Good Morning To Me!

Normally when I wake up, it is around 9 a.m. and my bedroom is still pretty dark. The sun hasn't peaked over the neighbor's trees. The vertical blinds are closed and the bathroom door, in the hallway, is usually opened a bit to block the sunlight coming from the living room. The tv is almost always going because we both need some sort of noise to distract us, especially me. Yesterday morning was a little different.

At first I really didn't think anything of it. It was darker than normal so I thought that maybe I woke up really early. It happens every morning. Around 5 a.m., I make my way to the restroom and don't wake back up till 9. I looked at the dvr and noticed that the time was correct, but the entire room was dark. A 30 Seconds To Mars music video was on tv to cheer me up, and then I heard the thunder. "Finally, we have rain!" is what went through my head and I posted on Facebook about how much I loved thunderstorms. I was just sitting up in bed watching the music video when the tv switched to the emergency broadcast system. There was a tornado warning in my county. Literally within two to three minutes, everything came together in a way that was not what I had expected.

Suddenly all I heard was the tornado siren blaring throughout my house.The airport is less than a five minute drive and there is a siren pretty close to me. I'm sure it would have been louder if the wind wasn't howling outside. I opened the front door, which is next to my bed, and found that the sky was a very dark grey, which is completely different for this area. There is rarely ever a cloud in the sky. In the six months I have lived here, I can count on one hand how many times it has rained. I also noticed there was some resistance in closing the door. You would think that the tornado warning on the tv would have been the first sign. So rather than be the smart person I usually am, I went to the room with the most windows to look out the back door. I couldn't even see the lake in my backyard. It was nothing but a cloud. It was almost like I had fog surrounding the house.

It was around that time when I suddenly got my bearings straight. I got some pants and shoes on, just in case, grabbed my phone and went to the room in the house that had the smallest window; the bathroom. It is also the only room in the house with a door. We have plenty of door frames,but no doors, besides the front and back door. Daylan called to tell me that the house is made out of cinder block and not to worry. Yeah, what a thing to tell someone that is practically waking up around that time.

The thing that really jolted me the most was hearing pebbles hit all the windows and the doors. It sounded like I was standing in a bedroom of a two story house to hear some teenage boy throwing pebbles at my window to get my attention. It was strong. The windows weren't just being tapped, they were being hit. I didn't even think that it could have possibly been hail because hail was not something I was accustomed to having lived in Florida for 19 years. I just thought that it was pebbles, which had to have meant that there was a tornado around but I didn't hear the freight train sound that people always announce. I love storms and I watch a lot of storm shows on tv. People always say they hear this howl. They said it is very distinctive. There wasn't a train sound but really that didn't help out a lot. All I kept hearing was the thunder. This wasn't the thunder that I am use to hearing. This thunder sounded like someone was shooting a shotgun outside my house. It was that loud and that sudden that it terrified me. I made one quick scream.

The smart girl in me would have stayed in the bathroom, but I was impatient. I had adrenaline coursing through me and I was alone. Daylan was at work and I was dealing with this by myself. I tried to call my friend in Illinois, Kristen, but only got her voice mail. When I get freaked out or I get nervous, I always try to call someone so that I can have someone to calm my nerves. This morning I was alone. Daylan didn't have time to stay on the phone when he called. He just wanted to tell me not to panic and had to get back to work. Boy, some company would have been helpful.

The whole ordeal only lasted about five to seven minutes till the siren went off and the tapping of the windows disappeared. The big warning signs were gone, so I made my way to the back door. The lake was still a gray haze, but I could at least see more than just the border of the water. That was a little big more comforting. It was simply a sign that things were going to get better.

It took about half an hour for the thunder to not be as loud and several more hours till the thunder went away completely. Now it was just a thunderstorm. The rain wasn't nearly so heavy and the lake was completely visible now. Part of me wondered just how much rainfall we got and wondered if it would last longer. Unfortunately the rain seemed to absorb into the ground as quickly as it fell. I was just thankful that the imminent threat was gone. Now all I needed was for it to brighten up just a bit. I actually had to turn a light on. Thank goodness I still had power amidst all of this or I would have been more scared than I was.

The rest of the day was crystal clear. Around 1pm the sun was shining bright and it was like the storm never happened. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and my yard was barely wet. Apparently the other side of town wasn't so lucky.

The Concho River flooded, which is a normal occurrence. This area really doesn't fair well with even minor rain and the river floods with inch of water that hits the ground. Around 200 people were without power and a few people had to have water rescues. Lightning struck three times, one of which was almost a possible fire. Supposedly a tornado did touch down in Wall, TX which is 13 miles away but I can't seem to find any proof of it online. Yeah, 13 miles away from my house is close enough.