13 - Daily Report and Tornadoes

Daily Report

The weatherman predicted a possibility of severe storms and hail today. Fortunately, they didn't arrive, but last night there were some terrible storms up in Oklahoma. I didn't know about those until I got up this morning to discover a number of my friends had been affected by them. They were okay, but three people were killed, and a great deal of damage occurred. I'll have a section on my own experiences with tornadoes after this.

Today was a good day to spend some time outside. Sandy and my nephew Timmy worked on the pond a while back to repair leaks in the waterfall, but it has apparently decided it wasn't ready to be fixed. The waterfall helps clean the water for the pond, so keeping it running keeps the water clear and makes seeing the fishies much easier. Unfortunately, the leak means more water has to be added regularly. I probably spent two hours today watching the dogs enjoy themselves while I listened to an audiobook, and the hose went about replacing the lost water. Not a bad way to spend time. 

The air conditioning folks came to install the part they'd ordered for our system. The dogs had a great time telling them to go away. Seven dogs--but they've learned to bark in shifts.

Tornadoes

I was born and spent the first 45 years of my life in Southwestern Oklahoma. When spring rolled around, it wasn't a bit unusual to be awakened at three o'clock in the morning by sirens. We'd all get up and put on our clothes so we could go to our neighbor's house and take shelter in their cellar. It wasn't a large cellar. There was an old, World War 2 era cot along one wall, a couple of wooden chairs, some boxes, and some shelves filled with preserves. We'd stay there until the Civil Defense folks blew the all-clear sirens. That procedure would be repeated at least three times each year, and it was almost like a normal way to spend the night. As I grew older, I'd go up to ground level with the man who owned the cellar, and we'd watch the clouds. After a while, I began to know what to look for and whether I needed to be concerned or not.

I remember one night when we were in the cellar, and my brother was sitting on the steps holding onto the rope connected to the door. All of a sudden, we heard a roar. The wall behind me shifted violently as it cracked. My brother, who was taking weight-lifting in high school, grabbed the rope and pulled on it because the suction was trying to rip the door open. We all expected disaster when we went upstairs, but the tornado had passed over us without touching down. A neighbor down the block had the posts holding her porch up pulled loose, and it was hanging downward. My brother and I grabbed the posts and set them back on the concrete to support the porch.

Despite all the tornado warnings and all the visits to that cellar, it was a long time before I actually saw a tornado. One night we had eight or nine tornados in one night. I went a few houses north and looked west toward the edge of town and saw two that were about four miles away. The sirens blew all night that night. At school the next day, everyone took naps (teachers included).

The next time was years later when I was taking care of my mother. The sirens had gone off around seven in the evening. I went to the front porch and looked around. Then I looked up. One was forming right above our house! I helped my mother get into her shoes, and I helped her down the cellar stairs. That tornado took out a power station, so we were out electricity for three days or so, but it didn't damage the town at all. A few years later, the largest tornado I ever saw hit town one Friday afternoon just as I was getting off work. My brother and I were driving home when we saw it about a half mile west of town. My mother was thankfully in the hospital in Oklahoma City at the time, so we went directly to the cellar when we got home. It was an F3 tornado (winds from 150 to over 200 miles per hour). This one passed over us as well, but it did quite a bit of damage to trees and to the Air Force Base east of town.

Years later, when I worked for the Department of Human Services, I was assigned to report to the Civil Defense office when tornado sirens were blown, and then I'd do a survey of an assigned part of the county afterward. Most nights when tornadoes spring up, you lose a lot of sleep. Those nights were no exception.

That's enough for now.

Take care and stay safe.

cma