So I was catching up on some personal correspondence yesterday afternoon, Friday the 13th (believe it or not, I still have a few folks I keep in touch with solely through snail mail! in 2012!), when I noticed it was abnormally dark outside. After I flipped on a light, I heard the Norman air raid siren. I thought, "Hmmm, that only goes off on Saturday at noon," so went to my front door and windows. I decided to call my brother and see if that meant a tornado was in the area, as I knew we had a 'chance' of having 'severe thunderstorms' that day. Unfortunately, my cell wasn't getting a signal.
I looked out the window again, it's a little after 4pm at this point, and it starts raining. So I think, "Thank god - I don't have to water all my newly planted flowers!" Then it started raining harder. And the wind picked up. And picked up. And the rain was coming down in buckets/sheets. The air sirens take up again and I notice the wind has suddenly started HOWLING. I seriously have never witnessed wind like that. I was torn between thinking, "Cool!" and "OMG, my rose bush!" :)
Suddenly I see a BRIGHT flash of lightning that looked REALLY close, and heard a tremendous crack as a huge branch tears off a large tree in my front yard. I thought "Okay, surely that tree was not struck by lightning" and then see a larger part of the branch flying down the street - along with a couple of neighbors' large trash cans. And I mean FLYING down the street. The lights kick out for about 10 seconds, the rain stops dead, and the wind, incredibly, has kicked up a notch. Little did I know that it was probably right around that time that the tornado was ripping the roof off a building barely two blocks away from me, as well as ripping huge trees out by their roots in the hospital parking lot behind my house (the rain had stopped coz the VERY WIDE tornado was sucking all the rain into it).
I have to say, it was pretty mesmerizing. I basically stood at my window, gawping like a slack-jawed yokel at the wind and the rain. If I'd known a tornado was tearing itself through my neighborhood, I might have actually been scairt! :) But since I only have TV during football season, I was in the dark. Plus, with a rock house, I'm no doubt safer than many others. After things finally calmed down, my phone service came back on and my parents called to make sure I wasn't dead. I then checked my voice mail and had multiple messages - the last being the best.
After a voice mail from my parents checking on me, there was one from my brother who lives 8 blocks away also checking to see if I was alive. I recognize the number from the last voice mail as from my birth mom, and I was ready for the "OMG, are you all right?" But instead, she says, "OMG, David, I just wanted to see if Kyle is all right!" Remember, my son Kyle is still in Petaluma, CA - 1,500 miles away. But apparently, he'd been on Facebook earlier lamenting his broken heart from a cheating girlfriend. Which, apparently, to his grandmother, trumps her son living in the path of tornado! I love it! But seriously, I do. My boy IS more important than me, but it was still kind of funny.
Once things calmed down, I decided to bike over to my little brother's house and check on them. It was weird/eerie seeing all the damage just within the 8 blocks between our homes. Huge, old trees completely uprooted and toppled over. Sections of roofs and small structures ripped up and tossed willy-nilly, all over the place - often blocks away from where they originally stood. Trees that had the bark stripped clean off them! Wild.
My brother's family had had their own adventure. When the tornado hit, they had all but one of their day care kids with them (along with their daughter and grand-daughter) - about 6 kids between the ages of a few months and 4 years old. When they were told by the weather guys to head for the nearest shelter, my brother & sister-in-law chucked all the kids in the van and headed for the shelter a few blocks away--which happens to be a Wal-Mart. But when they get there, the door is bolted, and there are folks inside just staring out at them, refusing to open the door and let them in! Good thing for community shelters, eh? They all survived, fortunately, although my sister-in-law's new minivan was damaged. Bummer.
As much as my poor boy is grieving over his broken heart, he's probably glad he wasn't with me, as he is TERRIFIED of tornadoes! But, being away as I have, living mostly in places with very little severe weather, it was actually kind of cool for me. Yeah, I'm a dork. But it certainly helped remind me of one of THE major reasons I left this state in the first place: absolutely atrocious weather.
While this past winter was incredibly mild, Oklahoma often has bone-chilling winters, with wind that makes it feel even colder - not to mention the occasional blizzard or, worse, ice storm. Then spring comes and it's torrential downpours and/or tornadoes. Summer brings ungodly humidity and/or hellishly, endlessly hot weather. It's just a non-stop thrill ride.
My "5-year-plan" to reconnect with family before moving to Portland may end up being adjusted by a few/4 years! :)
