Tornado Warnings, Comfort Food, and the River.....In Our Basement

This is how one spends the afternoon when 3 out of 4 of the past nights have been spent under tornado warnings 2 weeks after an EF5 ripped thru 2 neighboring towns.

This is how the river FLOWS (from 2directions) thru the basement of old farmhouses when the thunderstorms producing the tornado warnings ALSO produce heavy, driving rains 4 nights in a row, and all morning.

This is the PERFECT comfort food for just such occasions.

(pancakes, strawberries, cool whip and chocolate syrup)

This is the look of a meal enjoyed by all and rejected by none! Thank you God! I couldn't handle a "meal battle" right now!

These are also 3 of the 5 precious ones I fear letting down by not realizing danger in time to get them to safety.

I am not sure whether to delve any deeper into any of this or not! I am afraid I may exceed blog post guidelines!

We are SO tired! I am glad I have not seen first hand the devastation caused by the tornado that tore thru exactly 2 weeks ago!

I am beginning to wonder if I should have watched the video clips from 2 bank cameras! One was outside and caught the destruction of a home across the street and also visible is the affect of the tornado on the surrounding trees. The second clip was from a camera inside the bank and it shows the results inside a building.

These images are rather disturbing at 0 dark 30, on the 2nd floor of a farmhouse, during a thunderstorm with the likely hood of producing tornadoes!

After repeating this 3 out of 4 nights I am reduced to a whimpering pile of nerves!

I am not one to borrow trouble, but I also hold a GREATLY EXPANDED respect for tornadoes.

Some may not know it, but I spent the better half of my growing-up-years as a resident of Corn Country. Thru the years there have been many tornado warning, but 2 weeks ago was the first time I remember one ever setting down anywhere other than a field.

I was actually glad to find a house to rent outside of town because we wouldn't be bothered by those pesky warning sirens. Now I just wish I could go to sleep knowing I would hear one if needed. Even the people living in the nearest town don't all hear the siren if it goes off! We don't stand a chance 1 1/2 miles away, especially with 70MPH winds!

So, we have a weather radio. This is better than nothing, but it went off 6 times Tuesday night, 2-3 times Wednesday night, and another 4 times last night. Most of the alarms were for flash flood warnings!

Don got so used to turning it off, he did it in his sleep and didn't even look to see what the alarm was for. I wasn't asleep, trust me, so I woke him up and he checked.

We did end up going down to the basement for 45"early Thursday AM. The kids were THRILLED by this, NOT!

Our kids are hard sleepers like their dad. This is a blessing in that every one, except me, sleeps thru even the worst of thunderstorms. This is a problem when I need to get them moving in the middle of the night!

I woke Marlene up first, she sleeps the hardest. We had the other four headed to the basement, before she was even functioning. Oh, she was on her feet, but not cognizant.

I think the cold water on everyones bare feet helped wake them up, but it also made us all miserable! "Mom, I have to pee REALLY bad." "Mom, I'm cold!" "Mom, my blanket dropped in the water and is wet." "Mom, where am I supposed to sit?" "Mom, we're not supposed to be close to windows." "Dear, do you have any AA and AAA batteries?" "Mom, I don't want to get under the desk if a tornado comes, the floor is wet." "Mom, I have to pee too!"

All this while listening to the weather radio drone on about "strong winds capable of producing tornadoes" not only in our area, but also 35 miles where my parents, 5 younger siblings, and 1grown brother and his family live.

I tell you! my mind was going 100 miles a minute! "Should I call my brother, and parents?" "Marc lives in a trailer, they need to seek shelter!" "Do grandpa and grandma know?" "Wish I had all our digital pictures in one place so I could grab them!" "No one has shoes." "At least the other tornado came during the day, so people could see it! All I can see is trees moving like they were made of rubber, kind of like the video....." "Oh! I hate this basement!" "Being down here is going to do wonders for my allergies!" "God, PLEASE PROTECT MY BABIES!"

Last night again found us in the middle of a "Severe thunderstorm capable of producing tornadoes". "Seek shelter on the lowest level of your dwelling away from windows...."

As I put the kids to bed,I prayed God would calm the storm. He did, temporarily, but 20" later I was moving all the kids to the ground level of our house.

The boys were assigned to the couches, and the girls got the bed in the extra room. Don and I settled in upstairs, but ended up hauling our bedding and the weather radios to the living room floor.

Our weather radio got dropped at the end of our stint in the basement Thursday AM. It still makes all kinds of crazy noise when there is a warning, but the radio part no longer works. Thankfully our dear brother Joe bought us walkie talkies awhile back that pick up the weather station!

We were able to move back to our bed after the warning expired at 2:30 this morning. We got every one around for church in record time, less than an hour. Yes, we looked a little worse the wear, but so did every one else in the congregation!

The rain has stopped, but the wind is still rather stiff. The flooding is not expected to recede until Thursday. I am glad God is in control! I pray for a reprieve tonight!

P.S. Yes, I know I spell through wrong. My appologies to those who care.