Tornado Warning

Living in the deep South, tornados along with their warnings are just another part of spring. I'm sure Midwesterners can relate. We were taught at a very young age the "duck and cover" position, and in fact, held drills at school where we'd line the walls of our halls in the duck and cover position, much like a school would have fire drills. I can only remember one time being in school and having to actually do the duck and cover for fear of a real tornado. Most of the time we just giggled during drills as most wiggled their butts in the air goofing off. However, the reality is, when faced with the prospect of a tornado, it's really scary.

Yesterday was a glorious day. Skies were blue, sun was shining, temperatures reached 80 degrees, the sun doesn't set until 8 - 8:30pm these days, and after work, I was enjoying a margarita (or 3) with friends on the patio of a local mexican place in town. When I got home around 1am and crashed in the bed, I didn't realize I'd be faced with the possibility of a tornado 3 hours into my slumber. But at 4am, my cell phone rings with a call from my mother: "Kara, there's a tornado warning for our county, you need to get in the hallway and be ready to take cover." Sleepy, and a bit relaxed still from the after effects of the tequila, I didn't really want to get out of bed, but the tornado warning sirens blaring off in the distance compelled me to get up. So I grabbed my pillow, a blanket, some shoes, a flashlight, and my furry "kids", and got in the safest part of my 1 level home - my hallway. I closed off all the doors to rooms to help protect from broken glass in the event of windows breaking, turned on the tv in the other room with the volume up loud enough to hear, and sat there on the hardwood floors waiting for the storm to pass. The lights flickered frequently, and the thunder boomed, but the wind didn't sound like it was that bad. It was still scary to sit alone in the hallway, praying that the Lord would keep me safe. My biggest worry was having some of the large trees around my property tumble onto my roof. I wasn't really in the mood to be crushed by a tree last night. I heard the weatherman say the warning expired at 4:30am, and thankful to have escaped the brunt of the storm, I decided all was clear and got back in my bed to finish my night's sleep.

Waking up this morning, I turned on the tv and happened to catch the news, still oblivious to the damage the storm created. Oblivous that is, until I saw my neighborhood on the news and the newswoman report, "the hardest hit by the storm were Sherwood Lane and Mossy Creek Drive. Let's go live to the scene..." My mouth dropped open, and sure enough, they were reporting just 2 streets over from my house. People's homes were destoyed. Trees had crushed roofs, cars, toppled across the streets, and roofs were blown away. As a blessing, I'm not even missing a single shingle from my roof. It's like it completely skipped over my street.

Here are a few photos I took when I went for a walk with my dog Darby this afternoon. I wasn't allowed in some of the harder hit areas of my neighborhood as it was blocked off with yellow caution tape and police. Pictures just don't do the damage of mother nature justice. I'm thankful to have been under the radar of the fury from the storm.