Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Fun with Tornadoes

Weird when so many whom you love are in the path of one of these freakishly random tornadoes. With Angela stuck in a windowless room in an elementary school full of sweaty children, Tessa hunkered down at the university, Mark in a hallway holding babies from the daycare in his building, and me and the dogs unexpectedly at home, it gets a little crazy. Gotta love Twitter and text messages. Even when phone calls don't go through, texts usually do. No one gets anything productive done!

Like most houses in Oklahoma, ours doesn't have a basement. After having done remodeling work in the original part of the house, I'd say anywhere there would be a safe place. The old lathe and plaster walls are like cement. The contents of Tessa's closet are now flung into her room, just in case I needed to take cover. Usually we go to the local church for shelter. It has a roomy basement and opens its doors in severe weather. The trick is always whether to go or to stay. After the 5th sounding of tornado sirens I finally gave up and went to the shelter.

The place was crawling with well dressed elderly folks. Well, maybe that's not a good word. Swarming? Overrun? Apparently there was a funeral. They all started toddling en mass out the door. Walkers, wheelchairs, slow walkers, all heading out into the storm while the tornado sirens wailed. Did they not hear? Were their hearing aids turned down? Did they seriously think they could outrun the storm? Are they just that stubborn? A few decided to head down the stairs to the basement. At one point I was trying to decide if I could catapult over the slow moving crowd if things got hairy, or if I should actually pick up that tiny lady pushing her walker, toss her over my shoulder and run. Fortunately it didn't come to that.

Ah life in Oklahoma. My heroes of the day are the teachers and principals who spent hours stuffed into smelly small spaces with wiggly children. Not my idea of a good time.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

My goodness gracious Dorothy, Toto, Auntie Em and Uncle Henry....Such excitement! And we here in the drought ridden southwest think things get exciting when a myriad of raindrops ( more than 3 to be precise) fall on our heads.

Glad the senior citizens didn't run amuck and trample you...be safe everyone!

xoxoox
Judy

Shari said...

I think there was a bit of PTSD today amongst those of us who worked so hard during the repeated tornado warnings to keep kids safe and parents from rioting. I'm glad you think favorably of all of us. Is that a record for how many times sirens went off in a two hour period???