Fraidy Cat

Alright, so before I begin the real meaning of this post...you need a little bit of background info. On Sunday, May 4, 2003, I was a sophomore in college living in the dorms loving life. That night I went to church only to be phoned by my mom who said..."We've been hit, the pool house...it's gone!" This short conversation was followed by dead air, then panic, then lots of lost calls, tears, and sheer terror. On May 4, my parents house (& the house I grew up in) was hit by a tornado. We were overall very lucky, as many neighbors and friends lost everything they had. We lost tons of trees and the landscape of my parents house and the area around where I grew up was changed forever. The most difficult part for me was that there was no way for me to get there. Sure, I had a car...but all the roads in and out of my parents house were blocked by down trees and/or power lines. So...for 12 long hours, I was stuck...only 30 minutes away but completely helpless. My family was fine, and in the next few days I heard lots of stories of how they road it out and how my mom, dad, brother, 2 dogs, and a cat were all huddled on a love seat in our basement. On Monday morning I went to my first class (because the roads were still treacherous) and then headed down...on my way I stopped at KFC and grabbed an enormous amount of chicken for all the workers at our house, some dry ice to help keep things cold, and lots and lots of batteries. It was a frustrating time for my parents (their roof was peeled away on one corner of the house, windows were blown out, and thus some rain come in). The damage was extensive, but certainly fixable. Here's just a few pics I was able to find.

The corner of my parents' house & a tree snapped off at the base

Two of the biggest trees in our yard, completely destroyed and uprooted in a matter of about 5 minutes.

Our shed (or what used to be our shed)

Anyway, to make a very long story short...we had another stormy spell in November of that year and then another tornado that took almost the exact same path 3 years later in March 2006. This tornado didn't actually hit our house, but took out more trees that the first storm missed. I was home for this one and it was maybe the most scared I've been in my life. Since that time, I have a slight, or maybe not so slight, paranoia when bad storms are predicted. And last night was no different, storms were scheduled to hit our area overnight sometime after midnight. I was already anxious as I went to bed because I knew it wouldn't be long before I was waking up needing to check the weather. Just on time, at 1:15 I awoke to heavy winds and checked my phone for the radar. Tornado Warning: Headed for the town I grew up in. Just a quick side note---Hubby and I live basically on the exact same line as my hometown, so it's basically inevitable that what hits there will be headed straight for our house as well. Needless to say, I headed for the couch armed with the tv remote and blankets while Dear Hubby slept soundly in bed. Nothing serious came about, but then it took me awhile for my adrenaline levels to go down and to fall back asleep.

I certainly do not enjoy middle of the night awakenings...but I guess it's better to be safe than sorry.