7:25 p.m. - 2003-11-18
First Tornado of the season
Hi folks. I didn't spend my day cleaning, like I promised.
I spent my day huddling in the kitchen with the cats and rabbits, a foam pad over our heads. Today we had the first tornado of the tornado season. It touched down about a mile from here, the closest I've had to deal with one.
The sirens went off around noon, just after I got back from grocery shopping. I turned on the radio and heard "Whitesburg Drive...South Parkway... Governors Drive...South Huntsville...", all very familiar and close by.
I got the cats into the inner part of the house. The room they usually hang out in is all windows, and I didn't want them to get hurt by flying glass. Then I went and got the bunnies into their carrier and into the kitchen, which has no windows.
Tornado season is the one time I feel grateful to have a kitchen with no natural light. No windows to break, no glass to go flying.
I checked on Burma, who is still impossible to crate. She was hanging out at the bottom of the stairs, in a protected spot. I said my little St. Francis prayers for her and went to crate the other cats. They were all freaked out as well, with Athena hiding under the day bed and hissing at me.
Burroughs was the easiest. Shake the food bag at him and he'll follow you anywhere.
So we all sat in the kitchen watching the tiny TV and sneaking glances out the window at the debris flying by. About a half hour later the power went off, and stayed off for about six hours. Lots of trees down, and just a few blocks from here, some houses which no longer have roofs.
And weirdly, just after the storm let up, I looked out the window to see literally several hundred robins on my lawn. It was like "The Birds", except with robins. They were looking fairly chipper, pulling up worms and hopping around. Bruce thinks that they were forced to ground by the storm.
And when it was really over I went upstairs to find Burma in her box. She let me pet her for a long time - I think the storm made her let down her guard a bit.
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