ES - storm

[CaptnAnn at AOL.com]

Good Morning Everyone!

WE ARE SAFE!  Just wanted to let those of you know who know I live up in 
Arlington Texas (and my apology for repeat posts to the lists I'm on to those 
who have seen this before).  The 2-4 tornadoes which tore through here last 
night were extremely fierce, to say the least.  My DH and I were actually 
about to walk out the front door for an evening out when it all began.

I thought it was a bit premature when my DH told me at about 5 pm yesterday 
we were under a Tornado Watch ...  NOT!!  Within the next 15 minutes (no 
kidding!), dark gray clouds filled our northeast sky, continuing to a ghostly 
black within 10 more.  The air was still--then the winds picked up.  Our 
animals became extremely nervous.

Unfortunately, I've been in tornadoes before.  Fortunately, I knew the real 
potential of such an occurrence and knew what to do, as evidently most all 
folks did also.  (Thank the Gods!!)

Right before 6 pm the rain began.  I ran outside to secure as much as 
possible on our ½ acre property.  With all the exotic fowl locked in the 
coop, the pedigreed show bunnies' hutches covered and secured to the ground 
on the southeast side of the house (the twister was moving from NW), as many 
plants around the garden house moved as close to the ground as I could get 
them, and all else as flattened as possible to avoid being grabbed and lifted 
up into the already angry swirling winds, I managed to find both the cat and 
pup and brought them into the house.

We stayed glued to the television, watching developments and the tornadic 
path, and the aftermath of damage until about 1 am.  The coverage with 
fantastic on all local channels, particularly NBC (www.nbc5i.com).

I couldn't sit still.  Every 5 minutes or so, after gathering our emergency 
gear--flashlight, blankets, etc. to the central hallway because the bathtubs 
are much too dangerous in our ancient trailer-converted home--I checked the 
sky out the front door.  As warning sirens blared, the phenomenon was both 
horrifying and beautiful to behold.  Tree branches swayed, bending further 
then I would have guessed possible without breaking.  Above, the clouds which 
had accumulated moved in a customarily erratic fashion, small amounts of 
debris already floating high.  Everything appeared a sickly shade of green.  
The wind would stop blowing for moments at a time ... then again howled. 

It was only a few minutes afterward when we started receiving the twister's 
actual movement from the downtown Ft. Worth area, with the newscaster's 
shaking voice saying, "Here's what's happening right NOW!  This is NOT 
prerecorded--we're actually in the *middle* of the tornado, seeing live 
action as it's taking place!"  (I've got about 2 ½ hours worth of footage 
taped from the news reports for future MS reference!)

And, considering the camera which was taking the nearly unbelievable footage 
was anchored to the top of one of the tall downtown buildings, it was nothing 
short of a miracle the camera itself survived.

I shoved essential objects-d'art, car keys, legal papers, nearby tax forms, 
and other necessary items under the couch, inside desk drawers, in 
cubbyholes, and started collecting as many bathtowels as I could get into one 
lump.  The pup wined and the cat purred while my DH sat like a zombie, 
staring at the TV.  I think he was in shock even though he kept telling me, 
"I'm not nervous.  I'm really not nervous.  We're fine . . ."

Yea, right.

His gorgeous behind was ‘One' with the couch cushion.  I was dripping wet, 
toweling off the cat and pup, which wasn't easy because of all the ‘I'm sooo 
happy!' face-licking going on.  Unsteady pictures from the news showed 
literally tons of flying trash, glass, pieces of sheet rock, and other 
unidentifiable stuff as it spiraled.  The meteorologist was telling the 
public to "Take cover immediately!"  Camera rocking hard, the footage kept 
coming.  And coming.  And coming!  What we saw was incredible--if anyone saw 
the movie years ago ‘Twister!', there was a lot more then that going on but 
very much the same.  I've heard of Art imitating Life, but this was getting 
ridiculous.

We were as ready as we'd ever be, and the TV room is only 10 feet from the 
hallway.

We lost electricity several times.  Again I had to go out back and resecure 
items around the greenhouse which had sprouted wings.  By that time, I felt 
like a jack-in-the-box, up and down and up and down, off the couch, to the 
door, back on the couch.  There was an eery break in the middle of the 
clouds, kind of dull whitish color amidst the gray-black, just over our front 
trees.

Then, it MOVED.

A few minutes--at least I think it was a few minutes--later, the outside 
pressure was so great I couldn't even budge the front glass storm door open 
to peek out and see where the ‘Thing' was.  Our wheelbarrow was tossed across 
the front lawn as if it weighed no more then a piece of paper.  Limbs broke 
from our maples, pecans, and cottonwood trees, falling everywhere.  Stuff 
flew around and around.  The cars in our driveway bounced and 
swayed--fortunately not against each other.  Some stupid fool drove by on the 
street.

Sirens wailed louder, if indeed that was possible, and my heart was pounding 
hard.

It was reported the twister touched down in Arlington nearby, but further 
information was unavailable at the moment.  Oh boy, was that was a big help!  
I leashed the pup and petted the cat.  Our plan was simple: my DH would get 
the dog (and himself) into the hall, and I'd get our finches and the canary 
into the closet, grab the blankets, flashlight, and cat, then join him.  
(He'd never been in a tornado before.)

As more video footage came in, he went to the front door.  We couldn't see 
much going on above, but I did notice a rapid swirling movement cross 
directly over our heads.  I didn't bother telling my sweet hubby--and please 
don't repeat this--to go change his undies, because we were right in the 
middle and it wouldn't have done any good anyway.

And everything calmed.  We listened.  We watched.  We trembled.  The sky 
lightened, clouds broke, and stars could be seen.

The tornado had touched down 1/4 mile away somewhere on the next street to 
our west, jumped over us, and landed east about 2 miles away, demolishing 
much of that neighborhood before moving onto Arlington Airport and Grand 
Prairie.  Several 18-wheelers were also battered, overturned, twisted, and 
thrown across the roads.

There was complete and well-done coverage all around us in Arlington and 
Grand Prairie, where multiple commercial districts, the airport, the major 
Interstate-20 expressway, and other residential neighborhoods were hit, and 
it continued well into this morning with several official press conferences 
by city officials to update everyone.  Sheet metal roofing from industrial 
buildings was mutilated almost beyond recognition.  One steel sign frame 
crashing onto an adjacent highway, blocking an entire side causing police to 
reroute all traffic.  Computers, files, desks, and chairs were found blocks 
away from where they belonged.  And it took literally hundreds of folks an 
average of 7 hours to get home after work which was a normal 45 
minutes--probably the loooongest *rush hour* drive they've ever been in!

Not a plug here, but major kudos and a very loud "Huzzah!" and "Vivat!" to 
Home Depot, who had taken it upon themselves to haul truckloads of massive 
amounts of supplies (plywood, nails, flashlights, batteries, etc...) out the 
nearby stricken residential areas and DONATE it to help!!

It's absolutely amazing what's been happening ever since.  Folks have been 
pitching in and helping each other.  Public officials and authorities have 
worked tirelessly throughout the night and into the morning.  The Red Cross 
has had so many volunteers willing to help.  All firefighters and police were 
called to duty and quickly secured dangerous areas, and subdued possibly 
explosive situations concerning looting . . .

Surprisingly, I wasn't scared through entire occurrence; nervous is the best 
word I can think of to describe what I felt, and still feel.  During storms I 
tend to be very sensitive to the electricity in the atmosphere, and that was 
what happened.  I was mostly concerned with ourselves and our property.  I 
guess I didn't have time to be scared.  But right now I'm reliving it all, 
and have several times found myself close to tears.

Trying to stay positive, I figure Mother Nature was helping us get a 
jump-start of spring cleaning!  And when *She* gets impatient, watch out!  
LOL 

>From this morning's reports it's speculated--prior to official reviews of the 
damaged path of the tornadoes of course--the twisters were about the 
intensity of F3 to F4 in the downtown Ft. Worth areas, and in my neighborhood 
about an F2.  Thank goodness I didn't get picked up and thrown across the 
back yard like I did the last time! ;-)

We did sustain some wind damage, mostly out back in my greenhouse.  Potted 
plants were missing (a few which I never found), the yard was littered with 
debris such as broken glass, pieces of wood, plastic, glass, a cup which 
wasn't ours, tree branches, and more glass.  I've already cleaned most of it 
up, and think we're again very lucky I only had to spend a few hours doing 
this.

However, I think I'm going to rename my 5-month-old, 60 lb. GS puppy Twister, 
because she's actually what caused most of my plant casualties (dragging 
around wind-scattered pots, chewing newly sprouted veggie and flower 
seedlings, stealing my paintbrushes which I did find by the side of the 
house, etc.).

So, we survived and are quite safe.  My DH commented he thought if we had 
gone out for the evening as planned, we probably would've come home to a 
disastrous pile of rubble . . . who knows??  But I kind of got that *feeling* 
also.  And I sure have had powerful conversations with Almighty Mother 
Goddess over the past 20 hours, the last of which included a very big ‘thank 
you!' ;-)

Ann
(who is busy trying to reorganize stuff back to a *normal* state of chaos! 
;-))
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