Last Night

It was a long and uneventfully day yesterday. It had been raining off and on all day so we were stuck inside. Alan got home from work, ate dinner, and then had to go off to mutual with his Deacons. I was looking forward to putting the girls to bed and then having a little quiet time to myself.

Alice was in bed asleep. Elsie and I had just finished reading her bedtime story. The storm had been steadily picking up intensity and it suddenly got ferocious right in the middle of our night time prayer. The windows were rattling and almost flexing from the wind. The rain was beating on our screen door. Lightning was flashing across the sky. I was getting worried.

I got on weather.com and there were several severe thunderstorm warnings. I flipped on the TV and the emergency broadcast system was playing. Tornado warning sounded for my county. The automated voice declared that we needed to seek shelter immediately and, if possible, get underground.

I started shaking. Moving quickly, I slipped on my shoes, put Elsie's sandals on, grabbed a diaper bag and scooped up both my girls. We headed out of our apartment and down the stairs to the underground parking garage. Seconds later all of our neighbors start pouring in. All of the kids were in jammies, some of them barefoot, and one poor little boy was only in a pair of underwear.

The building was rattling and the lights were flickering. I barely had a cell signal in the garage, but not enough to get a hold of Alan. A neighbor let me borrow her phone so I could call and make sure he was ok and inside. We had no access to news; all we had were snippets we heard from the TV as we were running down stairs. Vortex clouds above us. Funnels sighted but not touching down. At one point the lights went out and every one held up their cell phones to try and collect the kids who had been running around in circles(Elsie included).

And that's how we stayed for about forty five minutes. Finally the building stopped shaking. The thunder rumble was further in the distance. A few people peeked outside to see how it looked. The rain had calmed down. After a little deliberation, we all headed back upstairs to our homes to check the news and see what was happening. The storm had passed over us and the danger was gone.

Alan came home. The girls were put back to bed. I tried to calm down and relax.

Laying in bed I couldn't help think about it. Not so much about what could have happened, but more what if it happens again. Alan said he heard the warning sirens in town, but we must be too far away from them to hear. The only reason I got the warning is because I was looking for it. What if something like that happens in the middle of the night when we are all asleep?

Looking out our window this morning the lawn was a mess. Roof tiles and branches all over the ground. Pool chairs blown around and even at the bottom of the pool. Branches down all over town and power outages in several places.

I'm just glad that we are all safe and sound.