Blown Away. -- NOT

No one is going to tell me there wasn't a tornado connected with this storm. I woke up to my trailer rocking as if on rockers like a cradle. Then it levitated just a few seconds (think hill-hopping). THEN all hell broke loose. Wind, hail, driving rain, first this direction, then that. I couldn't see next door. I couldn't see Tammy's. I heard aluminum. In between roaring winds. Not a freight train, but close enough to a team of mack trucks coming in off 68.Through the yard.



Texted Tammy to get in her shower. she was texting me to get in my bathtub. Or something. Her door steps were knocked over. My glider is knocked over. One swing on the kids "swing set" is twisted and wrapped around bars. THe little slide is almost to my back porch. small toys scattered everywhere.

next door

Our two trailers suffered little damage that we can see. Some loose or collapsed skirting.

 the fence that isnt there

Trailer on the other side had siding peeled off, top and bottom. The six foot privacy fence between yards on 68 and trailer park is flattened. Trees are broken everywhere.


12 hours later we are still out of power.

We have been so very lucky.

"Nobody Warned Us"

There was a (dubious) news report out of Washington State that survivors of the massive landslide were commenting and complaining that they had never been told a landslide could happen.

 I call it dubious, first of all, because those people are still busy looking for loved ones, looking for beloved things.
Secondly, they are in shock and deep, deep grief, so that nothing said at this time should be reported as anything other than mourning. Not responsible journalism. (If such a thing still exists.)
Third, the statement just screams "Lawyer"! Not just lawyer, but the worst kind of lawyer: the ambulance-chasing, you-can-make-me-a-lot-of-money type of lawyer.

God help the survivors, the vultures are already circling, greedy claws extended.

No doubt, eventually, this will make it to the courts as a liability issue. Survivors will be looking to place blame. That's something very human of them.
No doubt some judge somewhere will think it should be heard, in defiance of all common sense.

Some building statements that shouldn't need to be made:
1) If you build on a hill or cliff or anywhere "UP" everything can fall "down."
2) Oceanfront property is susceptible to hurricanes
3)Other waterfront property is susceptible to flooding.
4)There may be water shortages in desert areas.
5)Water shortage areas will be susceptible to fire.
6)Anywhere that lightning strikes there could be fires.
7)Tornadoes can happen anywhere.
8) There is no such thing as "solid" earth.  The earth is liquid -- sometimes water, sometimes melted rock. Even the continents are on the move; afloat.

Just a few things to think about before you buy or build anything anywhere.
It shouldn't require an ambulance chaser, a political prosecutor, or a publicity seeking judge to air foolishness, stupidity, and naivete before the whole world.

Let them heal.
Help them struggle.
Neither money nor blame will replace what they've lost, and lost forever. Don't make them think it might.

Twistered

The pictures coming out of Oklahoma at this moment are horrifying.To me, they seem to be worse than Joplin and Branson, and more akin to our little Ohio town of Moscow that was so devastated not much more than a year ago.

I am looking at Moore, Oklahoma. Houses, stores, all piles of rubble. Twisted steel beams, and not much else to show structures.
A shopping mall.
The piled-up drawing the most attention, the newscasters are telling me, is the school. Or what's left of it.
Where are the children?
No one is sure, at the moment. No one even knows, for certain, if they were taking shelter there, or if they had been moved/moving to a safe area.

Oh, dear God, where are the children? Where were the children?

My heart breaks for the parents, the children, the townsfolk. They've lost their homes and their other places -- all devastating. But the loss they are rallying around is the missing children.

Moore, Oklahoma has their priorities straight. I hope they are rewarded for that.

This tornado was awful, awful, awful. The damn tornado itself looked more like a mushroom cloud, and that's what the aftermath looks like, too.

How can any town, any city, any family be prepared for something like this? The best one can do is hope shelter works, and hang on tight. If you are outside the situation, ad I am, you can care, and cry, and you can start deciding how to help, even before it's over -- and it's not over yet, there are more of them right this minute
.

I mourn for and with those on the spot, even as I am grateful that none of mine are there.
But they could be. Oh, yes, they could be.
I want to help these as I would want to help my own. It is only luck, and a few miles, that it isn't. It still could be. If not today, then tomorrow, or next week, or next decade.

We haven't figured out tornadoes yet.
Even when we do, it's going to be a long time before we can actually do anything about them.

If they head your way, please, please -- get safe. I don't want to see videos from you. Is that what you want shown at your funeral?

I want you to be safe.
I want Moore Oklahoma to find their children.