I was 21 and didn’t pay much attention to the news. I knew we had stormy weather in store but that was about it. My friend called and asked if I wanted to go to the overlook on the mountain to watch the “show” and I was game.
Had we known what was coming and how close it was, we probably wouldn’t have gone. Then again, when you really enjoy storms - which we did - you kinda hate to sit them out.
It was a wild ride and my eyes were glued to the west where lightning was flashing like crazy, loving every minute of it. From the overlook, we watched a fabulous “light show”, not having an inkling of how bad things were. It wasn’t until we saw the trucks on their sides during the drive back that we realized things were worse than we thought.
Driving around the next day made my hair stand on end, realizing how lucky we had been. It was the first time I’d seen tornado destruction first-hand. I’ve seen it several times since, though, and it hasn’t squelched my love of storms. We were hit during the outbreak April 27th, 2011 and it took a long time to clean this place up. Fortunately, the house wasn’t damaged. Our Guardian Angels were overhead flapping their wings that day.
Thank you everyone for your anecdotes. I’m in the middle of my 15th tornado book. It’s fascinating how so many people report they woke up with a strange feeling, or noticed an unusual sky or just felt something felt off all day.
Thank you everyone for your anecdotes. I’m in the middle of my 15th tornado book. It’s fascinating how so many people report they woke up with a strange feeling, or noticed an unusual sky or just felt something felt off all day.