Storm Force.

When Matt got up for work, neither one of us could tell what a trying day was about to befall us. I'd had a restless night, the lightening and slight thunder that had thrilled me and lit up the nights sky as if it were day time, continued, although at a much further distance. Matt slept pretty soundly, however the morning seemed overcast and repressive, there was something in the air that I could not put my finger on, made said it looked pretty stormy out, although at that time it was not rainy or indeed windy, little did we know then that was about to happen.

I was looking out the window, mainly to see if the squirrels were about, the food in the feeder had got pretty low, but they were nowhere to be seen, what I could see was the tree branches swaying with the wind that was getting up, it has also began to rain a wee bit, the sky had a mass of grey clouds. I went to the bedroom to look out that window, pretty much the same, windy and rainy, nothing major unusual, although it did feel a little cooler than it had in recent days. I turned on the TV and found a local news station, which instead of some programme or other, had a large radar map of the local area. It also had a thunderstorm warning for Williamson county, that's the county were in - 'Bit bloody late' I thought to myself, the main thunderstorm happened the night before! Then I checked it again and it wasn't a warning for thunderstorms, it was for Tornado's! Now that's far more interesting, yes, but infinitely more scary, especially when your on the second floor or a wooden building on your own!

The rain outside was getting heavier as was the wind, kit was a bad storm, the branches were more than swaying this time, they were straining, the window in the bedroom was rattling and I could hear, what I think was the roof, if not the building as a whole creaking. I kept checking the view outside and listening to the 'Storm Commander' on TV and watching that map thing they were showing. It seemed to be getting a little worse, so I kept on flicking the channels, three news channels, one in Kentucky, one in Missouri and the third one just up the road, literally a 20 minute walk up the road away. There was warnings on all those channels, mainly about heavy rain and thunderstorms.

I heard a siren, very much like the old air raid sirens we used to hear, it was very faint, could just hear it above the wind and TV. I looked out, couldn't see where it was coming from, or rather hear what direction it originated, nor more to the point what it meant. I checked the TV again and the previous warnings for tornado's had been lifted. But equally outside it started to brighten up really quickly, indeed I could see blue sky and hear birds sing. I showered and then got coffee out the jar and put it in the peculator, then went to check if we had mail, it was fine out, there were a few twigs and leaves on the ground, but nothing major. I looked at the TV as I wondered what to have for brunch and how my baby was doing at work. Now this map, this radar thing only had one red blob on it, the red blob was a tornado warning, now being an outsider, I didn't recognise hardly any of the names on the map covered by red, except one!

I was a little spooked, then the TV went out, but it had been cutting out on and off all morning, a few seconds later it would come back. I changed channels and it was just black, nothing there, then I noticed it was getting darker by the second. It would not be an exaggeration to say it changed from daylight to near night time in the matter of seconds, then, without warning the power went out. Oh bother I thought, I'd put the coffee in the peculator, but not turned the sodding thing on, nor had I put a bagel in the toaster, which was a bad move, no power meant no brunch, no coffee, I'm so moody without my morning coffee.

I'm not sure what I noticed first, the noise, the rain, the bits of leaves in the wind or the branches bending, twisting out of shape. Perhaps it was all of them at the same time, but I knew then that the storm wasn't over and that I probably shouldn't go outside. I ventured outside on the balcony, and the noise of the wind was like nothing I've ever heard before, it was a screaming kind of sound, and so very loud. The closest similarity my mind can find is that it was the sound of a number of passenger jet aircraft pushing into full thrust all at the same time. I went to the bedroom and could see the window baying in with the pressure of the wind and the rain that was battering that side of the building. I stood by that wall and was literally moved, by the force. Now I don't know if you've ever been in a house when it's being buffeted by very high winds, so much so that the walls are moving in and rain and parts of leaves hitting the window glass like bullets. I looked out the window again and saw this massive funnel like cloud seeming to bounce and what appeared to be a wall of water coming towards me. I ran to the lounge just in time to see big thick branches being ripped off a very sturdy oak tree like they were tooth picks. I saw the top of another tree come crashing down and I didn't want to see any more. I have to admit that I was scared, I could hear the roof groan and creak, the walls vibrate and bow with the pressure of natures fury. The bedroom window was letting in water, not just a drop, but a shower, not because it had broken, but just because it was bowing so much. The noise was horrendous, I'm not a religious man, I don't have a god I pray to, but I have to be honest, I said aloud "I've had enough for this, please Mr Man upstairs, make it stop"

It did stop, after a while, but for what seemed like an eternity the storm completely enveloped me! I'm not sure who was more pleased to see the other, I or Matt, but I hugged him strongly when he came in the door. He told me about how they'd seen it happen and him, his co-workers and the restaurant customers had hidden in the big deep freeze to escape the ravages of the tornado.

We ventured out a little way, trees were down, roofs were off, signs broken and bent over the roads, as were power cables and the over head traffic lights, just broken, twisted hunks of metal. It was then that I counted my lucky stars that we were alright, it could have been much much worse. Of course, I didn't tell Matt how scared and afraid I was, after all, I have a reputation to keep up!

We're still without power, it's Saturday night and the tornado hit on Friday lunchtime, I'm at Matt's parents house, in the guest bedroom, Matt's in a different room, but that's a story for a different time, but Betty and Steve, Matt's folks have been wonderful today, taken us out and fed us and given us power!

I'll blog some more when we have power at the apartment or when I can, we might have power on Tuesday. We can't go out at night as there is a 9pm to 9am curfew and The National Guard are here and the area has been declaird a disaster area.