I Survive A TORNADO!!! [10/30/09 - 1]

Well, you said you wanted a story...

I am a lot like you. When tornado sirens go off in my hometown we tend to ignore them. At best we go downstairs and watch TV. However, driving to college a state away this summer, I learned to listen to the weatherman.

The family minivan is packed to the roof with my dorm stuff and it ispouring rain. My mom and sister are up front and I am squished in the back reading New Moon aloud to pass the time for us. I am so engrossed in the story, not to mention surrounded on all sides by boxes, that I do not even notice when the sky gets freakishly gray until there is no longer enough light left to read. My mom comments that the weather is getting really bad and I look up, suddenly super concerned.
"You know, the guy back at the gas station said something about tornado warnings." I throw out there.
My sister sits bolt upright. Tornadoes are her biggest fear.
"Really?" my mom asks, concerned.
"M-mom? What's that?" my sister asks, pointing ahead of us.
All three of us squint into the distance at the huge gray/black mass that seems to go on forever across all four lanes of the highway.
"It's a cloud." my mom replies, her voice reassuring.
"A SPINNING CLOUD???" my sister and I shriek.
"Pull off, Pull Off, PULL OFF!!!!!" I scream. Mom just barely manages to make the exit we had almost passed.
My sister is now crying hysterically. My mom decides we are a safe distance away and pulls over to the side of the road to try and calm her down. I watch the tornado with interest. I have never actually seen one, since, as I said before, all we ever get is false alarms back home. Then I notice that it is sorta kinda STILL HEADING THIS WAY!!!
"Mom? Mom, MOVE!! It's still coming!"
A lot (and I mean a lot) of screaming ensues. We peal off and book it to the closest building we can find, which is a gas station/McDonalds. Being the good big sister that I am, I take the time to call my sister's boyfriend before running inside and leave him a message telling him to call her, because she's basically freaking out (I know, not the most brilliant moment of my life). Then I yank open the van door and jump out into the near-hurricane like conditions. I seriously had to grab a railing and have my mom pull me inside the building. Once inside, an attendant ushers us to the back of the store where a good 30 people are crouched in the hallway around the bathrooms. My sister is practically hyperventilating, but I manage to make her laugh when I pull New Moon out from under my shirt (another random, split-second decision). After we finally get the all clear we all make our way out into bright, cheery sunlight. The gas station across the street is completely demolished, and along the road, on the other side of the bridge after the exit we just barely managed to make, five cars are flipped over with emergency vehichles surrounding them.

Needless to say, I had the most awesome story with which to introduce myself at college.

boy, do i have a story to tell you!

well i was like 6 or 7, and me, my mom, my godmother, and my uncle were all outside, and all of a sudden there's a tornado, my uncle yells to get to the basement, so we flew, my aunt, my uncle's twin, was inside in the bathroom, screaming, "WAIT "AIT DON'T LEAVE ME!!!!!!" of coarse i was the only one to wait for her, so about 10 seconds later, she came out and we both ran to the basement.
we spent the whole night there waiting for the storm to pass, no blankets or food.
it. was. agony.

I'm also a native Texan, so I've been through some weird/crappy weather too. lol Actually, it's rained nearly everyday this month.

Yes, to those of you who get normal rainfall, Texas is one of those states that gets ALL of the rainfall for the entire year at one time. lol

I slept through a tornado too, but I think I beat you a little bit. lol When I was younger, my friend and I were playing out in the rain while there was a tornado near by. The rain and wind was too loud for us to hear the sirens, so we weren't scared at all. The next day, I went to school, and everyone was talking about the massive tornado there was in the area. Turns out it wasn't too far away, and we were playing out in the rain the entire time. lol

Basically, I'm a very lucky little duck that the flying cow didn't come to attack us. Hmm, maybe that's where our cow went! Poor Betsy... (Don't laugh. Yes, her name was Betsy and she tried to kick my dog)

I grew up in the caribbean, so I'm kinda used to hurricanes, I mean, huge ones!! I remember when I was 10 we were expectiong a hurricane to arrive about noon, but it actually hit us 3 hours before, so i was in the balcony and all this wind started and I saw how the front house's ceiling flew away! damn! that's a memory!

Woohoo! A storm!
Twice a tornado has passed near the house I was in (one tore off the roof of my grandpa's neighbor's garage).
I've been in a bunch of blizzards, though. They're pretty and not scary at all if you're not on the road.

Go ahead and write! We won't complain!
(if you never leave, you're going to get extremely tired of your apartment).