OK folks. I love my mom. But even if you do not live in the flatlands, you probably already understand what was going on.
YES. It was a flippin' tornado! In fact, Mom was sitting in her car at the intersection of 95th and Indiana (f
or those of you who are familiar with Lubbock), and the funnel was down at 94th and Gary. Streets are in numerical and alphabetical order on a grid there, so you can imagine how close she was to it. AND it was headed toward her house, her destination.
or those of you who are familiar with Lubbock), and the funnel was down at 94th and Gary. Streets are in numerical and alphabetical order on a grid there, so you can imagine how close she was to it. AND it was headed toward her house, her destination.She did finally realize that there was a tornado down, and she did actually see it.
Technically, the Super Doppler enthusiasts from "Storm Track 5!" are calling it a waterspout because it was pretty small. But still..
I LOVE the weather. I love radar and Doppler, thunderstorms and gully washers, but I am reverently afraid of tornadoes. When the sirens go off my heart pounds and my stomach drops, especially when I'm in the car.
At least where my mom lives, it is flat enough to spot the wall cloud and the forming fingers. Also, in the flatlands, you often see a storm chaser headed towards the storm, my cue to go the other way. Here in Metroplex, USA it's a bit harder to spot them because of tall buildings and "hilly" land. Often times the tornadoes rumble down I20 or I30 (I guess because it's the perfect alley). Two hit less than a mile from where I live, and one of them turned over several small airplanes at the local airport and damaged several of my students' houses. That same storm put a stop sign through one of my friend's car windshields while she was trying to beat it home. Another one knocked out the power at our local dive (it was free shots all around, or at least for me).
My whole life I've been around these funnel clouds since my relatives all live within a hundred mile radius of Lubbock, and I have only ever seen them at a distance. There were only three times that I can remember being in the projected path where I've had to seriously take cover, and only once when I was worried that my life was actually in danger (probably the birth of my fear). I should be used to them, right?
Well, I'm not.
* stupid
** typical of flatlanders who actually can look up and tell which way the storm is going and whether or not they need to take shelter.
8 comments:
You definitely get a healthy fear of tornadoes if you’ve ever lived in the flatlands. I remember many a night huddled in an inner closet with the rest of the family and the whole contingent of pets, waiting for the storm to pass. One time in particular, we were in the bathroom - the only room in the apartment with no outside walls – as a funnel came down the street. Since it was a bathroom, it had a huge glass mirror. To cope, we had a mattress propped against the tub to pull over us if need be. While we were in the bathroom crying valiantly as only children can, Mom was at the front door watching the storm. This was before “Doppler” & “Fast Track” so all we had to go by were estimates & eyeballs. Later Mom said she heard storm turn to a freight train, and saw the sky turn green, and saw the funnel in the distance, but it was never close enough to worry about. We knew we were safe because Mom said so.
I'm terrified of earthquakes, hurricanes, and other disasters, but not tornadoes. Maybe you just get used to what you've grown up with.
El Paso is surrounded by protective mountains, so until I went to college at TTU, the only weather I had to worry about was 115 degrees of scorching hot air. But at least it is a dry heat there, and in the evening desert things cool off nicely (as opposed to here!).
In fact, El Paso is a very nice place to live..unless you like rain. or snow. or trees. or grass.
My only experience with tornadoes is when we went to visit my dad's friend who lived in Anton TX. The siren went off, it started to hail the hole bit. And here we are the tourist from EP with our cameras trying to get pictures of it. We even got in the truck to get a better picture!
That same Summer we were in California and were in an earthquake!
It was one crazy Summer!
I grew up in a rural area where one whole part of town is always called "Tornado Alley" and the vistas are so wide you can see it when a tornado hits the next county over. When we moved to NYC the only real sign of stress I had was repeated dreams of being back in that small town, full of fear, watching a tornado loom on me and/or my children. As we moved in and the chaos gave way to normal, the dreams stopped.
I have an aunt who was killed by a semi truck in a tornado, taking refuge behind it. This was before I was born, but I grew up with the tragic story. Then, recently, her daughter was in a very dangerous tornado while on a road trip across Kansas. The irony was not lost on her.
I've transplanted now to a place with hurricanes, but they don't scare me at all. Evacuation roadies and shelter-in-place parties have dominated our experiences. But hail! hail scares the hell out of me.
It should be entirely obvious to anyone who watches this sort of thing (as I did when I lived in Tulsa, Ok, where "Twister" was filmed) that tornadoes are instinctively attracted to country music.
In fact, in most places where there is country music, there are tornadoes. Caribbean music, on the other hand, is more likely to attract hurricanes. Grunge, of course, is the great bringer of rain.
Perhaps the tornadoes are doing us all a favor...
:-)
I agree, healthy fear of tornadoes is a good thing. I'm with you, being from west TX myself and all. We get them here too, ICK ICK ICK. And since when did Lubbock get 2.5 inches of rain? CRAZY!
Neal, you're on the right track, but it's not country music - it's trailer homes. The Lord God doth despseth them. They are an abomination unto the most high. I'm sure it's biblical - in Psalapadicus II or something.
Rich -- Perhaps it works this way:
1. The Country music attracts trailer homes (or rather the people who inhabit them).
2. The trailer homes, then in turn invite the tornadoes.
I would agree with you (sarcastically, of course) about the whole wrath of God thing, but considering Ginger's very next post, probably not a good idea...
But Psalapadicus II is definitely my favorite book of the bible. Especially the part about the sacred cheeseburger.
Post a Comment