Not In Kansas

If you are familiar with the movie The Wizard of Oz you will be familiar with the phrase, "Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore".  On the evening of Monday, March 21, our area experienced an outbreak of tornadoes.  I was home concerned about Hubby who was driving home from an appointment in a torrential downpour.  Knowing that our patio door will leak in heavy rains, I went into the linen storage closet to grab some towels.  Almost immediately, our lights began to flicker on and off.  Then they went completely off and stayed that way.

Placing the towels near the area where the leaks usually happen, I went to my comfy recliner.  With the power off I could not raise the footrest but that was fine.  My cell notified me of a text.  It was from our son asking if we were safe.  I replied yes and that his dad had just come home.  Hubby was recounting that as he was driving up to the apartment complex he saw a funnel cloud in the parking lot across the street.  The funnel was lifting up when he saw it.  There was lots of debris being thrown about so he hurried to get into the parking garage.  Hubby recounted once he was in the parking garage the air became more violent.

This video was being taken on the other side of the major intersection of I35 and 45.  Here is a reference photo to give a better understanding of the tornado near us.  The red circle is our apartment.  The pink area shows the approximate path of the tornado as shown in the video.  

We had no damage.  Many others were not so fortunate.  Here are a few photos we took on Tuesday morning as we drove by a few places on the way to pick up our grocery order.  Hubby had a friend in the area of the pictures below.  He wanted to check on him.  Areas with the most damage were blocked by police.  Hubby had to settle on a phone call to check on his buddy.  Buddy was fine but two houses away from his homes were damaged.  Tornadoes are freaky like that.  

A metal wall panel about 1 meter by 3 meters is driven into the ground.  

Along a main street that was partially open.

Top blown off a portion of this house.

This and the following photos are in the shopping area under 

Look to the left and that was the drive-thru bank area.

A sample of tree damage that workers are having to clear out for the next few days/weeks.

Chilis restaurant with parts of room blown away and almost all windows blown out, too.

Bank with part of the wall missing.  Windows were blown out and the drive-thru was severely damaged.

Yes, there were injuries and one death reported in Texas and Oklahoma.  Please, note, to date the National Weather Service has identified 5 separate tornadoes in a 50-mile radius of our home.  There were more tornadoes throughout Texas and Oklahoma.  The following graphic shows probable locations of the additional tornadoes.  

Y'all stay safe out there.  We will do the same.

Janice

March 4, 2019

Oh, my goodness it is so very dreary yet again today.  Actually it is better than it was the past 3 days as it is not raining.  It is below freezing still at noon.  That temperature is very much out of the ordinary for our itty bitty part of the planet.  More gloomy is the death count across the southern states that were hit by tornadoes over the weekend.  One tornado was officially about 1/2 mile, .8 km, wide.  Entire families were killed.  The homes were mainly manufactured housing.  Also know as trailer in some areas. 

For many people manufactured housing is the only affordable option to having homes.  An opinion article in The New York Times email I receive daily was about the Dream Home built by The National Association of Homebuilders for 2018.  That link has a list of the sizes of the homes presented since 1980.  The 1980 home was about 1800 sq. ft.   That was about the size of two of the homes we had owned over the course of our marriage.   The third home was about 1500 sq. ft.  Our homes were considered starter homes by the upwardly mobile crowd.

Over the course of the years of home ownership we huddled in basements, bathrooms and utility rooms as tornadoes danced around our homes.  Neighbors joined us in our basement a couple of times.  None of our homes sustained a direct hit by a storm.  We did have hail damage bad enough to two different homes to require roof replacements.  We had debris from a friends home that lived 20 miles away land in our yard.   I kept that in a scrapbook.  We had insulation and corrugated panels land in our yards.  The latter barely missing our house as it slammed into the backyard. 

Manufactured homes cannot withstand tornado winds.  People are told to leave their homes and seek shelter else where.  And yet I never see a developer of the manufactured home parks build a storm shelter.  Or maybe the homeowners could work to build their own shelters.  Storm cellars as they were called when I was a kid were near almost every home.  Some folks used their root cellars.  I stood with my Granny Chandler at the top steps of the concrete cellar watching the 1958 'McKinney' tornado move along the rail road tracks about 1/4 mile from us.  You learn early that if you see the funnel moving chances are you are ok.  No movement, seek shelter cause it may be coming straight toward you.

Is there a point to all this writing I am doing today?  I just found it ironic that I read an article questioning TNAH building bigger and bigger homes.  Asking if maybe focusing on a condo version for smaller footprints.  The condo will certainly work for folks like me.  I live in an apartment of 880 sq. ft.  But not all are suited to condo's.  Not all areas of the country have public transportation.  Some folks just need their own space.  Guess the point of my writing is trying to process what is it within each of us that drives the need for 10,000 sq ft of living space.  For the record, I always thought that 2200 sq. ft. would have been just right for me.  See I am one that wanted more, too.

Take care.  And if you live in tornado prone areas. get yourself a hidie hole, storm celler or something.

Janice, aka petra domina

Blowing In The Wind

Carpe Diem #611, 

Sylph, 

spirit of the wind

The wail of the warning sirens awakens the senses.  A peek out the front door confirms the approaching storm clouds.  Gather all that is important and take cover.  Quickly.  In a tub with heads covered by blankets families protect their young.  In basements with heads covered, young and old huddle in fear.  As the walls shudder the air is filled with the sounds of breaking glass and wood.  The suction pulls at the arms of the mother desperately holding onto her child.  As suddenly as it came it is gone.  Leaving a path of brokenness.

sylphs wildly dance

in frolicsome circles -

collateral winds

©  Janice Adcock

The Midwest of the U.S. is nicknamed Tornado Alley.  One swath of land near my in-laws home was hit twice within a three year period.  We lived 25 miles to the east.  The tornadoes danced past us, too.  A ledger page from the 25 miles away location with the names of folks we knew fell in our yard.  Some of the damaged homes were just left to rot the second time they were hit.  Maybe you can glimpse a Sylph dancing a little to much in this video of the 2003 twister.

This video was filmed on a road we traveled when going to visit my in-
laws.  It was filmed by the local weatherman, Ted Keller.  It was in this area the ledger page we found was sucked into the boiling clouds.

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

Spreadsheet Countdown

While the number of items has come down by about two thirds, it seems there are tons of things to do that are not really part of the initial get ready list.  Line item clean out clothes sounds simple enough.  One must select the times one can live without for the rest of your natural life.  Things like the size 12 dress you fit into for two months then regained the weight ....  twelve years ago.  Let go of the dress, let go of the pipe dream.

Once one has completed the initial, emotionally charged selection of clothing to give away, one must then tote to said give away location.  It turns out that the young folks at Rare Breed probably do not need the size 12 wool, 3 piece suit.  Nor the "going to a formal wedding" sparkly size way to big sapphire blue old lady dress.  So the clothing from Gene and me winds up being sorted into not one, not two but 4 different places to donate for best needs match.

With a 9:30 AM meeting on the north side of town, we mapped out a route to make all four locations in a relatively short time.  This route would be followed to get us back home in time to meet with the Smooth Transitions lady at 1:00 PM.  We did not allow for the fact that some of the places are almost hidden from sight to accommodate the surrounding neighborhoods.  Time added.  We, likewise, did not know one location had started being closed on Mondays.  So that delivery must now be done on the way to the doctor's office on Thursday.  I was really ready for my car to not appear to belong to a homeless person with every possession in the back seat.  Oh, well.

In the process of unloading some of the bags at Bill's Place, I uncovered the dog paraphernalia.  I had forgotten it was back there in the trunk.  Darn we were within a mile of the shelter when we left the meeting.  Now I get to take the dog stuff back across town to the animal shelter.

Here is today's status.  Trunk almost empty except for the dog stuff.  Back seat still has Plaid Door clothing drop, spa supplies for Linda Q. to store, one bulging bag of books and pamphlets for UMW.  Gene's Jeep has developed a split in the radiator.  He drove my car to get $4 + gas and the driver's side glass fell out of the grove, again.  My mom had to be put in the hospital and will have hip surgery when they get her over the bladder infection.  We marked one line item off the list.

My family members that are spread across Oklahoma are again all unscathed in the recent tornado out break.  I have a roof over my head and my son and grandsons are not underneath the remains of schools, businesses and homes.  In all the day, it is a day filled with sorrows and blessings.  Just another day on planet earth.