Tigger & Shadow are content now to once again be napping in spring sunshine.
This past week was a hard one to get through. The strong storms that came through the south brought so much destruction and sadness with the huge number of lives lost. Multiple tornadoes hit here in Georgia, more than a dozen died. We were in the path of at least one tornado, but it did not touchdown in our neighborhood. A road due north of us was not so lucky and many homes were destroyed, but again it was fortunate that no lives were lost there.
Last Wednesday evening was unreal and too real. We knew well ahead that the coming line of storms had already brought a great deal of devastation and loss of life. It was a full evening of blaring tornado sirens as multiple storms with tornadoes on the ground or in the clouds came racing through. At one point there were two tornado warnings at once with one storm coming north and the other coming east. When the final siren silenced near midnight, we finally came out of our half bath hiding place. We were hot, stiff and sore from the cramped space, but feeling so relieved to be safe and sound. We weren’t complaining, but feeling blessed to be untouched. We decided to leave Tigger and Shadow in their cages in the pantry until the final watch ended since it had been such a strong line of storms. Finally at 3 am after the final tornado watch for our area was declared over, we safely brought the bunnies out.
We knew the next day that the reports were going to be bad and were so saddened. We were humbled by the fragility of safety in learning how near it had come to us.
If the sirens hadn’t been going off and the weather alert radio going crazy with warnings, we wouldn’t have realized just how severe the storm system was. There was an eery silence, almost no rain or noticeable wind and very little sound of hail. Survivors in the neighborhood just north of us described the same thing. They had a few seconds of hail and then silence until trees started falling and glass started breaking. They didn’t hear the sound of a freight train that they had always been told to expect.
These storms were the worst we have seen for devastation and loss of life and yet they didn’t come upon us with any of the obvious signs we were expecting. It would have been easy to ignore the weather warnings as a cry of wolf. Those in the neighborhood that was hit took shelter in interior rooms and survived as their houses collapsed or were torn apart around them, because they trusted the warnings rather than the deceptively quiet storms.
Since tornado season will continue for several months, we will continue to keep on the watch. We sure wish though that our home had been built with a basement!
Tropical depression Lee is moving through Georgia. The rain it is bringing is much-needed. However, it is also bringing unstable air. We have just come out of a half hour in the half bath due to tornado warnings. There is a watch for possible tornadoes for the remainder of today here in North Georgia. If you are in the pathway for Lee, keep an eye out for severe weather.
