Let’s NOT Twist Again Like We Did… Well, Lots in Recent Years
Posted by Lynnster on April 11, 2008
I think once you’ve been smack dab in the middle of a tornado - for instance, separated from one only by the roof, windshield, and rest of the body of your car - you develop sort of a special and strange kind of empathy when people and places you know well (or the place where you got caught in one before) are in danger , or in the middle, of one of those scary mothers coming down from the skies.
Even though the forecasts were trumpeting potential gloom and doom for West Tennessee yesterday and last night, the storms we’ve had the last couple of days in this area were sometimes a little nasty but nothing very out of the ordinary. We had some more early this morning, but other than the fact that my new neighbors’ car alarm goes off EVERY SINGLE TIME it thunders or there’s lightning - and I’m not kidding - most of it’s been, like, meh. And right now in Memphis it’s sunny again and bright (too bright).
Yet at the same time, now, one of my two home counties and a neighboring one just had a tornado warning, though I’ve not heard of anything having happened yet.
And even more to the point, lighthearted and flatly hysterically funny chatter in my Twittersphere this morning has given way to worried and concerned Tweets from my Nashville and Middle Tennessee friends and acquaintances as what looks to be a potentially very dangerous storm system moves into the area. I’m witnessing it all in near-real time, from their points of view, and it’s really as concerning and nearly frightening to me as if I’m right this minute sitting in Ginger’s or Slarti’s or Busy Mom’s laps, or in the newsroom with Christian.
And now, as I write this, it’s a few minutes later and I am breathing a little sigh of relief reading that Rachel and her co-workers have been let back out of the basement, and everyone else sounding a little less cautious too.
With one exception - news via NIT of a confirmed tornado in Lawrence County. I don’t know too much about Lawrence County, and I’m racking my brain to remember whether I know any bloggers or anyone else in Lawrence County, so it’s a little different now… but just a little.
I know what that tornado looks and sounds like, exactly. And I know what it’s like to think okay, am I getting out of this alive? And I know what it feels like, the helpless feeling when you finally realize there’s not a darn thing you can do but wait and see. And I know that even though it’s usually only a matter of minutes, it feels more like hours.
Agonizing, horrifying hours. There is absolutely nothing in the world like it, not that I’ve ever experienced, and hope to never have to again.
Arrival time in Lewisburg 12:45 p.m., they’re saying. One minute from now as I write. I hope everyone in its path stays safe.
April 11, 2008 at 3:12 pm
We had reports in our area too. My daughter keeps comforting herself by thinking the odds of getting hit twice in the same location by a tornado have to be very low.