It was a beautiful Tuesday in Monroe County, and I had just finished diving beautiful Lemon Lake northeast of Bloomington, IN. The sun was shining, it was warm and there was a slight breeze and we were on our way back into town. All of a sudden, as the sky got slightly dark, a loud, wailing siren about a 100 ft on the left of the road started sounding off. “What is that?” I asked, sitting up, my face showing alarm. My boss answered, with excitement in his eyes and thrill in his voice, “That means we are in a tornado warning! There is going to be a bad storm – let’s go find it!”
Severe thunder storms and tornado conditions are an almost weekly occurrence out in the area of the Midwest where I work, severe thunder storms are common and possible tornado conditions. We were currently in the blunt end of such a storm, and I was not happy realizing that we were stuck in traffic, still several miles from the safety of our hotel.
My boss was trying to explain to me that the cloud formations rapidly engulfing the sky had the utmost potential to create a tornado. The radio ESA seconded him by repeating that the most dangerous zone of the storm was in the northwest of Bloomington to Ellitsville - right where our hotel was!
My co-workers excitement made me second guess my scaredy-cat instinct. Should I have been more excited for some reason? Was I supposed to be happy about this? I remember being little at my aunt’s house in St. Charles, IL and being mesmerized by the lightening and the giant clouds, but I was little, I didn't know any better and if it had got really bad, I could jet down into the basement with my family and I would be safe. Well, here I was on a state road in a flimsy, Ford van sitting in a long line of anxious rush hour traffic definitely NOT being excited about witnessing my first possible tornado.
Obviously, I made it out alive, and although the experience terrified me, I know I have to survive a summer full of these kind of things. I am going to have to embrace the Midwest storms, and maybe someday in August I might look into the sky and see dark blue and grey and actually be excited to see a funnel formation. But until then, if you asked me to choose between Midwest tornadoes or earthquakes in good ol' California - I'd take earthquakes any day!
I have been in high risk tornado warning areas all my childhood, and in California, I have been in some mild earthquakes. And you know what? I take a pass on both! Ha ha. Suzanna Mom
ReplyDeleteWhat poor Li'l Angela did NOT tell y'all was that we have had tornadic type storms almost every day here in SW Michigan. 100 mph winds on Friday, storms each night thereafter. We sat on the screened porch watching lightening & listening to thunder at night. Once, our sirens in town started blasting away...we all headed for the basement! No tornado, tho'! We'll toughen Li'l Angela up this summer.....or make her a nervous wreck!!!
ReplyDeleteWell,.. when you come to FL for the Fourth, you might experience a hurricane. You will be in company so there is nothing to worry about. Your Blog keeps getting better and better with every entry. Have a blast in these two weeks and we shall hit the beach. Jody
ReplyDeleteAngela, be careful what you wish for! Today we had 3 more horrible black cloud-wild winds-hail-tornado watch storms...and an earthquake 5.0 occurred in Ontario, Canada..felt by some in the midwest! Wow....what did we do to anger Ole Mother Nature???? We are very sorry, so stop it!!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds cool!! What's the worst that can happen, you get zapped or blown away, WAY better than being crushed under an earthquake!! Haha... that sounds fun/terrifying, like snorkeling with a shark... just as long as you get out alive.
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