Sunday, May 06, 2007

Blown Away


As someone who grew up in Kansas, one of biggest fears is tornadoes. I was very happy when we moved to New England that I wouldn't have to spend my spring and early summer getting worried every time the skies started to cloud up. I really have no reason to be so scared of them, I have probably only been in 3 or 4 tornado warnings and have only ever seen one tornado with my own eyes. Just the thought of hearing those sirens makes my stomach go into knots.
I didn't find out about Greenburg until late yesterday afternoon on the radio. It is unbelievable that an entire town can be wiped out because of one tornado that probably lasted less than 20 minutes. I can't even imagine what it must be like to take shelter and come out minutes later and have everything be blown away. Thank God that most of the people who lived there were physically okay. My dad was at a fishing tournament with a friend who lives in Greensburg on Friday night. They got a call around 10:30 that his friend needed to get home. His family was safe but everything was gone. The friend got back to town around 2 a.m. and didn't recognize anything.
Storms reformed yesterday afternoon and just kept rolling through last night. David and I figured out that one of the news channels out of Wichita streams weather on the internet when there is severe weather in the state. I watched that for about 3 hours last night. Every time I would be ready to turn it off and go to sleep, another warning would be posted for my hometown (or one of its neighbors) and I would continue to watch to make sure that nothing had happened. Three of the towns that were hit Friday got hit again last night. They had evacuated the survivors from Greensburg to Haviland, KS and it almost got hit last night as well. They are supposed to be in trouble again tonight and it is supposed to continue to rain there until at least Wednesday.
Boy am I glad I live in New England!!!!! I'll take snow over twisters any day of the week.

No comments: