No Warning

I don’t like severe thunderstorms. I hate tornadoes. I had this traumatic experience as a teenager. I won’t bore you with the details, but let me just say that the movie Twister made me cry.

Yesterday, after Ian’s nap, I was taking a break from housework and playing on my computer. (Yes it really was just a break. Yesterday morning I shaved the dog, paid bills, and helped Shannon figure out an html code. So: back off!) The power flickered. Now I just got my computer up and running after a semi-serious meltdown. I wasn’t taking any chances. I turned off the power in the office and went to check the weather the old fashioned way. When I opened the door Katya sprinted inside and cowered behind my legs. Not a good sign.

One look at the sky had me concerned. I told Ethan to come in the kitchen. Ian, thank goodness, was already nearby. Less than 2 minutes after the first flicker of the power the trees suddenly bent double. I grabbed the boys and ran to the utility closet. Katya, who abhors that closet, was right on my heels. The flashlight was already in the closet, which is good because I didn’t have time to think about anything beyond shutting the door and trying not to scare the boys. That was hard, considering that I was scared out of my wits. Ethan was asking tons of questions and Katya was whining and trying to crawl into my arms. My arms were full of Ian - sorry doggy. The power went out and didn’t come back on.

We could hear the rain and the roaring of the wind. I never heard the stereotypical train noise. The weatherman said there was a possible tornado about 5 miles north of us. What we got was probably just severe straight line winds. I don’t care, the wind was terrifying. Our house is surrounded by huge oak trees. I wasn’t taking any chances.

Within 10 minutes the wind had calmed enough for me to crack open the door and look out the kitchen windows. Five minutes after that the sky was starting to clear. It was over that fast.

Sadly, there was a person killed just a few miles away when a huge tree crushed the car he/she was riding in. There are two homes on our street with big trees through their roofs. Our back garden gate wasn’t latched, so when the wind caught it, it slammed against the door and broke in pieces. The grapevines were pulled off the trellis and several medium sized branches fell in the yard. Across the parking lot there are huge branches down on the playground.

Our power was only out for four hours. It came back on in time for me to watch the news and see the warnings of another round of storms coming in. A massive cell spawned several tornadoes south of us but we only got heavy rain and some wind. Typical thunderstorm wind, not scary-run-for-the-shelter wind.

There wasn’t time for the sirens to go off. Schools were letting out and children were in the middle of cross walks. There was time to grab the kids and scurry to shelter. That’s all we had. I can’t make you appreciate the speed of the storms. I’ve been through dozens of tornado warnings and scary storm situations but this one still astounds me with the suddenness with which it was upon us.

We’re ok. Our friends are ok and our neighbors are ok. I’ll never again underestimate the severity of DC weather.