Praying for Ansley

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

TORNADOS WHERE WE LIVE??

What in the world?? What a wild and crazy day today! The weather got so severe, it was rather scary for those of us not used to Tornados! (Does one ever get USED to a tornado? I can't imagine!!) We live in northern Virginia outside of Washington, D.C. Not Tornado alley... and yet the sky got really dark and scary!

I was at work and people were right next to my desk and were like screaming, LOOK AT THE TREES and the WIND! I was like, good grief, calm down (in my mind), before I looked outside and right when I looked outside, the Intercom came on and in a stressed out voice, someone told all of us to get in the stairwell immediately. What?? Good grief! I grabbed my keys and my purse, but I forgot my cell phone. e-gads! How will I survive without a cell phone. Once I got in the stairwell, I realized it was RIGHT when school was letting out. Luckily, I had told Matthew to stay at school today until his dad could pick him up. But I was still worried he was trying to call me and I didn't have my phone on me! (I later talked with a co-worker who had grabbed her cell phone and an umbrella, but no purse and no keys...) We laughed... not so great under pressure, I guess!!

Anyway, when I did get back to my desk and phone, no one had called which frankly, worried me even more. About 30 minutes later, I heard the whole county had kept the kids in school, passed dismissal for safety. They were in the Tornado Crouch for a part of that time. Since they cancelled all after school activities, Matthew had to go home on the bus... but he was too afraid to go home by himself (and walk from the busstop, even though it had stopped raining for a while) so he stayed at school with a teacher! God Bless that teacher for allowing him to stay and for staying with him until 6:00 p.m. when one of us could get there to pick him up! the county did announce that buses would take up to 90 minutes to get kids home due to trees and stuff in the roads, not to mention the traffic. Oh joy!!

His dad had left work before 4 p.m. to get Matthew. The problem turned out to be a power line down on the Metro tracks... so his dad could only go so far on the metro and then had to take a shuttle. He later told me that if he waited for a shuttle, it would have taken up to 4 hours (so his wife went and picked him up where he had to get off because of the power line.) He called at 6:05 p.m. and was still a good hour or more away as he had just gotten to his car! I had already picked up Matthew just then, so he just ended up staying with me tonight. It turned out, it only took me one hour, which wasn't bad since it's normally 45 minutes! I owe his teacher BIG TIME - that was very nice of her to watch out for Matthew like that and stay at work with him so he wasn't alone at home!

I was worried, since my house backs to the woods, that I would have a tree in my roof to top the day off, but I do not! Yeah!!

The storms have continued all night but we are not currently under a tornado warning now. Yeah! Just lots of rain, thunder and lightening. I will try to post a video later of the heavy rain - it was insane!

I've never been whisked in to the stairwell at work for a tornado and Matthew has only had drills for tornados before. It was quite scary!! I have no idea how many tornados touched down, but it was a trying event, regardless of the number! OK, I'm going to TRY to go to bed now - and hope there aren't any more storms tonight. (Although the watch has been extended to 1 a.m.) Yippee! :)

4 comments:

Catalina said...

sounds very scary!! glad everything turned out to be OK. Thinking of you,
Catalina

Kim said...

So glad you all are ok! Not much warning for you with tornadoes unlike hurricanes here- at least we can get out of dodge in time!
Yea for teachers like that! I am a teacher remember? Gotta love them! Glad the house was not damaged too!
Thanks for the comment on the blog! Yes my boredom is wonderful and I love it- even the gross pe clothes! Last day of school today! So happy! Get some rest and have a nice nap in the car! I seriously have done that too! I thought I was the only crazy one!

Lynn said...

Welcome to my life! We had to crouch in hte halls once for real this year. We are definitely in a tornado prone area. It took me years to get used to it! Every time we have a tornado drill, I think of the Air Raid Drills we had as kids. Do you still have them up there?

Judy said...

I have lived in Tornado Alley! Kansas and Indiana. Scary stuff. Glad everything turn out okay for us both yesterday!