The only way that I can cope with bad things happening to innocent kids is that I try to believe they will be rewarded with a special place in heaven, their next life, or something somehow.
It's nuts here right now. I'm with my 7th period class, and they won't release anyone to 8th period. But over half of my students have already been picked up. The sky is very green, but apparently, it's just a severe thunderstorm.
Jesus, ya'll be safe Stacey! Crazy they don't release the kids like Shane was saying, I understand the need to prevent mass chaos with all the parents picking kids up, but it's gotta be nerve wrecking for the parents. Stacey do y'all have any kind of tornado shelter in your school or is it just pretty much go to center of building and stay away from windows?
Yep. I'm not particularly religious, but I believe in the afterlife because of situations like this and in the cases of crazed gunmen. I hate to think that the gunmen get off easily when they turn the gun on themselves, so it helps me sleep at night if I believe they are suffering eternally for what they've done.
We have no shelter. Our building was renovated in 2000 (it was built in 1970), and at the time, we asked where we could be safe in the event of a bad tornado. The architects said, "Pray because the building wouldn't withstand an F4 or F5 direct hit." It's not that bad here right now, but I realize that we will not be releasing our kids at 3:30 because I'm pretty sure the elementary schools (and my child is at one) didn't release at 2:45--so our busses will be off schedule for the rest of the day.
Like almost everything. This study admits that it ignored the F-scale and noted areas that got a lot of "tornado" days. Louisiana and Mississippi get a lot of tornado warning and tornado watch days, but far fewer severe F-4 and F-5 storms than the Oklahoma belt. Still, east Mississippi and north Alabama have always been a southern tornado belt. Okie was in town a few weeks ago when we had a tornado warning with a funnel seen south of town. She was amazed that nobody seemed to care at her hotel. Nobody took cover or paid much attention. No sirens were turned on. In Oklahoma when the warnings come on, people take it VERY seriously. if we ever take a big one in BR, we will NOT be prepared for it.
My best friend and I were doing weather spotting couple years back. Bad system coming over and we were at a county road intersection. The clouds started a strong rotation and I started snapping pics. It was directly overhead of us. Beautiful aqua blue center and dark gray blue wall. The dirt in the field around us starting going up, updraft was strong. Curt was like. Lets get outta here. I called EMA and told them what was happening and told curt to chill. It's too late to leave so enjoy the view. It touched down a few miles NE of us.
Really glad to hear all of you who live in those areas are safe, and made it through. I've seen a few tornados in my life, but nothing on this scale, and never lost anything in my personal life because of one. I'll be praying for all of your safety and well being. Watching the news last night made me call my little one to express how much he means to me, I can't begin to fathom what those parents are going through, houses can be rebuilt and possessions regained... the loss of a child is unimaginable.
This is true, Red. I grew up in Louisiana and lived there until I was 27. In all of that time, we saw hurricanes occasionally, and there were some tornadoes, but I was amazed at how differently people reacted to tornado warnings in DFW. But the tornadoes can be so much more intense up here--and especially in Oklahoma. In North Texas, everyone has a "safe" area they know to go to (but people do NOT have storm shelters.) Last Wednesday night, when Granbury got the F4, my daughters and I came in from the middle school band concert, saw that tornadoes were in the area, and outfitted the master closet with comforters, pillows, helmets, flashlights, cell phones, etc. I had the girls go to bed, but wearing comfy shorts/shirts, in case we had to be in the shelter and get rescued. It's just a different vibe, and with good reason.
Get an underground shelter in your garage. The latches on the backyard ones won't actually stay closed if you do get hit. I really have to wonder why the Moore school district doesn't have real tornado shelters though. Moore is quite possibly the biggest tornado hotspot on the planet, and it's always going to be.
