So I'm driving home from the southwest side of town to where I live in northeast Lincoln. It's nice & sunny, albeit cloudy (figure that one out), and I look to the north - dark as night! I flipped on the radio to see what was going on. The DJ said we were in a tornado warning. The most dangerous part of that warning? Northeast Lincoln - right by my apartments!
Then, I hear the sirens. That's almost a guarantee that a tornado is on the ground. I start to drive a bit faster. I called Dad to make sure he was aware of the situation, he never pays attention to these things & the warning stretched all the way to Milford. While I'm calling him, I get a whole bunch of text messages and voice mails.
Then Kate, my roommate, beeped in on the call waiting. When I answered, she said, 'I don't know what to do, I don't know what to do.' I said, 'You're fine, I'll be home soon.' She said, 'Everyone is out in the hall, what do I do?' I told her to grab a blanket & go into the hall with everyone & I'd find her when I got home. We don't have a basement or storm shelter in our apartment building & Katie & I are on the 3rd floor.
Back to driving. I was actually pretty nervous. To get home, I had to turn off of what seemed like a safe road & head directly into the storm. I had goosebumps and the hair on the back of my neck was standing straight up. I kept thinking, 'Oh my gosh! How will I react if a tornado drops down right in front of me?!?' So what did I do? The same thing I always do when I get that kind of ominous feeling. I sing 'A Child's Prayer' at the top of my lungs over and over until I get out of the situation. I'm sure the people at the stop lights thought I was crazy! That's okay.
As soon as I pulled into the parking lot, & got out of my truck, the rain and wind started. It went from being perfectly still to torrential down pours. The winds were blowing in circles so the rain was horizontal & kept switching directions. I walked into the 1st floor hallway to find Katie & she wasn't there. My blanket was sitting on the floor so I thought, man that must have been a super selective twister to suck her up & not touch the building :) A nice girl that lives on the first floor let a few of the people in the hallway into her apartment.
So, we sat there until the warning expired. I kept walking out the porch door to look at the clouds. There were some amazing shapes I'd never seen before. I can't even describe it. The warning expired at about 9:30 so we went back upstairs. The night was far from over. There was an amazing lightning storm, the likes of which I have NEVER seen in my ENTIRE life. Katie & I sat on our balcony and watched it. The storm was only lightning & a little bit of rain. It stayed right on top of us for about an hour. That's pretty unusual for a storm. The usually move on their merry way.
We got lucky, no tornadoes in Lincoln last night, at least not any that actually touched down. There were a few in the towns around us though.
Tonight, we were supposed to be in for one of the worst storms in Lincoln's history, according to Katie. I'm pretty sure it moved to the northeast of us & will mostly miss us. However, it is super cloudy, muggy & dark so you never know. We're in a tornado watch until 1 am (see explanation above). It should be pretty cool to see what we're in store for. While your waiting for my weather updates, check out these photos!
Lightning around Seward County (where Mom lives)
This is crazy! This is a tornado that went through
Kearny last week (where we had our last Nebraska reunion)
These clouds were actually right near my
apartment last night!
This is what went on ALL night last night!
Amazing!
More Lincoln skies.
Just makes you feel a bit awed and maybe kind of small :) I love it! I'll keep you posted all through the summer!
2 comments:
Wow! That's amazing!!! I am glad you're okay! Those pictures are really something and it really makes you think that mother nature has a mind of her own and I do feel very small.
That makes me homesick. We get the weather down here, but not the view of the sky.
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