Wild night...

[nikkiARNGwife]

about 1:30 am the tornado sirens went off and woke me up. I turned on the news to see where the storms were and the first thing I hear is that there is a large, strong tornado causing a debris ball on radar on the ground 10 miles east of us moving right in our direction. :blink: SCARED ME TO DEATH.

So I grab both kids and haul them to the bathroom under the stairs and throw pillows on top of them. I think they were pretty sure I'd lost my marbles. The power goes out, the wind is roaring, I can hear hail slamming the roof 2 floors above me. yeah. It was a very close call..the tornado passed just about 2 miles south of us.

I usually stay up whenever there is going to be bad weather..but the weather man at 10 pm said it was a low end event and probably just a wind threat for us. Guess he was wrong.

Needless to say I'm going to be dragging today b/c I was up half the night. :thumbdown:

[SmallMoments]

Yikes!!!!! So glad you all are okay!

[mrshobbes]

OMG Nikki that is so scary! Am glad to hear you and the kiddies are alright!

[erica zane]

Yikes, that would have freaked me out - glad you are all safe!!! :wub:

[carrie1977]

Oh, that's so scary! Glad you are safe!

[heathergw]

YIKES!!! I'm so glad the sirens woke you up and that it missed you guys... how scary!!!

[kelley]

Ug that totally sucks! Nothing worse than a storm scare AND losing sleep over it :(

[nikkiARNGwife]

Thanks...apparently it touched down about 2 miles east not South then lifted up and passed practically right over us. It was on the ground on mostly rural areas so that's good...a few injuries but no one seriously hurt that we know of right now. They are saying a small town in Yazoo County which is over in the delta is completely gone from this same storm.

We have a tree that was dead already down in the back yard and I had to move to huge limbs from the driveway to get out this morning but praise the LORD it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

[YepBrook]

Oh my goodness, Nikki!!!! Wow, it's a good thing you heard the siren and woke up. Were the kids terrified??

[nikkiARNGwife]

I don't know if they ever really woke up lol. I had them downstairs just in case and I'm pretty sure they slept on the bathroom floor through all of it. Avery said he didn't remember me moving him in there this morning..he's hard to wake up and will walk around and have his eyes open and still be sound asleep.

[Arual]

Glad you are all okay!

[NeverendingJen]

EEK! Glad you guys are all okay!

[Lyd]

Yikes! So scary! Glad you are all okay and that there weren't a lot of serious injuries from the storm in general.

[Beebo]

I'm glad you are all okay!

[taracotta7]

Oh my goodness! So glad you all are safe. Pretty amazing your kids slept through the craziness and didn't struggle going "back" to sleep. That is a blessing all in itself! LOL

((HUGS)) I hope you will get some rest today.

[JuliaM]

Wow...sounds like a scary night. Glad you're all ok.

[Sasha]

Glad you are all ok...sounds so scary though

[MamaBee]

My heart would still be racing! Is it common to have that bad of a storm this late in the season? Thankful you are all safe!

[Julie Billingsley]

wow! That is super scary!! I'm glad you are okay!

[maryinaz]

That is so scary - so glad you are all OK!! A friend of mine lost her house in the Joplin tornado and her story of being in the bathroom while the tornado tore up her house around her is frightening (and too close to your story!).

[nikkiARNGwife]

My heart would still be racing! Is it common to have that bad of a storm this late in the season? Thankful you are all safe!

Yeah we can have tornados down here just about any time of the year...summer is usually pretty quiet b/c it gets so hot and stays that way..but in the Spring of course especially and then our secondary season is in the fall when you have warm gulf air and then cold fronts moving through. We can have them in January too though b/c it's totally not unusual for us to warm way up and get humid and then get a blast of cold air and then of course tornados.

HATE them. They are hands down my worst fear.

[Sherri Tierney]

How scary! I hate tornadoes too. We had one hit town in 2000 and ever since then I've had a fear of them. Before that they never bothered me much. Of course, I had not saw the destruction they cause before that either, not up close and personal anyway.

My goal is to buy a storm shelter before next spring. Our tornado season starts around May. We had a mild storm season this past spring/summer but it still worries me. I really want one of those metal room type shelters for the house. We don't have a great place to get out of the storm.

[nikkiARNGwife]

Just saw on the news that it's been confirmed as an EF-3. Scary stuff.

We are planning on building a new house within the next few years and one of my top priorities is a tornado safe room.

[LJSDesigns]

Today is the 5th anniversary of the tornado that hit my town. The wind is pretty strong today and we are watching the sky even though there is no real need. I share your fear and am glad you and the kids are safe. A tornado room sounds like a great idea!!

[origami]

What a relief that you are safe!

[jacinda]

I can't even imagine how scary that must be. We don't have tornadoes here. Well, OK, we had a couple of really small ones last year (nowhere near me), but that was the first time ever in New Zealand that I'd heard of.

[SeattleSheri]

Wow, that is crazy and scary! Yikes! I'm glad you came out unscathed -- minus the fatigue of being up and worrying!

[kim21673]

How scary! I am glad you are all ok!!!

[joelsgirl]

Scary stuff!

[maryinaz]

Nikki - did you see the Extreme Home Makeover show that was done in Joplin? They built each of the families tornado-safe rooms and did a demo showing how much they would withstand. Pretty interesting. Although I think I'd still want it to be in a basement.

[nikkiARNGwife]

I didn't see that Mary. My husbands uncle has one in their home though that doubles as a small home office. Basements are tricky in the South...I think it has to do with the humidity but you just don't see them in homes around here much at all. These tornado rooms are supposed to be virtually indestructible though.

[jessica31876]

Nikki I know here in Florida it is unheard of pretty much to have basements because of water levels. I know there are *some* houses with basements here but typically it does not happen.

[kristijoy]

YIKES! So glad you are safe!