An Angry Sky

Mom and I had a bit of adventure last night. First we walked down to get the mail, and I noticed how pretty the sky was. We walked back to the house, I grabbed my camera, then we walked back down the driveway.

Meanwhile, a cloud moved over the sun so I lost my dramatic lighting. I snapped a few anyway.

I could hear distant thunder, but didn't really think much of it. Until the sirens in town went off. Oops. Now it might be for the fire department, or it might be a weather warning. I hustled Mom back to the house and turned on the TV. Tornado warning. Nothing confirmed on the ground, just radar indicated possible rotation. It rained, but nothing dramatic came of it. We had our supper, and I kept an eye on the sky.

This was the sky after the rain stopped. Ok, not terribly bad. It looked to be to the north, and that is where the new tornado warning was for. There was also a warning, with a confirmed tornado on the ground, to the south. Yay we were the filling in a tornado sandwich! About fifteen minutes later, I went outside and saw this.

I can only describe that as angry. It was still to the north, and I thought it was moving east, but as I snapped a few photos, I realized it was heading my way too. EEEEK!

The storm tracker still said it was several miles north of me, but I wasn't taking any chances. I grabbed Mom and headed to the basement.

This has been one of my worst fears since Mom moved in with me. How do I get Mom to the basement in the case of a tornado. My basement is downright scary looking. The steps are not easy to navigate. There is a mystery pipe channeling rain water from the outside into the basement, and the rain runs down one of the dirt walls and creates mud at the bottom of the steps. The steps go through an old cistern, and it is here that I thought I would put Mom if worse came to worse. Now, to get her there.

With her in front of me, I opened the door to the basement, and encouraged her forward. She took one look, cried no!, and held on to the door jamb. I pried her hands away, held them, and sort of pushed her forward. She slowly started going down the steps, me holding on to her waist and trying to hurry her along. I could hear the wind picking up. Finally, we're at the bottom of the steps, standing in a 1/2 inch of mud. Most of the rest of the basement has about an inch of standing water from the rain we had just had. I wade through and get the pump going. We stayed in the basement about ten minutes.

I found out later that the rotation/suspected tornado was within a few miles of us. I'm glad I forced her into the basement, even though she was not happy with me.