Whoever named it 'necking' was a poor judge of anatomy! ~Groucho Marx

Twister

i wrote this on May 21st, 2004 at: 5:39 pm and its been viewed 1,030 views

I hate thick, dark, high pressured storms. Lots of people I talk to love them. Chris does - - he likes the power of a good, hard thunderstorm.

As for me? I get paranoid.

On April 4, 1981 - I lived through the worst tornado. It was actually two tornado’s that started as one - - split and went into separate directions, and then rejoined at the end to form one killer cloud. Thankfully, only 3 people lost their lives in that storm. (not thankful for them or their families, of course - but it could have been SO worse!) One was a ten year old kid named “Scott”, whom I used to babysit for. His father was on-call for the Fire Department that night. He was at the station when the tornado hit at 12:01 am. He is the one who found his boy - I don’t think he ever recovered.

The oddest thing was - - every single house in our neighborhood was destroyed. Rooftops were lying in the street. Personal belongings were scattered across 4 counties. It was a mess. In the middle of that mess was our house — well, my parents house, but I was 12, at the time. Our house stood, undamaged, in the midst of it all. The only damage we suffered was a 2×4 that made it’s way through our roof and landed in the toilet.

We took in a lot of families that year - as the neighborhood started rebuilding itself. Everyone rebuilt their homes and stayed in the neighborhood. Well, except for Scott’s family - they moved after the disaster.

Right now, there is one heck of a storm out. It’s beginning to look like Dorothy’s Kansas out there. Rain, high winds, hail…I hate it. I just tuned into the Weather Channel, who informed me that there is a dangerous twister on the ground in Iowa - - same storm that is headed in this general direction.

To make matters worse, Chris is flying in from Atlanta tonight at 8:30pm. As a general rule, I hate when he flies. Tonight - I’m a basket case.

Got Valium?






6 Responses to “Twister”

  1. 1

    I love thunderstorms, so long as I’m not in one of those trailer homes.

    I grew up in a trailer home out in the middle of freakin’ no where in West Texas. I remember the house rocking when the wind would really kick up in a bad storm. Once I got out of those and into a “regular” house with a good, firm, solid foundation, those storms have never really bothered me again.

  2. 2
    Grub Says:

    I survived the 1982 Paris, Texas tornado! It flattened about half of Paris. I was mad because our school was untouched while directly across the street from it there was nothing left standing.

  3. 3
    Randy Says:

    I lived in Texas before moving to Orlando and I always loved storms until my first major one in Texas. That night tornados were literally everywhere. One traveled straight up I30 from Fort Worth to Arlington. It was a train of severe storms all night. At one point there were 80 mph straightline winds carrying softball-size hail. I still like rain but after that night…I’ll pass on the severe storms. In my life I have been in the vicinity of 4 different tornados. Not fun. So that is why I moved to Hurricane country… ::: sigh :::

  4. 4
    daniel Says:

    Isn’t the weather scary sometimes? I used to think earthquakes were fun till we had that big one (Loma Prieta)… All the destruction, deaths, that really got me.

  5. 5
    Vansickle Says:

    Grub, dont you mean tornadoes? :shock: That F4 I hear was crazy!! My family lived in Paris at the time, but moved shortly afterwards.

  6. 6
    Kayla Says:

    I was not alive when Paris had it’s F4 but my boyfriends aunt was and when we were sharing an apartment with her i come to realize that everytime there was any chance of a slight storm or the making of it..she’d leave in her car and just drive around and listen to the radio (for the weather reports of course) until it all cleared up…she couldnt stand it to be in our apartment or anywhere if there was a storm brewing outside…I guess her driving around made her feel like she could out run it if she had to? I guess the stor in 82 more or less traumatized her for years to come…I’d hate to not be able to sleep through the night because of a small storm…

This site uses Gravatars - get one to display your own picture!

Join My Community at MyBloglog!
Add to Technorati Favorites
Lisa Sabin-Wilson's Amazon.com WishList
View Lisa Sabin's profile on LinkedIn
Find Lisa Sabin-Wilson on Twitter
Lisa Sabin Wilsons Blog Feed
Li-sa Sa-bin Wil-son: [lee-suh sey-bin will-sun] - pronoun; 1. A wife, mother & friend; 2. Blog Designer & WebHost; 3. Author of WordPress For Dummies; 4. Scuba diver; 5. Downhill Skier; 6. Am. Photographer; 7. Espresso sipper; 8. quote collector
WordPress For Dummies, author Lisa Sabin-Wilson, Amazon.Com WordPress For Dummies, by Lisa Sabin-Wilson, delivers just what would-be bloggers need to get up and running with WordPress and start communicating with the world. Includes help on every aspect of installing and using WordPress, illustrations from real-world WP blogs, step-by-step tutorials on key topics, and insights from bloggers who use WordPress.....Read More About It »

Acknowledgements | Forward | Table of Contents | Chapter One
Buy @ Amazon | Buy @ Barnes and Noble

  • This is just a test post. Testing from my new smartphone. Will check when I get home. In the meantime....happy April!

    - #
  • Look for an update to the WordPress For Dummies book that will include what's new and exciting in the newest version of WordPress 2.5. This will be available in a free, downloadable PDF document both here, on my site, as well as Dummies.com. Will keep you posted!

    - #
  • Charles Stricklin hosts the popular WordPress podcast over at http://wp-community.org. I was interviewed for this weeks episode, which you can listen to right here. Thanks, Charles, for being a great host!

    - #
  • Wanna peak at the new design for the WordPress Administration Panel coming soon when version 2.5 is released in March?? I posted a review of it here - have a looksee, tell me what'cha think!

    - #
  • Just put up a job posting looking for a part-time designer at E.Webscapes. Interested? Or know someone who might be? view details of the job post right here

    - #