So I went out earlier to have lunch with the BFF. We decided on Thai House Restaruant on Holmes Road in South Kansas City, MO. Here was the view out of the front door:
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MM
That which does not kill me postpones the inevitable.
Shortly after we arrived, a KCMO Police Officer came in and told us we needed to take cover as the clouds overhead were rotating. The lovely folks at Thai House moved us all into an interior storage room, then the waiter actually went and got our plates and drinks and brough them to us! To me, this is outstanding service... tornado could wipe us out at any moment, but that guy didn't want our food to get cold before we could enjoy it. Seriously. Another customer asked if they could place their order but the waiter politely declined and pointed to the small Thai woman standing in the corner and informed her that this is the cook... not in the kitchen for a bit. The cook smiled, waived, then asked me and Doug if our food was okay. As a matter of fact, yes... it was quite yummy.
Anyhow, I took this picture after we ate. The cloud hanging down over the trees was actually a funnel cloud that never touched down. We watched it for several minutes as it dipped down and raised back up. The tornado sirens were blaring the whole time. Off to the southwest of us about 5 miles is Overland Park where Pambo and I work... there were 3 more of those bad boys over OP, and some threatening looking stuff to the southeast which is where my mom lives. I think the sirens were going off for about an hour straight.
Things seem calmer now, but cellular service in the KC metro area was down for about an hour. All seems well with that now too.
I am happy to report that I feel very loved. It seems that while my phone was down, there were at least 8 people trying to get ahold of me to make sure I was ok. Love you all.
__________________
MM
That which does not kill me postpones the inevitable.
Indeed it was quite creepy. One of the ladies who worked there turned on the radio so we could hear what was going on. At one point there was a funnel cloud spotted about a mile up the road from us.
I was stunned when the guy brought our food in. Believe me, he got an excellent tip. Between the two of us, he got about a 233% tip and a thank you note.
__________________
MM
That which does not kill me postpones the inevitable.
On Monday, all of a sudden a really bad storm hit, and tornadoes were on the ground in the county south of us. It was at 5:30 and my boss called me to tell me to go downstairs. So after what seemed like the majority of it passed, I'm driving home, and people are going REALLY slow. It wasn't hard to drive, it wasn't pouring so hard you can't see, so I couldn't fathom why people would want to take longer instead of getting to their nice stable houses as soon as possible. Then I walk in the door and ask Brian if he's been watching the news. He said, "Yeah, but the tornado's south of us," totally not worried at all. We ended up being the only county not spotting a tornado on the ground, all the rest around us did.
Dang... I'm glad it was okay for you guys. These weather systems have been crazy! It is not a good feeling even just having tornadoes all around you. Honestly, every time I heard of a sighting all I could think of is whomever I know who was in that area. One did touch down in a little town called Louisburg, KS which is about 30 miles south and just a little east of where I live. Some of the people I work with live there. I have not heard the damage reports yet, so I'm hopeful it is okay for them.
__________________
MM
That which does not kill me postpones the inevitable.
I'm really hoping these weather people are overreacting like they do with winter snowstorms. It sounds like a really bad storms will be here any minute.
Basically, I live on the west side of where the boxes overlap:
I must've grabbed the image file that they update, it no longer shows the storms. At any rate, we got wedged in between two tornado-producing systems. It was pretty freaky, but so far everyone I know is okay. Now they're trying to decide if the damage was caused by tornadoes or straight-line winds. Last night they were calling them "hurricane-force winds."
So of course I had a dream about it. We were staying at a friend's apartment in their guest room, which was on the 2nd floor. There was a really bad system moving in, but they wouldn't take it seriously. Then I looked out the window and there was a funnel cloud right there, and I yelled for everyone to hit the floor. When it was over, we looked out the window, and the building next door had been demolished. We went downstairs, and the walls had been ripped away and we could look across the neighborhood because all the buildings had been flattened. I kept saying, "We were lucky," in an I-told-you-so tone of voice.
I actually had fun during the tornado warning. About 10 of us were in the tornado shelter...including my boss & my boss' boss. It was AWESOME! The best part was deciding who we were gonna cannibalize.