Tornado !!!!

Arkansas is usually a laid-back spot. We don't get too much excitment. And then there's tornado season...

Thursday night (3 Apr 07) we had a close call. The weather was stormy, and looking to turn severe. The line of storms was over western Arkansas and headed our way. As we watched, the placenames that the weatherman was using started to sound familiar. Thunderstorms move quickly, and this front was making abot 40 mph heading northeast. At 10:30pm we woke up the ladies. We told them to get dressed, grab their pillows and go sit in the bathtub. We pulled in the closest mattress and heard an erie sound - the tornado siren. (The town of Cabot tests its sirens every Monday at noon - but when there are rain and thunder for background music, the siren sounds completely different and menacing.) We lost power and the house was black, except for James' phone, which was running the local news website, updating the weather. I was holding Baby Jay and the ladies were all stuffed into the tub, with a mattress over us. James was still out in the living room, gathering a few things we might need if the bathtub were all that remained of our house. He stood for a second at the front room window and felt a great gush of wind, then a great pull of wind, all of which we were mimicked by the blinds, making a lot of racket. That was all he needed and he crouched down next to me on the floor of the bathroom. We were only in there for about five minutes, but, it seemed like an hour. The whole world was quiet and the internet on James' phone told us that the front had moved on. Our first "real" tornado was over.

The next day (Friday) there was no school and we didn't have electricity until Saturday. As we got out and looked around, we fared very well. There were a lot of trees down, as the ground was saturated by plenty of recent rainfall. A few buildings blew over and some families had trees through their roofs. No reports of any injuries or death. Just a mess. We had some limbs to clean up and lots of branches in our yard. The ladies took the chance to get up on the roof and so I had to take some pictures...

We are grateful for our safety and the drills we have practiced for just such a nightmare. And ... while sitting in the tub that night, we decided as a family that we prefer hurricanes.