Woo sent me a message via Tumblr. Her house got hit by a tornado. They actually were pretty fortunate, the house still stands, and it sounds like a big tree nearly missed them. She doesn't know the extent of the damage yet, since it was still dark when she sent the message.
I'm glad everyone is okay. Who knew tornados were up in MI? Guess I never figured the weather was wacky enough for it.
Tornados are one of my worst fears. As I child I would watch the weather alerts go across the tv screen and they were always the same counties. I said that I was never living in those places! I briefly lived in one of them. In 2007 their was a tornado in my current city. I didn't live there at the time. I thought that was just a fluke. I thought for the most part that this area was safe. We never expected this. They say it was an EF-2 tornado. That was scary enough. I don't every want to be in something worse than that let alone another one. There were 6-7 tornados in nearby places. Two of them were EF-2 which was the worst of them.
JR they have been a bunch of gawkers going up and down the street with their video cameras out. They had to start redirecting traffic so workers could actually work. I wish I could find a decent picture of the tornado. It was quite wide. I think they said it was 500 yards.
-- Edited by Woo Hoo on Thursday 30th of May 2013 01:46:16 PM
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It was extremely scary as we couldn't even hear the sirens with everything closed up. His mother asked us if we had been watching the weather. We weren't until she called. We were watching a movie. Checked the radar on phone app and didn't see it coming toward us. Kept looking outside periodically. Then my ex-BIL/his best friend called and asked if were in the basement because there was a tornado headed straight for us. Our movie had since lost signal. I tricked the cat into coming to her bowl and grabbed her and we went downstairs. After e few minutes DH went upstairs to see if the tv was back so we could get some info but he only made it upstairs, looked out the window and saw the tornado in our backyard. He got back downstairs, the power went out and we hurried into the shower. Bella did good for the most part. She tried to get away from me a few times but could tell I was freaking out. It does sound like a freight train. Then we heard what we thought were things falling upstairs so we assumed windows had broken and the wind was throwing things. That wasn't the case as all our windows were intact. What we discovered was that one of our 100 ft trees had broke in half and had fallen, hitting the house right at where we were taking cover. We are so lucky that didn't come through. We lost 2/3 of our trees and we had a lot. My passenger mirror on my car is dangling. The shed is gone but we found everything. Actually everyone's shed on that side of the street is gone. One shed landed on our next door neighbor's new truck that also caused a tree to land on it as well. He also lost his porch and his brand new grill. Modular house 3 doors down from us only has 2 walls remaining. Street looked like we went through a bombing. As far as we know everyone was safe though. I'll have pictures as some point. Our power was back less than 24 hours later. Insurance adjuster hasn't been out yet. They seem to be acting like it's no big deal since all the damage was outside. We might have a fight on our hands. We lost at least 100 shingles of the roof. I don't want a dalmatian patch job.
I'll get back with you later. Payroll was supposed to be done yesterday so I'm a wee bit behind!
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Woo, can you live at home while you're waiting for repairs, or are you staying somewhere else?
We couldn't find any structural damage to the house so we didn't have to go anywhere. Lemme see if I can post a few pics from my phone. We borrowed a camera to take the pics for the insurance company and we have 40 something pics.
JR - I still can't believe this happened. I know our area isn't what OK is but it's still scary as hell. I'm so exhausted from it all.
So I tried to show where the tree hit the house. It's exactly where we were in the basement. Had it come through, we wouldn't have been ok.
I've never seen a tornado myself, but where we used to vacation when I was a kid was hit by one shortly before we went up there (Birchwood, WI). I remember being amazed at the devastation and that was considered a very small tornado.
I started to type about the one time we had tornadoes around here, but we've had quite a few. None were as bad as OK, but there were a few big ones. The scariest one for me was the one where we were in the car. We were at a concert that I had won tickets to and turned out to be standing room only. I don't do well in crowds, so I wasn't enjoying it as much as I should have been anyway. We went outside during intermission and the tornado sirens were going off. Apparently, I'm more afraid of crowds than tornadoes, so I said, "There's no way in hell I'm going in the basement of this place with all of these people." So we got in the car and started driving through Indy via an interstate, but the wind was so strong I had to pull off. I parked behind a gas station and we waited it out. Obviously, everything was okay, except for some cosmetic damage to the car.
I really miss being a storm spotter. I did that for a few years when we lived in Lincoln. Every since then, I feel safer being out where I can see what's going on than I do sitting in the basement wondering.
I started to type about the one time we had tornadoes around here, but we've had quite a few. None were as bad as OK, but there were a few big ones. The scariest one for me was the one where we were in the car. We were at a concert that I had won tickets to and turned out to be standing room only. I don't do well in crowds, so I wasn't enjoying it as much as I should have been anyway. We went outside during intermission and the tornado sirens were going off. Apparently, I'm more afraid of crowds than tornadoes, so I said, "There's no way in hell I'm going in the basement of this place with all of these people." So we got in the car and started driving through Indy via an interstate, but the wind was so strong I had to pull off. I parked behind a gas station and we waited it out. Obviously, everything was okay, except for some cosmetic damage to the car.
I started to type about the one time we had tornadoes around here, but we've had quite a few. None were as bad as OK, but there were a few big ones. The scariest one for me was the one where we were in the car. We were at a concert that I had won tickets to and turned out to be standing room only. I don't do well in crowds, so I wasn't enjoying it as much as I should have been anyway. We went outside during intermission and the tornado sirens were going off. Apparently, I'm more afraid of crowds than tornadoes, so I said, "There's no way in hell I'm going in the basement of this place with all of these people." So we got in the car and started driving through Indy via an interstate, but the wind was so strong I had to pull off. I parked behind a gas station and we waited it out. Obviously, everything was okay, except for some cosmetic damage to the car.
A fellow Crowdaphobia sufferer? I had no idea!
Really? I'm surprised I've never mentioned that before. Heck, I've cut down on grocery shopping and switched to a delivery service because it's really bad in the grocery store.
I don't do well with tight spaces whether that is from crowds or not. I think for me it's also sensory overload. I freak out sometimes when it's too loud where you can't make anything out. DH usually holds my hand because he sees my breathing go erratic and whatnot. He doesn't have a problem when I exit a store/room. If it's something I really want to do them I can suck it up. When we were in Vegas I really wanted to go up in the Eiffel Tower so I did. I had to battle heights and small space while riding the elevator. It also has glass doors. I quickly spun into DH's chest so I couldn't look. Then he managed to get me up on The Stratosphere. Talk about pushing his luck
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I think you're right about the sensory overload, Woo. I don't do as well when it's really loud either, but part of that depends on the circumstances. Loud band = usually okay. Loud from lots of people talking at once = overload. Luckily, I have no problem with heights. I'm getting better at elevators, but I still take the stairs when I can.
I don't have a problem with crowds, my issue is with social situations with people I don't know. Making small talk, trying to think of things to say, don't say something stupid, awkward silence, um . . . er . . . . nice weather, huh? I find it stressful and physically draining.
I have no problem being around other people, just don't make me interact with them on a personal level.
My wife is VERY claustrophobic, and the boy has some of that. The other day, she was sitting sideways on the end of the couch and he slid his big bean bag over to the couch so he could be by her. She was having trouble sitting there with him "blocking" the front of the couch.
When the boy and I play fight and wrestle around, if I stand over him when he's on the floor, he gets freaked out. It's the claustrophobia kicking in, but he suddenly makes excuses like "ow, my leg hurts" or anything he can come up with because he's feeling closed in or held down.
I'm doing better with the small talk since starting to lead NaNoWriMo around here. The good thing about NaNo is that there's always books to talk about. I'm finding the secret is to get them talking about something so all you have to do is sit back and listen. And interjecting an "Oh yeah, totally," "Wow, that's great," and "Man, that sucks," instead of "Uh huh," helps.
Dang Woo... I'm glad you guys are okay. Sorry about the trees, but it is great that your house wasn't too badly hurt. I hope the insurance company does right by you.
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That which does not kill me postpones the inevitable.
