Once again Oklahoma has had a night of what I
call POPCORN TORNADOES. Wednesday April 19th they were literally
popping up all over the place. When one came up then went away one
or two would come up and take it's place. They were anywhere from
a EF 2 to at least a EF 4 I didn't hear of any larger ones as far
as how powerful they were. I do know we had 12 tornadoes that
night with last I heard 3 deaths. Some people only had 5 minutes
to get to a safe tornado place they popped up so quick.
We were watching from the beginning of it all about 7 pm. We
learned a few new weather words ..... some storms were just
hailers...... ??? Turns out that was bad storms that just produced
a lot of hail and no tornadoes. Some of the hail stones were
baseball or palm size. Hubby said it looks like the radar isn't
going to get us, but I always watch to make sure. Well at least I
try... LOL Evidently I fell asleep and hubby woke me up and said
you think we should go to the cellar? I looked at the map and it
was south of Shawnee one minute then the next thing you hear it's
IN Shawnee crossing interstate and hitting the mall and still
heading our direction.
I texted Nikki to make sure they knew and she said they were
watching. They already had things ready and were just going to
grab the sleeping kids at the last minute and run. I told her we
were going on since we move slower. She said just when they were
ready to run everything lifted and they didn't have to go. I had
already gotten some meds together, any cash on hand, couple bags
of clothes for me since I would be hard to fit if I had to replace
and a few other things. Hubby changed clothes, grabbed a big baggy
for his meds, a projectile enabler, the dog leash and Frosty. As
we went out the garage door we had 2 spot lights in hand for just
in case and the garage door opener since we still had electric.
Frosty saw us grabbing things and she could tell this was getting
serious and said she didn't know what was going on but she was
going wherever we were! LOL
It is so nice having the cellar right outside the garage
door and the solar lights so we could see our way but with the
electric still on we just turned on the outside lights and could
see everything real good since it's just right outside the door a
few steps. We get in an settled and just wait. We had all kinds of
wind and small hail. The lights on the wall worked wonderful. I
told hubby we needed to get in there and make a inventory because
I forgot what all I had in some of the containers. I could see 4
or 5 cases of water and 4 individually packaged wool blankets,
card table, huge 3ft? round metal tub, some packaged food, chairs,
a medium sized ice chest and a heavy duty lawn chair you could
sleep in but I just couldn't remember some of the other stuff.
I had a old style hand radio that worked good but couldn't
find a radio station. The cell phones wouldn't pick up a radar
after a while don't know if it was the building or the weather
stations couldn't get the info out. Eventually it was close time
for the warning to be up and the weather calmed down so we just
went in the house about 10:45? Sleep the rest of the night was
ridiculous after all that. Hubby had better luck that I did. I
think I slept a couple hours woke up a few then went back to sleep
a hour? before time to get up. I was literally dragging and
couldn't pick up my feet when I walked! It was so bad and I was
soooo tired LOL guess I can't do tornado watch as good as I could
20 years ago.
Heard from a friend that got caught in the last popcorn
tornado bout she was ok but her daughter and son in law a few
miles away was hit with roof off and barn gone and 2 horses on the
loose. They were out trying to find them in the dark with power
lines down. They got lucky and found them unharmed.
A elderly aunt and uncle in their mid 80's we checked on
because their area was just south of Shawnee and it was hit hard.
They lost a small outbuilding they found out when they came out of
the hidy hole. She said one of their sons was with them and he
opened the cellar door just a little to check things and the wind
was just tooo strong. Somehow he got a skinned up nose out of the
deal. She was tickled they still had electric. I told her yes at
least you can flush the toilet! LOL For those that don't know when
you have a well and electric goes out you can't even flush when
you need to. I asked about the other "kids" in her area and she
said they are all good. I still need to check on a older aunt. They
have a good storm room like us so if nothing else I know they
should be ok.
The town of Shawnee was hit hard. OBU had some dorm damages.
The hospital sent messages out saying everything was canceled due
to damages and no electric. Lowes and Staples phones say they are
closed. That could be their nation wide messaged for those stores
because they may not even be there. I had taken a laptop to
staples the morning for some work I hope if they are no longer
there we can still get a replacement.
The pictures you see of the damage are typical but when I see
things flattened and their autos smashed to the point of unusable
it really makes me want to restock the cellar better. I know what
I need in there but getting things done some days is another
story.
Well it's 2 am and that's all I can think about right now so I
think I'm going to try to sleep again.
Grandson has a litter of kitties to play with. As you can see by the smile on his face he is really happy!
Now the cat if you look at it's big eyes it's saying.....
OMG! HE CAUGHT ME AGAIN!!!
Ranchmama
