That Was Interesting

I was at work this morning, just dragging.  I wasn't the only one, either.   Brazers, people in the bathroom, even Uncle Supervisor...all complaining about being tired.  At one point, I even sat down and said to Group Leader Shark, "Why can't tornadoes come during the day?"

"I know, right!" she responded.  And that was the whole issue. Storms, all night long. 

I'd stayed awake longer than I normally do anyway, watching Ryan Hall's livestream, and keeping up with the local forecast on my phone.  Finally, I turned everything off and drifted off to sleep around 9:00.  

Shortly after 11:30 is when all the alarms on my phone started going off.  

Quickly, I grabbed said phone and opened it up to see what was going on.  A lot of these warnings are radar indicated upper level rotation, but not this one.  Confirmed tornado on the ground is what this one said.  Headed towards Grenada county, it said.  

Taking the better part of valor, I picked up my Kindle and phone, then went into the hall bathroom -- the most interior room of my house -- which I had prepped earlier in the day with an extra comforter and several pillows to wait out the storm. I was soon joined by a very nervous kitty, and together we turned on Ryan Hall's livestream on the Kindle and Matt Laubhan's stream on Facebook Live on my phone. 

Then I had to go back to the bedroom to get my glasses so I could see...but by then, I could tell the tornado was going to pass to the south of us -- and hit the little community of Elliot, about 10 miles away.  

We watched until the internet dropped, whereupon I had to turn off the Kindle and switch the phone to cellular data, then kept watching until Matt said, "If you're in Grenada proper, you can come out of your safe space now."  

I went back to bed, but didn't go back to sleep until probably 2:00 AM.  

When that alarm went off at 3:30, I almost called in and stayed home, but I didn't.  I got up and went to work anyway.   Everything was going along swimmingly, until lunch time.  There we were, sitting in the break area eating our lunch, when suddenly Group Leader Shark jumped up and started shouting, "Shelter!  Go to the shelter!" 

So, we all went to the shelter and everybody's phones were going off, and the plant's severe weather alarm started going off, and we stayed in the shelter until the warning expired and we were allowed to go back and finish our lunch break.  

About 15 minutes later, lunch was over and I had just gotten back to my brazing stand when a coworker came around the corner and said, "BECKY!  Shelter!!  Back to the shelter!"  

And just like that, we were back in the shelter.  

Not ten minutes later, the powers that be called it and sent everyone home.  I don't even live that far from the plant, but before I even got home, I was getting another tornado warning on my phone.  I went into the house, opened up Facebook and found Matt's livestream, which showed an area of rotation headed straight for Grenada.  Back into the safe space we went, the cat and I, to wait this one out.  

I can neither confirm nor deny that I may have gone to look out the window more than once, though I didn't go outside because it was raining too hard.  It didn't take long -- maybe half an hour-- and the storm passed and we came out.  Well, I did.  The Incarnation of Evil was all settled in and comfortable. 

We had a couple more rounds of thunderstorms after that, but no more tornadic activity, but then the power went out.  All throughout the whole mess, starting just before midnight last night, the power didn't even flicker.  It was when everything was basically over that the power went out.  I'm thinking it might have been a tree or branch on the lines or something, because they got it back on in about two hours.  

By that time, the internet was also back up, so I was able to get online and see that we did have a little funnel cloud pass over near here.  I don't know that it ever touched down, but it was definitely a funnel.  

It would be several more hours and several more tornadoes before the storm cleared the state, but that was pretty much it for this area.  

And as if all of this weather weren't enough,  we had an earthquake down in the southern part of the state. 

 So, how was your day?