tornados, hail, and camping

We live in Arizona and this Memorial Day weekend my sister and her family went camping and they had at least 14 inches of snow. I've lived in Arizona most of my life and this is the first time we've had snow this late up in the mountains. Usually we are up in the 100's already, but we had only a couple of 110's.

Are you a writer too, by any chance?  You can certainly store up this experience to fictionalize into a storyline.  I know I would.  Some of the best scenes come from a bit of author experience. 

I'm glad you and your family are okay.  It must've been very scary!   I think I'd be tempted to move back to Sunny California - LOL! 

tornado warnings....

In 1983, a friend and I were driving from Los Angeles to New York.....along the way, we stopped in Battle Creek Michigan to visit some reatives of my friend.

The 3 days we were there, it was 113 degrees and humid as hell.  We were all laying around with cool rangs on our foreheads complaining about the heat.  I took a shower and never dried off.

One night, we were sitting watching tv, when a storm picked up. there was thunder, wind and lighning and hail.

At the bottom right of the tv screen, there was a big W. And the color of the W tells you how bad the storm is. 

Well it told us how bad it was...we looked out side and we could see three twisters dancing up in the sky.

The wind got really bad and the power went out.  We were on our way to the basement, when the storm stopped as suddenly as it had started.

Thank goodness they never touched down....it was pretty scary.

Years later my boss came in and said "I saw Twister", and I said "I lived Twister".

Now, I live in California....land of earth quakes, floods, and mudslides, but I was never so scared as I was with just a tornado watch.   i dont know what I would have done if any of them actually touchd down.

in Oregon, who used to nag me about getting out of California....She would say "you're going to die in an earthquake!

I would say, So I could could move to Florida and die in a Huricane.  It doesnt matter.

I the past few years the rest of the country has had more tornado's, hurricanes, and blizzards, than we have had earthquakes.

How scary! I'm so sorry to hear about your basement. I hope that you can get the work done quickly and without a hassle. Thank God that you were all okay. That is just too scary. My cousin lived in Texas for a while then in Florida. She had tornado and hurricane scares. I was like, get back home. What are you doing over there!

I've had a recurring dream (maybe 5 time) of three tornados coming at me while I am on this long drive. I have no idea what to do so I pull over and I get into the ditch! It always ended there and was alway three tornados and the same long stretch of road. Really scary.

I've lived in California all my life. My little town was actually called the earthquake capital of the world at one time. Maybe still is but I'm not sure. That is because there are always tremors but you just can't feel them. The worst quake was the Loma Prieta quake in 89. It was centered about 30 miles away from here and was so hard. Living on the outskirts of my town made it feel like our little block of houses were the only people living on earth. No electricity so it was so dark at night. No phone service. No noise for days. The grocery store was filled with people all grabbing at whatever we could get. I was looking for simple things to bar-b-que, water, anything. It was like being in a movie or something. Any little after shock caused so much anxiety.

I was actually getting off work and had just locked up the office. I had opened my car door and was getting in when I felt dizzy. I thought I had fallen into the car with a dizzy spell. Then I realized what was happening and I was just bouncing in my parked car. There was no way I could get out and I was looking up at the office sign and praying it wouldn't fall on me as I was right under it. Then I turned and saw all the telephone poles behind me swaying and bouncing and the gas station was next door to me. The attendant was trying to run and he was running towards the street but he was headed towards the telephone poles. Very scary. He was being tossed around and he was jumping like he was on a trampeline. It was horrible. I drove staight home when it stopped.

But I would never move as I am even more scared of tornados and hurricanes. I guess because those seem to happen all the time. I know I would just panic in a tornado.

There were fires in the Santa Cruz mountains and it was bad but no lives were lost and they stopped it before it could do as much damage as they thought it would. So that is good. Lots of people did lose homes and animals but no human lives lost.

Margie :)

Tammys - Glad you are safe. I live in Arkansas and for awhile there tornadoes here once a week. Only once did one actually come my way. Me and my two sat in the hallway - the safest place in our home. I think the season is over.

Margie, That sounds terrifying. And is one of the things that's always scared me about visiting Disneyland. Hope you never have to experience anything like that again either!

Terri, I live in Hollister. It is about 50 miles south of San Jose and about 40 miles east of Monterey. I remember seeing footage of the Northridge quake. That was really bad. How scary for your friends. I rememer watching that and hearing stories from the survivors. Amazing what some people went through.

That is one of my worst fears. Death by water. I think it comes from when I was a child. My family would drive to the next town on Saturdays and we would go to my moms sisters. They had a ranch and we would get together there at least twice a month. BBQ and all that. But what I think caused my fear is that the road from my town to theirs is this curvy two land road, where there have been many deaths due to people passing. Anyway, the land on one side is prone to flooding, which hasn't happened since I was a kid, and I remember these images in my mind of a huge body of water. My dad would drive fast and I was so afraid that we were going to end up in the water. Then after the party, when he was drunk and it was dark, we would drive home on this road. I think that is why I have never been a beach person or even learned to swim!

Kathy, Nothing will stop me from going to Disneyland! Really, even though that quake was very bad, that is the worst I have ever been through. Usually, even with a strong quake, the gound moves and there many be some broken glasses but then it is over.

Tammy, I'm so glad you got a nice adjuster. Sometimes those people act like it is there own money. He sounds very nice. I don't blame you for trying to get away. And how scary to hear that there were more warnings in your area. My cousin just moved back to California from Florida. I think that she was more afraid of the Texas tornados. That was the first time I have been outside during one that was so big and so long. And now that you mention it, you are right that it was like in the Earthquake movie. That is what it looked like. Our power was out for about one week. Our water was out for about that long too.

I am so glad to know that I did the right thing in my dreams! I wonder if I heard that somewhere? I just remember thinking in my dream that the tornados were going to pick up my car and I had to get out of it. But there was no buildings just big flat fields of produce and the ditch.

I did have one other very scary dream about a tornado. This was about two years ago. I was in a living room with my mom, dad, sister, and maybe two other people. It was pitch dark outside and we had the curtains open. We had the t.v. on and suddenly a tornado warning came on. I went up to the window and tried to see but it was so dark. Then I finally focused on a barn in the distance. That was when I noticed that all that darkness behind the barn was a huge tornado and it was headed right at us. No question it was going to take out the house. I think yelled, Get Down! and the thing hit like a train. Then there was total silence. I was lying on the floor and could not hear a thing. Then I got up and I saw my mom, dad and sister at the other end of the room but it was like a hall in a hospital where they were standing. It was like either I was dead or they were dead. Then I woke up. I have to find out what tornado dreams mean. I guess a lot of anxiety or something. This is the sixth tornado dream I have had in the last 15 years.

I totally understand how a mom just has to keep her cool. It is amazing what we can do when we know that we must stay calm. Can you imagine how your kids would have been if you had freaked? Not good.

I hope you have a great time with your family. Temps here are 70 right now and going up mid week. But San Diego is always so much warmer then here. Have fun!

Margie :)

These are actually friends of my cousins.  They are very close so Faye and Gene end up at every family gathering. 

There were lots of things written up about them. Here are a couple of articles about their ordeal.  there are many more if you just put their names in any search engine.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/12/28/tsunami.diver/index.html 

http://www.koreamjournal.com/Magazine/index.php/kj/2005/february/feature_story/paradise_lost

Wow, How very scary for your friends. I do believe that I did read about them. I recently saw a documentary on the tsumani and they showed video of the water that practically disappeared from the ocean. You could see the ocean floor and people are just in awe and walking in it. I was just thinking, run! What are you doing just standing there? It has to come back. But I guess they are just in shock.
So many are just lucky to be alive. I saw Nate the interior designer on Oprah talking about is experience there and how his partner didn't make it. That was so sad.

Margie :)

There was some kind of program about the tsunami on National Geographic channel, where you would probably have seen litle bits about Faye and Gene's experience.

My friend in Oregon lives on the coast, where they have been under tsunami watch for years.

Years ago, in the (1960's?) there was a big earth quake in Alaska that triggerd a tsunami  that hit Washing, Oregon and Northern California.