Tornado Timidity

(Image at the left was supposedly taken in Frankenmuth after the 1996 tornado...some are inspired by a silhouette of Jesus holding his hands up in it. I claim no stance on the validity of this photo or what it may mean, but I found it interesting).

Luck favors the prepared.

These crazy tornadoes which keep on coming are spurring us to purchase a weather alert radio. We sleep on the upper floor of a 2-story walkout, so we're essentially 3 stories up, when taken from the perspective of an oncoming tornado (assuming an approach from the SW). I am tired of staying up through the night with these watches to see if I should be moving the children down to the basement.

I haven't been this paranoid in previous years. I'm sure a lot of the change in attitude is due to these very devastating weather phenomena we're seeing, but also from a first-hand story I heard a couple of months ago.

We were at a work charity event, and at our table was a couple (Greg's boss and her husband, actually) who survived the tornado that ripped through Frankenmuth several years back. Hearing them tell the horrifying tale, seeing the looks on their faces, and having such a visually dominant brain, it's no wonder it's deeply affected me.

They had gotten home late in the evening, and quickly hooked up their new speaker system. Like we all do with new speakers, they cranked them up. Really loud! What poor timing...which almost cost them their lives. They finally noticed something amiss, and when they turned down the music, the dreaded freight train noise dominated. They fled to the basement, and not a minute too soon. Theirs was one of the few houses which was completely leveled. Completely. They came back up the basement stairs (after witnessing things flying upward out of the basement) to nowhere. No house. No walls. A very eerie loaf of bread sat untouched, where it had been cooling, outside the breadmaker on the kitchen counter--a detail that stood out like a sign from God, who would spare their lives, and leave them their daily bread.

This wasn't some tale from tornado alley. It was just up the freeway 30 miles.

And just as it's unlikely we'll ever need our smoke detectors, yet we have them and faithfully change the batteries, we'll be getting a weather radio as well. Something perhaps for you to consider, too. I don't want to dwell on the negative or be ruled by fear, but that's precisely why I lock my doors at night...take reasonable precaution, then forget about it! So hopefully, with this radio, I can put my worries to rest.