Post-storm thanksgiving

The one photo I dared take early in the storm

Last night we had a series of really bad thunderstorms. For the second time in almost 20 years, I heard tornado sirens. We were in bed and had just been woken up by the sound of hail pelting our windows. And then I heard the sirens. I got up and checked the weather report and sure enough, we were under a tornado warning. Now, you have to understand, I have a very irrational fear of tornadoes. Even though we were under a warning, our house is so close to the mountains that it's almost impossible for one to touch down by us. We are several miles west (closer to the mountains, which disrupt the tornado airflow) of the easternmost tornado touchdown our area has historically seen. My irrational fear of tornadoes is one of the reasons we live so far west. I used to have nightmares about tornadoes as a child (and we didn't live in a tornado area), and it's stuck with me.

They had to plow our grocery store

The morning after. She thinks it's cool

So I did what any mom freaked out about tornadoes would do. I woke up my family (except the sleeping little one, who I carried) and we all went down to the basement to wait out the storm. Fortunately, we have a finished basement, and we spent the night sleeping on the couches. We woke up to birds singing and piles of hail in the yard, but no real damage. Unless you count my poor shredded garden, which wasn't as bad as we'd feared.


As we've talked to friends and neighbors in the area, I'm so thankful we didn't have worse. Some of my neighbors also spent the night in the basement, but they didn't have a nice finished area, so they hung out on the cement. Other friends and neighbors had to deal with flooded basements. I've seen pictures on Facebook of friends who got way more hail than we did. I thought of my friends who live in tornado alley and how they don't all have basements, and who deal with tornado sirens on a more regular basis. Two sirens in twenty years. Not bad, considering.

My poor tomatoes.

Shredded lettuce, anyone?

Tonight we're due for more storms. I'll probably go out and cover what's left of my garden, and maybe we'll make a fun night of it by starting off in the basement. I pray my friends and neighbors will stay safe, and I'll remember to remain thankful for how lucky our family is to have a comfortable and safe place to be.