Yesterday there was a gigunga storm at my office. A "major weather event," as it were. Two important things to note here:
1. I have a long-held, inconsolable fear of tornadoes.
2. I am not all that great in personal crisis situations. (I actually do okay with other people's crises...but the ones involving me are another story.)
What we had wasn't actually a tornado, but it was bad. Somebody said it was a "microburst." If you don't know what a microburst is, Wikipedia has some good, albeit very science-y, information. I was on the phone with my husband when the storm hit, and I inadvertently threw the phone when the electricity went out (this is right after someone screamed, "Run for the stairwell!" and right before my panic attack officially began). Apparently, although I thought the phone was dead, it wasn't...Brock got hold of me on my cell phone and informed me he was still listening to the storm through my dangling land line. (I also threw a piece of cake I'd just been eating because it was someone's last day at work...and found out later I had actually hit the trash can.)
So I spent the storm huddled in a stairwell with my work buddies, freaking out. On the other side of the stairwell wall, outside the building, was what you see in the photo above. Ack. There was a lot of damage in the surrounding area, and it was terrifying. We were just right in the middle of this very localized, straight path of destruction.
It's actually a really long story, but since it's a day later and I'm much calmer about the whole thing, here are simply some highlights and general observations:
1. I'm fine, and my family is fine, and all my friends are fine, and everyone I work with is fine.
2. I know at least two people whose cars were completely totaled by giant trees that used to be in the ground...and aren't anymore.
3. I never heard a weather siren, which kind of makes me mad.
4. I picked the wrong day to wear a skirt and sandals.
5. I actually saw a funnel cloud when a second wave of storms hit. It was way up in the sky and far away, but it was there. And I'm not the only one who saw it, so I know I didn't have a panic-induced hallucination.
6. My friends Jen and Doug, and our daycare provider, are all awesome people who came through in an emergency. The first two got me home safely while my car was being held hostage by a downed power line (car is fine, power line is not) and the last one made it so I didn't have to worry about my daughter at all during the whole thing.
7. I hope I'm never in a real tornado, because this not-really-a-tornado was enough to freak me out for maybe forever.
8. I saw wind literally blow in every possible direction at once. Big trees in the same parking lot fell in several different directions. It looked like a movie.
9. I will never, ever understand people who go outside when it's storming like that. THAT'S WHERE THE STORM IS, PEOPLE! STAY INSIDE LIKE YOUR MOTHER TOLD YOU! And for goodness' sake, don't go out there with your umbrella up, unless you want all your friends to start calling you "Rod," as in, "Lighting Rod."
10. I'm really glad it's all over.
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