Thursday, June 7, 2012

It Ended a Bit Different Than it Stared

We had a mixed bag of weather yesterday.  All morning and afternoon we enjoyed warm weather with temperatures reaching close to 90.  Plus, there was NO WIND.  That fact all by itself warranted a celebration at the pool.  So we hit it up:



As evening approached, things got a bit interesting.  It all started with a brief, but kind of intense little hail storm while the sun was shining brightly, and there was still no wind.  Very weird.  We turned on the TV and saw that, yes, in fact, there was some severe weather in the area, but according to radar, and also as we looked out the windows, it had already passed over us.  The hail we just saw, mixed with sunshine, was the outer edge of a storm east of us.  Since storms move from west to east here, we thought we were in the clear and headed out for a Super T outing.

Shortly after arriving, it started getting darker and the rain came in.

And it never left.

That may sound normal for many of you reading this, but here, big rain storms come and move through pretty quickly.  We rarely get heavy unrelenting rain for longer than 15 minutes.  As the storm continued on to the 30 minute mark and more, my cart was getting fuller and fuller.  We decided the best thing was to check out, and watch the storm finish up from the windows, safely away from all merchandise.

At check out, the storm took a turn. All of a sudden it sounded like we were hit by a freight train.  The employees tried to calmly gather everyone and get us to their "storm safe area" in the store.

This was not a calm process.

Imagine people running through aisles dropping their merchandise as they go.  A few of the employees are crying.  A teenage girl is completely broken down while talking to her dad on her cell phone saying, "What, Dad?! I can't hear you!  I think it's coming down on us!"

Meanwhile, my kids are looking at me with anxious eyes.  Eyes that spoke volumes.  However, both remained cool and calm while they asked only a few times, "Momma? Are we Safe?"

At the end of it all, we were fine.  We did hear, later,  that there were a few funnels above us, but none touched down.  We did get marble to almost golf ball size hail, and one of the light posts in the parking lot was struck by lightening.

Total damage: $130 in the cart while waiting out the storm, a few dents to the car, a damaged doggy gate at the house while a very scared cousin dog tried to take cover, and a few tears by the kids.

We are praising God this morning for his protection in this storm.



No comments: