We spent a couple of hours last night in our storm cellar. We called our next-door neighbor and she met us there, too.
A large tornado was seen on the ground somewhere northwest of us, heading southeast, which is why I was ready to go. I was watching the sky in that direction-- I could still see pretty well due to constant lightning flashes. Then the tornado sirens started blaring and we stuffed cats (and the chinchilla) in crates and ran to the cellar.
The cats weren't happy-- except for Whiskers the one-eyed cat. As long as my daughter is there, he's content. The chinchilla didn't express his opinion.
It was really hot and stuffy (and a bit crowded). We sat there and listened to the wind, rain, and hail.
Finally, when the worst had passed and the radar on our phones showed the dangerous parts of the storm had moved on, we came up and went back in the house-- getting drenched as we did so.
This is only the second time we've retreated to the cellar for a storm. The last time was probably 10 years ago. This was the first time the tornado sirens were screaming at us.
I checked the house and yard this morning and there doesn't seem to be any real damage. Leaves stripped from my "trees" and stuff moved around a little by the wind (we have worse winds without storms-- we didn't get the 90-125 mph winds reported in some other areas).
Around town, some trees lost large pieces of themselves. I'm about to take my daily stroll around town and I'll see if anything else seems damaged.
Anyway, it was thrilling and we survived just fine. I kind of thrive in survival situations-- even minor ones. I'm still glad I have a storm cellar.
Thank you!
Glad you have a storm cellar, too!!!
ReplyDeleteThere really aren't many of them in town. I mainly use mine for storage, but I'll never make it unusable for it's intended purpose.
DeleteGlad it missed you, and that you had good shelter to wait out its possible arrival in!
ReplyDeleteBeen through the same thing many times. Now that I live in Florida instead of the midwest, I don't worry as much about tornadoes ... but I don't have a cellar, either. Water table's too high here to dig in-ground stuff like that. And we do have the occasional watch/warning even though we're not really in Tornado Alley.
We've sheltered at our church through the worst of the hurricanes that have come through. The others we rode out in the mobile home (that bad one, when we weren't there, ended with a couple of trees in our kitchen).
We were definitely lucky.
DeleteI remember when the tree hit your house.
My sister's house had some broken windows from the ping-pong ball-sized hail. Her wife (from California) says she has lived through several earthquakes, but this was much scarier. They live about 13 miles west of me, and the hail was much worse there.
I took a tour around that town this afternoon and in some areas, just about every building has plywood covering at least some of their north-facing windows.