What a weekend

Ever read about someone who survived a hit by a tornado, and they say "It sounded like a freight train"?

It sure does.

Friday night, two tornadoes hit my little town. There wasn't a lot of serious damage, and no really serious injuries, but it was awful scary.

The storms started building up to our southwest, with reports of rotation and funnel clouds, along with heavy rain and large hail. Mom and I got our "storm shelter" prepared. I put that in quotes because our best shelter here at the house is probably one of our closets -- walk-in with no windows, and somewhat centrally located. So we put the computers, some valuables and blankets in there, along with Buster's leash. We already have a storage bin filled with emergency supplies, and I have a battery operated radio.

Then the TV and radio people announced there was a confirmed tornado at the nearby reservoir. It's about 8 miles away as the crow -- or tornado -- flies, so we knew it was time to get in the closet and shut the door. It was just a bit cramped in there with Mom, Buster and I. We kept the TV in my bedroom on since they were giving better information. The first reports said the tornado should be at our town at about 8:07 -- giving us about 20 minutes warning. Then they kept pushing it back -- 8:11, 8:14. The rain was falling hard, and there was some small hail. We heard the TV weather man say the tornado should be right over town as he was speaking, but it hadn't reached us yet.

And there was another one behind it.

Then everything went black.

Mom turned on the lamp we had with us and we listened to the radio -- the tornado had been spotted 4 miles southeast of town and was heading right for us (and we live on the southwest edge of town!).

Then it got quiet. The rain stopped. The wind stopped.

And then we heard it. A wooshing noise, like a wind I'd never heard before. It wasn't the throbbing, chugging sound of a freight train, but it had that same dopplar kind of effect, starting quiet and then increasing in intensity. We pulled the blankets over our heads and held onto each and Buster. There was a big THUD against the roof. Then another and another, and the whole house began to shake.

And then it began to fade. We pulled the blankets off of us and tried to breathe a sigh of relief, but it was getting hot. The closet, at least, was all in one piece and we were OK. We didn't quite dare just yet to open the door. We knew the second tornado was on its way. We waiting and listened to the radio for a bit longer.

And then it started again, about 10 or 15 minutes later. Just like before, the total silence. The sound of a big, swirling wind growing closer. Debris thudding against the roof. And then the wind fading.

We waited a few more minutes before we dared to open the door. I was afraid we'd look out my bedroom window and through the lightning flashes see all the trees behind my yard stripped and mangled. But they made it through OK.

We lost one of the willow trees along the creek, and a couple big branches off the old cottonwood, but for the most part, everything was OK. One of the garage doors got bowed out slightly, but it still opens OK. Mom took off to go check on dad and the house and her camper. All were OK.

The neighborhood was mostly OK, too. Al, who lives next door to me, lost his flagpole. A neighbor down the street did have a large tree in their backyard uprooted. It fell on their shed, knocking the carport down on their car. The tree took down some power lines in the alley, but of course power was already out, so no fire danger.

People were coming out of their houses, and we compared notes. It's kind of odd that it takes something like this to bond with your neighbors. We got to know a bit more about those people we just kind of said hi to in passing. At least if this happens again, we know we can run across the street to a neighbor's basement.

Morning came and we took a bit more of an assessment of the damage. Just the willow trees are down, and they didn't really damage anything. I noticed in the afternoon the neighbors had gotten their car out from under the carport after the tree was removed, so it must not have taken too much damage. The high school had a big hole in the roof over the gym, and a house across the street from the school lost a small cinder-block garage. Some windows were blown out across town, and a barn less than a mile north of my house had its roof blown off. The metal roof blew across the street, knocking down the power poles and lines that are a main supply of electricity to town. And crews were out working on it by mid-morning.

Saturday, Mom, Dad and I went into town to get breakfast. Mom had to work, so Dad and I got some ice for the ice chests and a few things to eat, then headed back home and drove around and looked at some of the damage. So was everyone else, of course. That's what you do in a small town. There was a steady flow of traffic to the city's tree limb burn site, with pickups and trailers just full of branches and even tree trunks. I ended up writing a story and taking a few pictures for the paper I work for, then had to work at the hotline from 5 to 10. It was very eerie driving into town when there were very few lights on. On the edge of town, the city's new water plant and the assisted living center next to it both had generators, and the co-op gas station a block down the road did too, and here and there a house with a generator had a light or there were candles flickering in windows, but otherwise it was black and silent.

Sunday, I had to work the hotline from 9 to 5, and Dad called in the early afternoon to tell me the power had been back on for a couple hours. Hooray! But as the afternoon went on, the sky got darker. And yes, we went through it again. This time, no tornado hit town, but there was one spotted north of the town I live in. The co-worker who was to relieve me at 5 p.m. came in about an hour early, just as the storm hit with rain and some hail. She had been out on the golf course and they chased off the golfers because of the lightning, so she came to the office a bit early. We kept our eye on the TV reports of the weather, and listened to the tornado sirens going off, but never had to go for shelter. I stayed about an hour late until the worst of it had passed, and got home about 6:30. Poor Buster seemed pretty happy to see me. I'd been pretty worried about him since storms make him nervous. I was worried about Dad, too, but I was able to talk to him, and I knew he was keeping an eye on things. By the time I got home, I was just exhausted. Fortunately, today I have the whole day off. I'm going to enjoy it. As long as it doesn't cloud up too much.

Here's some pictures I took Saturday:
This is a panoramic shot of the creek at my house Saturday. The willow trees, to the far left, used to lean out over the creek. And all the trees on my side are normally a couple feet above the water level.

A county worker uses a backhoe to remove the trees and limbs that had piled up against the bridge near my house. I woke about 4 a.m. Saturday morning to hear a lot of cracking and crashing. I don't know if it was this stuff hitting the bridge or a tree upstream falling.

The dam at our city lake. Normally, it's probably about 20 feet to the water level on the downstream side of the dam.

This guy lost his garage. This is on the other side of town from where I live, near the high school.

Catch up

So, where to begin? A lot has really been happening.

• Mom and I will be going to Wichita in July for "Antiques Roadshow"! She got tickets and we can each take two items. She's taking a painting she inherited and some jewelry, and I'm taking a sketchbook of an African safari and ... something else. More on this as it draws nearer.
• Buster doesn't seem to like to swim. I had to haul him out of the creek Sunday after he jumped in after some people going by in canoes. He chased them downstream a ways, into the trees on the neighbor's property. He found a good spot to dive in -- and I think he didn't expect it to be as deep as it was -- but then he couldn't find a spot to climb back up out of the creek. So I had to make my way through the trees to where he was and pull him out. It was hard not to laugh at him, even though he was obviously a bit scared of the predicament he'd gotten himself into. Still, he did go in the creek today (in the shallow part) after our walk.
• Piano music does something odd to Buster. Tonight, we had been watching "Antiques Roadshow" on the local PBS station, and afterwards, the station showed a calendar of local events, with some piano music playing underneath. Buster pricked up his ears and started trotting around the house, from the back door to the front door, to my bedroom window, like he was looking for someone. He calmed down after the music stopped.
• Buster was a big help getting through Sunday. It was on Mother's Day last year that Nipper died. I sat under the pecan tree in the backyard, where Nipper and I spent his last afternoon enjoying the warm day and the breeze, with the windsock Mom had put there blowing around us, it's streamers falling down around Nipper's face and back. On Friday evening, I was at that spot planting some flowers there, when a breeze picked up and blew the streamers around my shoulders. Without even thinking, I said, "I miss you, too, Nipper." It really felt like my ol' pup was sending me a hug. Sunday was much the same as it was that Sunday last year, and as I sat there, Buster came and sat beside me. The wind turned and blew the streamers toward Buster, and they settled on his head and shoulders. And that was almost like Nipper saying "He's a good dog, too. He'll watch over you." I'm sure some people will think I'm reading too much into nothing, but that's what it felt like. And I really think love can transcend boundaries -- even the love from a dog.
• I'm doing well health-wise, and so is my family. My support group is another situation, however. One member has had a reoccurance and will begin chemo next week, after having had a mastectomy and surgery to remove a kidney, where a tumor was found. Her prospects, are good, and she's in good spirits. However another member told us at our meeting last week that the doctors told her she has six months to a year to live. She has battling this for almost three years straight. It seemed like she was on good ground and then they found new tumors -- first in her lungs, which went away with chemo, and this latest bout with tumors in her brain. The chemo seemed to be effective a couple months ago, though, as she reported they were shrinking. And then this news. It's kind of hard to take, because she has been so active all throughout these last few years, even with the treatment. She has a teenage son she's raising herself, and she's done a lot for the deaf community, both locally and at the state level. It just ain't right.