My phone lit up about 6:30 this morning. It was a text from my daughter. “Hey, are you and mom okay? I saw that a tornado touched down just a couple streets from you. Hope you all are okay and safe.”
Okay, heard the rain last night. And at one point, I heard sirens off in the distance. I checked some news apps and sure enough, an F2 tornado touched down less than a mile from our house, blowing away fences, damaging roofs, and leaving a ton of debris in its wake.
My wife poked her head in where I was sitting and said, “I just got a text about a tornado in our neighborhood.” We opened the blinds and looked out the front window. Not one tree branch in our yard. Plenty of rain in the swale, though. We both breathed a sign of relief.
This is not the first tornado I’ve slept through. Ten years ago, another touched down about a mile away, damaging many more homes.
I don’t always sleep through the night, but the sounds of rain and wind can be so soothing and relaxing that I’ll miss all the excitement. That is, unless tree branches torn loose by storm winds are hitting my roof. Then I lie awake wondering what in the world is going on out there. I also wonder how much I’m going to have to clean up the next day.
While we know a hurricane is headed our way a week in advance, tornadoes drop in unexpectedly. One minute you’re sound asleep. The next, your roof is gone or there’s a tree in your bedroom. You don’t know when it’s going to hit.
Around lunch time, I took my dog for a walk and we headed in that direction to see what there was to see. The closer we got, the more debris we saw in yards. We saw the remains of fences. And we saw a whole bunch of traffic trying to drive through the affected neighborhood, so we walked back the way we came.
I read somewhere that “sometimes the most faithful thing you can do is crawl into bed, close your eyes, and sleep.” There’s not much I can do about the storm. I guess I’ll just have to trust the one who can.
Waite for it... 