With the unusually mild winter we've had, everyone said that spring would be dangerous with lots of storms and tornadoes. We are three days into spring and it has already lived up to expectations. You have probably already seen on the news that yesterday tornadoes ripped through Southern Indiana and Kentucky. We had some terrible destruction only about 40 miles from us, and even a tornado or two touch down here in Louisville.
Yesterday afternoon was a bit of a nervous one. Our neighbor came to warn us that the storm warnings were serious and that he was gathering supplies down in his basement. We got the kids together, got them to help make a list of all the things they thought they would need in the event of an emergency, and then started to gather things together as well. I think we would have been able to survive without the outside world for about a month. There were cans of baked beans, cans of salmon, (yes, plus a can opener) baked goods, muesli bars, weetbix, long life milk, flashlights, walkie talkies, an axe, blankets, sleeping bags, plus a whole lot of other things that may or may not have been useful.
Everything was ready. We were talking to Mum and Dad T on Skype to let them know what was going on and to get them to pray for us. Then the emergency siren sounded, blasting all over the city. We disconnected from Skype, got the last few things together and ran down to the basement. The kids huddled around a small laptop screen watching a cartoon to help keep their minds off things. The adults were all keeping an eye on another laptop screen to see the progress of the storm.
The wind grew strong. The rain came down hard. The sirens continued to wail. And then... it all stopped. The sirens wound down, the wind and rain stopped, and a few minutes later the sun was out and the birds were chirping. That was it. No great damaging tornadoes. No wild winds. No prolonged power outages from fallen trees. The storm had split and passed by the north and the south of us. Other places in Louisville and in towns not far from here there was great damage - you have probably seen them on the news. But thankfully there was nothing here. It was all a bit of an anti-climax, but an anti-climax that we were very thankful for. We were only hours away from being in the path of the great Joplin tornado last spring, so we are very weary of them - we have learned to take the warnings serious.
We were warned that this spring might be a rough one for storms. Three days down - 87 more days of spring to go.
