The line of storms moving across the country has been in the news all week - the pictures and videos are pretty unreal. Flooding, hail, tornadoes - the whole 9 yards. Today it's supposed to hit our part of the world. The sirens went off at 6:15 this morning. I was slow to wake up - I couldn't tell if the sound was Dan's alarm clock or a dream. I don't know how long I laid there and listened to them. At some point I came to and got up to peek out the window.
What sounded like torrential rain and thunder was really just wind. The telephone wires were whipping around and the trees looked sideways and greeny-blue. There was lightning everywhere, but no rain at all. I went to grab Madeline out of her room, and the sound was much different in there. It sounded sharp - like someone was throwing rocks agaisnt the glass. I figured it was sideways rain pelting the window, or hail.
We sat in the hallway for a while, even after the sirens stopped, and listened to the sounds in the dark. After about 15 minutes I took Madeline into our room, flipped on the weather channel, muted it, and let her sleep in the bed with us.
When we got up two hours later, we found this in our back yard.
It was sunny and windy for a few hours after breakfast - but shortly after these pictures were taken the sirens came back on. The schools let out at 1:00, and we have another wave coming within the hour. Time to buckle down!
R.I.P. beautiful willow tree. We will miss you!