Tornado Warning

Last night was kind of exciting and a little tense here. I have my cell phone set up to receive severe weather updates from The Weather Channel, and at about 6:00 pm last night I received a tornado warning. I told Jason about it and he immediately said we should get our shoes on and get ready to go. We already had the news on, but a few minutes later the weather man said what we already knew, we were under tornado warning.

Within 2 minutes, the ominous, end-of-the-world sounding sirens started going off, which meant we needed to get to shelter and prepare for the possibility of a tornado. To be honest, I was a little excited (yes, excited) and I was trying to gather a few necessities, but Jason kept telling me "Sharla, we've got to go now!" The apartment is on the 3rd floor, obviously it's not the best place to be in a tornado, so I grabbed my (drum roll please) EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS BACKPACK, grabbed Barklee's leash, and hurried to the laundry room which is just next door.

Thick black clouds were rolling in. They were moving swiftly across the darkened sky, and even though it was dark, somehow the clouds were even darker, and very low to the ground. At that point I started feeling a little more panicked. It didn't help that when we got to the laundry room, we had forgotten to grab the key, so Jason had to leave me and Barklee alone, and run back to get it.

He made it back and we got inside just as it was starting to rain. Another woman from our complex, who also lives on the 3rd floor, saw us running for the laundry room, and thought that was a good idea, so she joined us.

We didn't have a radio or tv to listen to the weather report, so Jason called around to see if anyone could give us some direction on where the storm was, if a tornado had touched down, how long it was going to last, etc.

Hard rain fell for about 10 - 15 minutes, and wind blew from seemingly all directions. It looked as if sheets of rain were being blown around the parking lot. After about 35 minutes, the worst of the storm had passed us, and it was safe to head back to the apartment. Rain still drizzled the rest of the evening, with lightning and thunder crashing around every so often.

Although there was no tornado, we tested out our tornado action plan, and figured out a few tweaks to make to it, so next time we'll be better prepared.

Jason repeatedly told me I was crazy, but the photographer in me couldn't let the little threat of a tornado keep me from capturing a few pictures and videos, so enjoy!

Jason with the Emergency Preparedness Backpack

The storm rolls in

Running back to the apartment complex from the laundry room

We were very wet after running back to the apartment in the rain