Tornados

Well, again it hit 75 degrees today, probably even a few degrees higher. At the end of my 5th period class, students started coming up to me very worried. I guess their parents were text messaging them about the school district letting kids go home early. I promptly went online and tried to find something out, and found on the news website a brief message saying we were shutting down. The class ended, and when kids got in the next class, they came on and started dismissing them to go home. Dangerous weather was projected to hit around 3-5 pm and they wanted to ensure all students were home safe. I left at 2 pm and did a few things before picking the girls up (Abbi's school was not let out early). I knew at this point I had plenty of time. After I got them home, I started feverishly cooking dinner and working on laundry in case we lost power like last week for the entire evening.

Dave was outside, and at one point I poked my head out and all the neighbors were standing in the street looking at something. So, my curiosity won over, and I went on out. They were watching a funnel cloud travel north of here. We knew it was not going to come here, and I tell you...I have never seen a funnel cloud before and it was quite the awesome sight. Dave got some great pictures. Once it moved out of our view, we had some lightening and rain move in so we went inside. We saw that worse storms were coming and got our family fed quickly and prepared for the bathroom hunker down spot. The news was touting this as an extremely dangerous situation and it appeared to be headed right for us. After dinner, we got the girls in the bathroom playing in the tub, and we stayed on our feet watching the tv and listening to our NOAA weather radio. Had one heck of a storm come through. Damage has occurred all over Memphis, though we seem ok here. I am very happy that so far we have power...it is allowing me to get a handle on our laundry.

The good news is we came through this one ok, the bad news is it is not over. We have a bit of a lull and the big line of storms is coming later. The girls are currently taking showers and I'll try to get them asleep (downstairs of course for tonight) before the next part comes. They will sleep on the living room floor, right close to us.

I'll update more later, but we are fine now.

It is now later....10:35 pm. The second line of storms is going through now and it is considerably less "stressful". We are starting to relax. Many friends have been calling to make sure we are ok...as a tornado did hit fairly close to here, the news is reporting. Obviously, we have not left our home this evening...but everything is great here. The power is on, the girls are sleeping in the living room (ok, so I let them fall asleep watching High School Musical). Dave and I have been glued to the news. Some of my students have texted me asking if school was closed for tomorrow...I really have no idea. Several tornados have touched down around the area, so it is quite possible there will not be school. A few businesses destroyed have shut down. Daylight will tell the real story of how bad this was. I am watching footage of a college that was hit about 60 miles NE of here in Jackson...wow.

This is so unusual for February. Sure, we get crazy weather with temps all over the place, but not like this.

We made it through though and are safe. Thank you for thinking of us.