Musings

Too close for comfort #sol16 Day 2

Kristy L

I live in Tornado Alley in Alabama, a state where basements are a rare commodity.  When the threat of severe weather is mentioned, people are on edge.  Everyone watches the weather and hangs on every word said by James Spann, the local celebrity meteorologist.

Yesterday was not one of those days.

The threat of thunderstorms was high, but those are normal and not that scary.  I checked Spann’s blog several times yesterday to weigh whether I should work out or go home after school.  My desire not to be a lazy slug, combined with what seemed like a relatively low threat of severe weather had me convinced to risk it and go to kickboxing.

There I was, punching a bag when one of the ladies at the gym stepped inside and said, “the tornado sirens are going off”.  We barely heard her over the blaring music, and we definitely didn’t hear the sirens.  Rather than panic though, we just kept working out.  We did finally turn the TV on to see what was going on.

From what we could tell, the storm was south of us and headed away, so everything seemed fine.  I checked to see if my neighborhood was in the path, but it didn’t look as though the threat was anywhere near us.

But then I picked up my cell phone while on a water break.

I had seven missed texts.  Seven.

They all basically said “Are y’all okay? I saw on the news a tornado touched down near you”.

Hmm.  Well, shoot. I had no idea.  I assured everyone that I was fine; I was happily relieving stress and completely oblivious to the devastation happening not far from my home.  I texted to make sure my husband was okay–he was–and went back to my workout, hoping that everything would still be fine when I left.

Let me tell you when they said it touched down near our neighborhood, they were not wrong.  Trees, power lines, even a church steeple had been destroyed about a mile from our house.  The road was impassable due to debris, trees, and emergency vehicles.  Power was out for almost twelve hours.  It was dark and raining when I headed home last night, and I had to take an alternate route, so it wasn’t until this morning with the sun shining brightly on the path of destruction that I saw the full extent of the damage.

Scary stuff.  And way too close for comfort.

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I’m trying to write for 31 days straight with the Slice of Life challenge from Two Writing Teachers.  

 

Published by Kristy L

12 thoughts on “Too close for comfort #sol16 Day 2”

  1. I totally hear ya! I grew up in tornado country, myself–on the Texas/Oklahoma border. I’ve seen massive devastation, so I get it. I’m glad your house wasn’t touched! (plus, sounds like you had a great time working out your stress!)

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  2. I’m glad to hear it was just a close call and not worse! I’m in Iowa, where I have a basement with a great “tornado closet”, but it doesn’t make me feel all that much better when the sirens go off! I’m glad you were happily punching things and didn’t have the siren stress. I enjoyed your description–but hopefully you will have something gentler to describe next time! 🙂

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  3. I live in Indiana and we have our share of tornadoes too. I am petrified of them, although I would love to see one in a field in a far off distance! That was way too close for comfort!

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  4. You really are in tornado alley. What a horrible experience. I hope everyone recovers soon, that this weather calms down. So glad that everyone in your family was fine. Now, from a literary perspective, I really loved the line, “There I was, punching a bag when one of the ladies at the gym stepped inside and said, “the tornado sirens are going off” Thanks for sharing!

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  5. I think you scared it off with all the punching and kickboxing…this plus your “Midwestern Heart in Dixie”, twisters, and “Well, shoot” brought to mind stories of Slue-Foot Sue.

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  6. Oh My goodness! Do you sometimes think it’s better not to know? I loved your ‘desire not to be a lazy slug…’ That just made me laugh. Great slice!

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