Tornado Alley

Back at the end of August, we had a bit of a scare. Our little town was hit hard with a tornado...an F3 (if I remember correctly). It was the first one of that magnitude in all of Michigan in a very long time.

Not many things scare me.

House fire scares me. I think it's because of all the stories I've heard from my family...which was 75% fire fighters. I still have an aunt/uncle that are fire fighters.

And Tornadoes. I like to watch storms. I used to like to watch storms during tornado season when I was younger. But now? Not so much. I think I would still like them if I didn't have children. That is what terrifies me. Not me losing my life...it's the kids. What if something happened to them? That terror is intensified in Michigan during tornado season with the fact that we live in a house with no basement. Who in their right mind built a house in Michigan with no basement?

These pictures are about 1 1/2 miles or so from my house. Several houses were LEVELED to the ground. The only way that the families survived is by being in the basement. I was outside right before this tornado hit and we didn't see or hear anything...afterwards we found debris in our yard though.

This was a beautiful old brick home that was newly completely refurbished. The whole front of the house was trashed.

Debris that apparently traveled from a leveled house across the road. That house was completely 100% leveled.
The path of the tornado. You can see how it traveled. The house in the upper middle is the old brick farmhouse in the first picture. The lower ones was the houses that were completely demolished.

I wasn't too scared during the tornado warning. I wasn't too scared on my way to work after it was all over. That was before I knew about the devastation though. Sure, I'd seen pictures of tornados before and thought it was pretty impressive for an act of nature. But, when you see this up close and personal just 1 1/2 miles from your house...it brings a whole new perspective. Chuck took Zachary down to see the devastation as well. We didn't want to scare him, but give him an idea of what tornados can do. He was impressed. I was terrified. What if that rotation line moved a mile our way? We wouldn't be here right now. If those people hadn't had a basement, they wouldn't be there right now rebuilding their homes.

We've had another tornado warning since then. It didn't hit us, but did do some major devastation in another little town about 20 miles away. And since that date I've had at least 1 tornado dream. I don't like those feelings...I woke up with my body shaking.

It wouldn't be so bad if we had a basement. I'd feel a little safer. I told Chuck that in our next house a basement (and a laundry room and 2nd bathroom) are a must!