Last night was our first threatening Spring storm of the season, and boy was it a doozy! All day long the newscasters were preparing us for the worse, which was supposed to happen sometime in the evening. It's so nerve-wracking to have all the local stations on constant alert, interrupting your normal television programs for severe weather updates and watching the graphics on the map as they tracked the storm coming in from the west. Then as it gets closer and closer, they start putting up charts that show times of arrival and then it really gets scary. All along the way they're reporting damages in the first-hit counties and at the bottom of the screen you see the warnings as they post them for flash flooding or worse yet, tornadoes!
Hubby was stuck in Nashville working a hockey game, so it was just me and Tubs, riding out the storm together. Poor Tubby was a bundle of nerves and shaking like a leaf. The wind was blowing so hard and the rain was hitting the house sideways in sheets. We could hear the CLANG!BANG! of a loose sheet of tin on the roof of the barn across the road and our screen door kept thudding against the front porch. The lightning was intense and the thunderboomers shook the whole house.
I had our "tornado" bag all packed, just in case, and had Tubby's leash hooked on his collar. I had the candles and hurricane lamps set out around the house with a box of matches by each one. The power went off twice, but thankfully it came back on. When we have these scary storms you can't help but wonder if this will be the one that picks our house up and carries it away. Will this be the night one of our walnut trees comes crashing through the roof? Are my donkeys safe out there in the barn? I wonder if I can make it to the neighbor's storm shelter, or should I just pull all the blankets and pillows into the tub and ride it out? A million thoughts and worries go through your head.
And just like that, the worst of it has passed us by and the winds die down and the newscaster moves on to other counties and I breathe a sigh of relief that we were spared.
On my way to work this morning, I got to see the aftermath. Huge trees that I pass every day, snapped in two like twigs or completely uprooted. Big sheets of rusted tin from barn roofs laying by the side of the road. A neighbor's grill laying in the middle of the yard where it was blown off their back patio. The creeks and rivers were all filled to the top and whooshing over the banks, and driveways along the way were all washed out with gravel across the roads and tree limbs scattered here and there.
Thankfully, our house was still standing and we're safe and sound to carry through the weekend. I did however, hear the weather lady say this morning that we're in for another round of storms on Monday and Tuesday, so I guess we'll start all over again with the nail biting then. Poor Tubby! I don't know if his little heart can take all the stress.....
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