ES - storm
CaptnAnn at AOL.com
CaptnAnn at AOL.com
Wed Mar 29 13:21:01 PST 2000
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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