Fun with Tornado Warnings

The big event of yesterday was supposed to be the installation of our window AC units. I’d dredged them up from the basement and had them all set to go–just taking a breather to get some editing done before I put them in, because editing. And then my phone buzzed. The National Weather Service had issued a tornado warning for my town. I raised my eyebrows. Tornados and Maine aren’t two concepts that go together too often. This isn’t Kansas, folks. I clicked through for more information.

Sure enough, a strong storm was headed right at us at 50 miles per hour. I checked the radar to see where exactly, then decided that this really wasn’t a joke. It took a bit to remember what I was supposed to do in a tornado, but “go to the basement” was at the top of my mental checklist, so I went through the house, gathered the fam together, and down we went to our spider infested basement.

TRC and DC were both surprised and worried about the possibility of a tornado ripping through our house. Luckily, I had brought my iPhone with me, and so we could follow the path of the storm on radar. After the first ten minutes or so, I was quite confident that the storm would miss us by a mile or two–you could see the direction of the biggest spot of the storm, and it wasn’t aimed at my house. (So great to be able to see that kind of information so specifically so easily these days.) So I had the kids follow along, and they were somewhat relieved.

MC, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with this “hide in the basement” thing after five minutes of it. She needed to be changed, she was hungry, and she was not happy at all. The kids took turns looking after her. (Keep in mind that my basement is about 5 feet high, with a few bare light bulbs for light. It’s the basement horror movies are made from. I don’t blame MC for being upset at all.

We ended up being down there for about 45 minutes, at which point the tornado warning ended and we all went back upstairs to assess the damage: nothing had happened. Still, judging from some of the damage posted online around us, I definitely feel lucky to have gotten out of that unscathed. Tornado warnings are not my friend, I’ve decided. Kansas can keep ’em. Plus, I never got my AC units put in.

Summer is bad people. Very bad. I don’t know what’s the matter with all you non-snow people. Give me a blizzard any day of the week compared to heat, humidity, bugs, and now tornadoes . . .

Leave a comment

×