TORNADO

It's summer, and summer brings rain and sometimes tornadoes to western PA. We had a tornado warning last evening. Makes everyone a bit edgy.
Wendell called from the other room.. as the computer spit out emergency warnings over and over again.. Oh, boy.. I called back.. "are you sure they said 'warning' and not watch? There's a difference, you know?"
It was a warning.. it meant that either swirling clouds threatened to drop to land, or that an actual tornado had formed. The original warning was wide spread.. and we were in the path.
We called Amy and Jane and JJ to make sure they were aware as time wore on.. it looked like we were safe (according to radar), but they were pretty much in the path.
It was early on when I sent out emails to family and friends to ask them to pray for us all..
The tornado warning/storm went north and east.. again we watched it on radar on the computer.
When the alerts were lifted, Jane had experienced dark dark clouds around her home.. and Amy said they had a little rain. We had none of the above. It missed us completely.

But it made us think and make a plan to be prepared for this emergency should it return again.
What WOULD we do? Wendell felt that he would be able to get to the basement.. the rest would be up to me. The plan was that if we developed the storm that precedes a tornado, I would take the blankets/pillows off the bed, a small tank of oxygen, and some drink to the basement before we heard the jet plane engine. Then we would wait until needed to head to the basement.
We had been here before in 1985.. the slogan went "I survived in '85" ..when a long line of huge tornadoes slashed paths through western PA.. our back yard included. The only word that could possibly describe it is awesome.. TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY AWESOME!!!
Last night we were remembering....
I was sitting on the bed waiting to get in the shower.. it had been a stormy afternoon.. I noted how loud the wind was howling and not a leaf on the trees was moving. I had a cup of coffee on the nightstand that I'd been sipping. The 4 kids were settled in the living room on the sofa.. Wendy relates how she remembered her head bouncing on the vibrating walls of the room.. and then I realized what was happening and raced out to them screaming for them to 'hit the basement NOW!'... they didn't wait.. they took off running. Wendell dragged his feet.. unbelief? until he heard the freight train outside the window..and everyone was downstairs.. including my brother Charlie and my mom.
Mother had looked out the window of her trailer and actually saw the tornado coming at us. She screamed for Charlie who was sleeping in a back room, and he took off running without pausing to put his shoes on.. grabbed mom by the hand and literally pulled her out the door and across the lawn to our house and safety. The tornado as it approached us, changed it's direction and went behind us instead.. through our woods.. We heard it and felt it all.
No damage to us, but many of our largest and tallest trees were reduced to toothpicks and splinters in a matter of seconds.. Later, we took a walk through the woods and found flyers and merchandise from the Beaver Valley Mall.. 40 miles away. We found much debris..siding, roofing, and splintered boards.. all kinds of things that the storm simply dropped on it's way.
We could see the half million volt power line on the hill across from us just toppled over and lines down on the ground.
Our neighbors came soon after to check on us to make sure we were okay.. we did the same.. checking on the folks down over the hill from us .. everyone was okay.
The next day, our road was a parade of cars and trucks.. people curious to see the damage. We also went sight seeing and took pictures.. devastation was everywhere.. That particular tornado took 6 lives in our area, and injured around 70. The ER was hopping that night as I went into work. We had been hit by an F3.. severe.
I'd rather not relive all this again.. but it makes one realize that tornadoes are very dangerous, and can strike twice in the same area..
I'd be interested to hear what others remember about tornadoes they have experienced.