Tornado Warning

Growing up in California, we had earthquakes.  I still remember the one we felt while in the Target garden centre...I must have been 8?  We also had El Nino, and I certainly remember that hitting while driving my Ford Aspire with 3 of my friends in the car screaming.  That was a very dramatic moment for a new teenage driver!

Then in Newcastle we had flooding and heavy snow/freezing conditions.  The flooding never really bothered me because I was always in a top story flat.  But the frozen roads and snow storms were something that brought a chill up my spine, especially when driving.  I remember the time I wanted to surprise Chris with a birthday trip down to Whitby, on the Yorkshire coast.  We left right after I got off work... I was working at Denes Deli in Jesmond (just a little in between job), and I made us sandwiches for the short 1 1/2 hour drive.  However, that short trip turned into a long journey, as weather conditions become quite unbearable.  While driving on the motorway, our car spun sideways in the ice which was really scary.  Then, while driving through the Moores, the roads were shut down in front of us and behind us.  We bravely followed a four runner through the closed roads and made it to whitby.  It was very scary, especially when the news was saying people were being evacuated from the Moores by helicopter!

And now, in Franklin, we have Tornados.  Our first experience was in December while driving home from a friends house in Nolensville.  All night the alarms on our phones kept going off, but we discounted them.  As we got in the car to go home, there was tree branches lining the driveway.  It was quite and still outside, and a little eery.  As we drove through the country lanes (our friends lived further from the city), I began to get a little worried about the alarms on my phone from the red cross, which kept going off.  So we turned on the radio, and the alarm went off saying, Williamson county, take shelter.  What!!! Then it started to get really windy and tree branches began flying through the air.  We were terrified, so we pulled over to a house that was lit with Christmas lights.  Jayne and Chip, the owners, were kind enough to let us take shelter in their home. As embarrassing as it was, we really enjoyed our time and felt very safe.  Lesson learned, do not drive during a tornado warning!

And so that brings us to last night.  Chris kept saying there was going to be a tornado, although I didn't really believe him because my app on my phone never went off.  But sure enough, at 8 last night, the sirens began wailing and our new NOAA radio started going off.  So we grabbed the kids and huddled in the bathroom.  Now, I really don't think that was necessary because the winds were only between 65-80 miles per hour...so it wouldn't have been a huge twister.  But we are new to all of this, so we didn't know.  All in all, it was an experience, and part of the moving process.

                                          (above: Chris and I in the bathroom last night...the girls are laying on a bean                                                         bag chair in the bathtub )

After our first experience with twister, Chris made a little emergency kit, equipped with a NOAA radio (watch out, that puppy is LOUD), and other tornado emergency things.  It was actually comforting last night to know we had everything.