Tornadoes Are Scary

I've never really been scared of natural disasters.  I grew up in the northeast and blizzards were a fairly regular winter event.  Getting stuck in the house for several days never scared me. As a kid, that just meant I got to sled down our giant hill all day.  When I got older, it just meant a couple days off from work.  You'd never catch me in the grocery store buying milk and bread when a snow storm was predicted.  You always get out of your house after a day or two.

Then I moved to Louisiana.  And everyone said "Don't be one of those crazy people who stays there during a hurricane."  I knew I wouldn't.  I wouldn't panic about hurricanes, but I would evacuate if they told me to.  The closest thing I got in my 2 years there was a tropical storm.  Work was closed, so I stayed in my apartment all day.  Hurricanes give you LOTS of warning.  They can completely destroy everything you own, but you can get away from them.  This is not at all downplaying the devastation of hurricanes.  I've heard a lot of Katrina stories and I've heard about life before and after the storm.  It's horrifying.  My point is only that they don't hit you out of the blue.

Then I moved to Oklahoma.  (I'm sure my next move will be on the west coast so I can experience earthquakes, just to get the full scope of things.)  I've been worried about tornadoes since I got here.  But between my husband and my in-laws I felt like I was surrounded by people who knew how to handle them.  Because, in my mind, if there was ever a tornado warning, I would obviously be home with my husband or at my in-laws' house with everybody.

Except on Friday there was a tornado watch when I was at work by myself.  I had the radio on and I kept checking weather.com but it was still saying just a tornado watch (not warning) and the radio was still playing music.  I told myself that as long as there was still music, nothing bad was going to happen.  Then the music stopped.  And the tornado warning sounded.  And when that stopped, the radio came back with a weather guy shouting into the microphone about a tornado in the town I was in.  On the street I was on.  I started running towards the safe room (the innermost room of the building).  On my way there our front phone rang and it was my coworker calling from another location.  "There's a tornado on *** Street, take cover!"  I replied with, "I AM!!!", hung up, and ran.  I got into the room and sat on the floor and it hit me that I had no clue what to do.  I called my husband and cried.  Like, ugly crying.  He was on his way to my work to hang out until we closed since I was freaking out about what was supposed to be just a tornado watch.  I sat on the floor, against the wall and listened to the crazy wind outside.  And tornado sirens.

This was NOT how I was supposed to be introduced to tornado season.  I was not supposed to be alone.  I was not supposed to have a tornado touch down a mile from where I was.  I was fully unprepared for this.  Which might explain why later that night when we had a tornado watch at home, I cried like a baby and said things like "I don't want to do this again!"  Yes.  I'm a giant wuss.  And I overreacted.  Eventually Philip calmed me down and we went to bed.

Unfortunately, because of my first tornado experience, I am totally freaked out about this tornado season.  Logically, I know that tornadoes do give you warning.  Logically, I know that they don't hit HUGE areas and kill hundreds of people at one time.  Logically, I know that crying uncontrollably when the weather channel says that there is a possibility of a tornado in our area is really childish and stupid.  Unfortunately for my husband, I'm not always logical.

Last night, the weather kept saying that tornadoes were possible overnight and all we got was some weak thunderstorms.  So, hopefully if things like that keep happening, I can be a normal person about tornadoes.

Until then, I'm going to enjoy the foreseeable future without any tornado conditions.