One Stormy Night

Living in Nebraska has definitely been a change in weather for us. While living in constant rain in Washington, I used to say to John, "if it is going to rain all the time, I wish it would at least storm a little bit". Watch what you wish for, right? For the last month or so, we have had numerous severe thunderstorms, most of which happen in the middle of the night. Lucky for us, we chose to live in an apartment with big bay windows in both of the bedrooms. We thought they were different, and would let in lots of light (both of which are true), but what we didn't realize is that they seem to magnify the noise outside. We have all been woken up in the middle of the night (Makenna included) several times during the last month during big thunderstorms. So far though, we have only had tornado watches and thunderstorm warnings, but no tornado warnings. Well, at least not until Saturday night.

John and I were woken up at 2:30 am with the wind and rain on our window. We got out of bed and peeked out the blinds to see the action. As soon as we climbed back in bed, the tornado sirens started going off. We quickly turned on the news just in time to see the map of our area, with the tornado symbols exactly 2 miles south of where we live! We jumped out of bed, threw on some sweatshirts and shoes, and prepared to head to the storm shelter. When I went in to grab Makenna, she was wide awake, lying on her tummy just looking around. I grabbed her, threw a big blanket over her head, and we ran down the 3 flights of stairs to the car. We jumped in and drove over to the storm shelter (a.k.a. the workout room underneath the apartment complex office). There were probably about 15 people in the room already, with the news on, and as we waited, about 35 more people trickled in. Luckily Makenna didn't seem to mind the middle of the night festivities, and enjoyed just looking around at people, and at her reflection in the mirror. After about 20 minutes, the worst of the storm had passed, and our trusty weather man gave the all clear to come out from shelter.

After feeding Makenna and putting her back to bed, I laid awake for another hour and a half before I was finally able to fall back asleep. I guess it took awhile for the adrenaline to wear off. Thankfully the tornado stayed to the south of our neighborhood, and although it did cause quite a bit of damage, no one was seriously injured. It was a pretty exciting night, but one that I hope we won’t have to repeat for awhile. From now on, I am definitely going to watch what I wish for!