miles down the road from us.  No one was hurt badly.  This year at the end of April a F2 tornado hit Celina, the town I lived in before I moved here.  It destroyed the Aldi's I used to shop in.  : (   Again, no serious injuries, thank goodness!!  I go through Celina often on the way to visit my mother so I was able to drive around and see the damage done.  I AM READY TO MOVE NOW!!

 

Whenever these bad storms hit my DH is very seldom at home and I have to ride it out alone with Sheba and Duke.  This time we had an additional passanger to ride out the storm with us, our new foster dog, Molly.  DH works days usually but he had a meeting to go to so he adjusted his hours so he would work through the evening.  Yep, we were alone again.  

 

About 7 pm things started to get a little scary.  I grabbed the leashes and hooked them to the dogs collars.  Sheba and Duke laid around and snoozed but Molly followed me everywhere.  She didn't care for the thunder much.  A tornado warning was issued and the sirens were blaring.   (I thought the warning was only till 7:30 but I was wrong, it was until 8pm a whole hour!)   In April, when the tornado hit Celina, there were tornado warnings here but it didn't look as bad outside so I didn't worry as much.  About 7:30 it started getting dark very quickly!  I started pulling all kinds of junk out of the closet and throwing it in the hallway.  I looked out the window that faced west and all at once I was slammed with some very strong winds!  (I can see why they tell you to stay away from windows during bad weather..duh.)  I shut the window, grabbed the dogs and off to the closet we went.  Sheba and Duke entered quickly and laid down, no problem.  Molly did not want to go in the closet.  There wasn't much room to maneuver so I had to push this 90 lb. dood into the closet.  All the while my DH and I are sending texts back and forth.   This photo was taken with my cell phone just before I climbed in...

So, here I  am in a teeny, tiny, hot closet with 3 panting doods. I am holding a sleeping bag over our heads but trying not to make an already very uncomfortable situation more unbearable by smothering us in the hot closet. I could hear rain and possibly some hail hitting the metal furnace vent thing that exits through the roof.  The wind was blowing pretty hard.  I am also hearing from the TV (that I have cranked up), "If you wait to take cover it may be to late" and that the storm was really bad between certain mile markers off I 75.  I feet a bit better as it is about 5 mile markers away from us. Meanwhile, I got a text from DH telling me he loved me.  : ) 

About 8 pm we climbed out of the closet, except for Molly who couldn't understand why I was making her do all these crazy things.  After some prompting she came out and we all went into the kitchen so the dogs could get a nice long drink of water.  I texted my hubby that we were OK and the storm was to hit his area around 8:38.  He texted back that they were getting some rain and some strong winds.  The worst part of the storm was more south of where he was.  

Thankfully, we were fine and the storm passed over without any damage or injuries.   Whew!   Something like this really gets me thinking about how prepared I am for bad weather.  I'm going to make up a survival kit and I'm taking it to the house I hope to move into soon....WITH A BASEMENT!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GBK]

I hate storms too,  glad you are alright!  I used to hate to go to our cottage when the weather was supposed to be bad like that, we did not have a basement there either. 

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

This sounds very scary. I hope you get to move soon too!

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

Wow, what a pretty scary event to endure in a cupboard.  I can't imagine how you felt as the time passed in that small space. Thank you for sharing the ordeal and taking that picture before you hunkered down for the duration.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Yuck yuck yuck.  I am with you being in TN aka new tornado alley.  These tornados are very scary (I think of the Southern tornado victims daily, now with the Joplin victims....too much devastation going on right now).  Luckily, we now have a basement - i need to go ahead and put an old couch down there and a radio hookup.  The dogs love the basement and think its a game when we go down there. 

Glad you are safe...now go sell that house and find a basement!

[Phoebe's Mom]

I hate storms, too.  This weekend we had tornado sirens blaring three different times!  We have a finished lower level with a pretty large bathroom--thank heavens as that was where I was with the four children and Phoebe, DH refuses to come in but, rather, takes his chances outside the door watching the storm's path on the TV (yes, we fight about the example he is setting for our children but I am clearly the loser in this argument).  You want to move to a house with a basement, I just want to move back to the East Coast to avoid the storms completely...we used to live in CT/NJ and NYC! I am praying you sell you house and get your wish.

[Yvonne N]

We have been spending a lot of time in our safe spot too this Spring.  Hope it ends soon.

[Camilla and Darwin]

How scary! I'm glad there was no damage or injuries. 3 doods and a person in one closet, that is a tight squeeze!

[sandy b]

So glad you and the doods are OK. Yes, you definitely need the basement!

[Ann Kendig]

Barb, remember when I came to pick up Annabelle at your house?  There were really bad storms that day too and we were both nervous!  Unfortunately I was caught in some nasty weather on the way home from your house.  Thank goodness it didn't last long!!  Almost every time we've gone to hang out with Joanne, Spud and Starlit we have driven home in some bad thunderstorms.  I think they follow me!

[Ann Kendig]

Thank you Donna, I'm so glad you don't have tornados there!!