Today is the statewide tornado drill. At this very moment, the tornado sirens are sounding, and even though the sky is clear and the sun is shining and I KNOW it's only a drill, my stomach muscles contract at the sound, my heart beats faster, and I have goosebumps.
Hearing tornado sirens is not something to take lightly here.
Five years ago this May, two-thirds of our town was destroyed or damaged in an EF-5 tornado, including schools, a hospital, homes, and businesses. There were 158 deaths and over 1,000 injuries.
Both the landscape and our emotions are healing, but they are still scarred.
Linking up with Ivy at Uncharted for Six Sentence Stories with the prompt "contract."
Dyanne, I feel the same way about hurricanes, nor'easters, and power outages. A feel of panic that Hurricane Sandy is back again and all those awful feelings and memories make an appearance. A significant emotional event that takes much longer than the landscape to heal.
ReplyDeleteAt least we live in a time with technology that allows us to be warned ahead of storms, although our tornado popped up pretty quickly during a severe thunderstorm.
DeleteHow is it that "contract" prompted both you and Clark to talk about tornadoes? I mean, both of your stories make sense; I'm just amazed that more than one person would go that way with the prompt.
ReplyDeleteI think I've already mentioned to you that tornadoes were a recurring nightmare for me as a child--and I lived in Oregon! Not exactly Earthquake Alley. Your feelings are completely understandable!
Isn't that weird? And I had absolutely nothing until those sirens sounded.
DeleteI remember you telling me about your recurring nightmare. I have had tornado nightmares my entire life, but I grew up around them. You watched too much Wizard of Oz :)
I'm with Val on this one… sorta. I don't get terrified of hurricanes so much, but I might of tornados… they are way, way too specific
ReplyDeleteplus I'm of the generation that grew up watching Wizard of Oz (every Easter season) on TV
I'd forgotten that Wizard of Oz was always on at Easter! Nice of them to put it on just as tornado season was getting started. Come to Missouri in April or May and you can see for yourself how specific they can be :)
DeleteSo it is with Bushfires (wildfires) in Australia. They go with the territory and can even come close to major cities but sadly memories are short.
ReplyDeleteI lived in LA for awhile and had earthquakes to contend with, and at the time, I believed I preferred tornadoes. I was wrong.
DeleteIm not that way about weather but definitely have that response to my own trigger...its miserable... Im sorry you guys go through this stuff for real....
ReplyDeleteWe're like Pavlov's dogs when that siren goes off.
DeleteWe all have things that scare us to that degree, don't we? I can't even imagine living with the threat of something so unpredictable as a tornado.
ReplyDeleteSo you and Clark both went to tornado...how bizarre!
I will never forget talking you through the tornado warning you had last year!
DeleteIsn't that weird that we both came up with the same theme?!
Those sirens have to trigger every Post Traumatic Stress symptom in town. Here is hoping for a quiet Severe Weather Season for us all!
ReplyDeleteMay you have the same! I remember a big tornado going through Topeka when I was little.
DeleteLiving in the northeast we hardly ever hear of tornadoes. But it is one thing I am petrified of. The power of them, the ability to cause such destruction...well it makes my stomach contract I can't even imagine how you feel having lived through one.
ReplyDeleteWe had a severe thunderstorm warning last night, plus a tornado watch. And there was a tornado warning in the next county. It's that time of year, and we are all nervous wrecks because of it.
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