Been rough a few days this past week here in Arkansas.
It has been a tough tornado season, allover.
Late Friday night it started raining again. Rained and rained. I thought once it might’ve been hailing. It has hailed horribly in Texas earlier.
Couldn’t tell with out going out. The power was off.
The AC is of course, off. It gets hot in Arkansas. I was afraid the peanut gallery would start complaining. I have a whole house generator. I didn’t want to run it in case we need the fuel Saturday.
Would be no way to get more til Monday.
Looks like we may need it Sunday. The forecast looks foreboding.
We made it til power company got the lines back up. Trees were removed from the roads. Son-of-a-wrek and Mr.Wrekker got the limbs off the drive. No real damage to trees.
The pets were nervous. Bayliss doesn’t like storms. He kept pushing his buttons, in the dark(so I’m sure he’s not reading them, now) He pushed “ouch water” at least 6 times. And “outside water” a dozen. He would come sit close to me and go push “cuddle” and then come right back.
The cats were sitting on top the cat carriers. They knew that’s where they would go, if we had an actual warning. We’ve done it 3 times recently.
Anyway, we’re to Keep Calm and Carry on.
I’m trying. Mother Nature has personality issues this year.
Tornadoes, ugh. We’ve lived in Wisconsin and Kentucky, and in both places we were near tornado activity. In Wisconsin, we had been watching a movie on TV, with the drapes closed. As the movie was ending, the broadcast was interrupted with an announcement. We opened the drapes, and the sky was pea-green. Since our apartment building was on a slab, all we could do was stand at the window, swearing. Fortunately, nothing happened.
Kentucky was another story. I had a baby with a perpetual ear infection, and a preschooler with a busted leg. Mr VOW heard the siren go off. He carried The Daughter to the basement, i followed him with the baby. I tried to hold everything together (Me: “Let’s have a picnic in the basement!” Daughter: “I don’t want to have a picnic in the basement! I want to go back to bed!”), while Mr VOW ran up the stairs fetching all the accoutrements we needed.
He brought a small penlight for our flashlight needs, and he swiped The Daughter’s Care Bear clock radio so we could find out what was going on.
We obviously were really bad at disaster prep.
Later, we heard a tornado did touch down in the city where we lived. But then it peeked into our basement and saw the stupid stuff going on there. The tornado then died laughing.
Give me an earthquake any day. Those are entertainment.
That must be so terrifying, must leave you feeling so helpless, seeing a monster of destruction roar toward you, pitiless, oblivious to anything it smashes into oblivion.
My daughter, and my 11-year-old grandson, live on the outskirts Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her ex, who grew up there, also lives not far away from her. OTOH, I live in Western Montana, and I religiously watch the local weather forecast so I’m not caught unaware. The weather here can change drastically in just a few hours, especially during the Spring and Fall. In fact, we had a freak snow storm Wednesday night that nobody was expecting. Fortunately, it didn’t cause any real damage other than broken tree branches from the wet heavy snowfall. I had no power for for six hours the following day.
My daughter, who grew up in California, also keeps an eye on the local weather and has lived through some horrific storms throughout the years. Her phone automatically warns her of funnel clouds spotted in the area, and she has a relatively safe place inside the house where she can ride out the storm. Fortunately, no tornadoes have touched down near her since she’s lived in Oklahoma, but I worry it’s just a matter of time.
Yesterday I watched the national news and it mentioned that Tulsa was in the “red” zone for thunderstorm and tornado activity. When I talked to my daughter she said she was aware of it, but that they may not get anything from it. The possibility is there, but it’s certainly not guaranteed there will be a thunderstorm, let alone a tornado. When I spoke to her this morning she said it was calm last night, but as it turned out, a tornado struck a small town about 30 minutes away from her that caused damage.
I can’t imagine living someplace where there’s a real chance of my house being randomly wiped off the face of the earth. My daughter is reconciled to the fact that she is stuck there until my grandson graduates from college. Mind you, I lived in California for most of my life and didn’t worry about catastrophic earthquakes. I just put it out of mind, but living in Tornado Alley, no matter how long I lived there, is something I don’t think I could ever put out of my mind. It’s amazing how these people have learned to cope with potentially horrific weather and not have it stress out their lives. As my daughter often tells me, it really cheap to live in Oklahoma. I think I know why.
I’ve lived in Kansas all of my life. I’ve seen exactly one tornado, when I was six. Certainly, one must always be aware of the possibility of tornadoes, and there have been several that struck within 30 miles of my house, causing serious damage. But it’s not something that I fret about on a constant basis.
They are so random. They predict if the “conditions” are right. They can predict the storm coming.
But a tornado just decides this is where I am striking.
I’ve seen the local weather persons looking for little tiny “curve” signatures in the radar scans.
They just guessing.
You just get used to it. Is it stressful? Of course! But people that aren’t familiar with tornadoes are more scared of them than they should be.
I live in OKC and we have some of the best radar and meteorologists in the country. There generally is ample warning to get prepared, and I can usually watch the news tracking a tornado/potential tornado 20-30 minutes before it gets close to me. And “close” is what’s key - this isn’t like a hurricane that will devastate hundreds of squares miles. I had a tornado last week pass about 3-4 miles south of me, but I didn’t even need to get into my fraidy hole (interior coat closet) because I could see it live on TV and it wasn’t moving in a way that would bring it closer. I didn’t even have any tree limbs knocked loose from the winds.
I’ve seen one tornado in person, a small EF1 or EF2. I have had one serious close call - what ended up being an EF4 picked up one mile west of me, went over the house and then touched back down a mile east. It truly did sound like a freight train passing.
Now anyone who isn’t scared/freaking out a little when there’s an EF4 or EF5 on the ground anywhere near them is stupid. While very rare, those are truly devastating if they make it to a populated area. Also, you couldn’t pay me enough money to live in Moore, Oklahoma (it’s been hit several times by EF4 & EF5 tornadoes).
I get that tornadoes are rare, and deadly ones are even rarer. As my daughter keeps telling me, she is more likely to die in a car crash than be killed by a tornado. What gets me is the randomness of it all. If you watch films of the aftermath you see the narrow swath the twister took when it hit a neighborhood. One house is demolished, while a house on the next street is unscathed. Completely random. I suppose you can build your house so that you will be almost guaranteed to survive, assuming you know it’s coming in advance.
When I lived in California I never felt I was going to die in an earthquake. I might get hurt, especially if I was driving at the time, but never die. I’m amazed at how few people are actually killed by tornadoes. Apparently people know how to protect themselves somehow.
Got one in my back yard.
I also live in a log house. Thinking of huge logs falling on me is scary.
In the hole I’m afraid the logs are all gonna cover up the shelter door and we’ll be trapped. And, of course, no one would ever look for us way out here.
Aaaaacccckkk.
Beck-sitting here contemplating the next round. Due later tonight.
So at least in your mind, certain areas of Tornado Alley are more prone to tornadoes, particularly large ones, than other areas. I was under the impression that where tornadoes form is more or less random WITHIN Tornado Alley. Does the geography make a difference to where a tornado is likely to form?
If there are more deadly tornadoes in Moore than OKC or Tulsa, you have to wonder why someone would move there is they had a choice. Over 60,000 people choose to live in Moore, so apparently they aren’t as worried about it as you or I would be.
People in Moore, and OK in general must be happy to live there.
My eldest brother lives close to OKC, he’s no more worried about tornadoes than I am in S.Ar. Which is cautious and watchful. Knowing this is a particularly bad year.
Everyone who chooses to live in Tornado Alley must make a calculation in their head. I love living here, but I know that tornadoes happen around here. It’s completely random, and there is a chance I will live my whole life and never see one, but if there is ever one heading my way, I will have some warning, and I have a plan to stay alive because I have a special place where I can hide, and sooner or later someone will come looking and find me there.
I guess I understand how that works for most people, it’s just not something I’m comfortable with. I’ve survived brutally cold winters, some days without any power, but I never felt like I was going to die as a result.
Best of luck to all you who live in vulnerable areas, whether it’s tornadoes, flooding, earthquakes or some other natural disaster.
I’ve lived in Kansas since the early 80s, when I came here to go to college. And I grew up in the St Louis area, which got it’s fair share of tornadoes. But I’ve never actually seen one. The last one we had that did some serious damage was five years ago (May 29, 2019). It was a mile wide and shrouded in rain, and it missed our neighborhood by about a quarter mile. You can drive through some rural areas outside of town where it came through and still see some of the damage.
Not a lot of houses in Kansas are built with basements. I’m glad I insisted on one when we bought our house.
Nope. Here in New England we’re supposedly pretty safe from most natural disasters. But we do get earthquakes, normally mild; hurricanes occasionally arrive and can be terribly destructive; and we even get the rare tornado. The 1953 tornado that hit the large city of Worcester was brutal. We also can get derechos that kick the crap out of wide areas. Not to mention blizzards and ice storms.
The local news stations are pretty good about alerting specific areas that are in the path of potentially destructive storms. In the highly unlikely but not impossible event my home was in the path of such destruction, I’d zip down to the concrete basement and hide under the stairs.
That’s a good question. I suppose there aren’t any areas in the US that are completely immune from natural disasters, but that’s different than living in an area that’s prone to natural disasters, especially devastating ones. For example, if you live near a river, it can flood, and if you live near an earthquake fault, you can expect an earthquake, eventually.
Perhaps living in the Mojave Desert would be a relatively safe place, assuming you don’t consider 120 degrees F temperatures all summer a natural disaster. I live in Montana, and we get extremely cold winters, but you can just stay indoors and you’re safe. Is a -30 degree F day considered a natural disaster? Not in my book.
Right, but you can get caught in a blizzard. Or the power can go out for an extended period of -30 F when your supply of firewood is low.
There are millions of people living along the east coast of the USA, even though devastating hurricanes seem to strike there on a regular basis. I suppose you just have to pick your poison
Agreed. I guess it depends on your tolerance for risk. The odds are you won’t die in a natural disaster, so don’t worry too much about it, but make sure you have a plan just in case you need it.
