Tornado Warning Bloomburg, Texas

Growing up in Texas I am no stranger to Tornado warnings. We used to have drills in my home town. I've seen my fair share of twisters and their destruction. I am a lover of stormy weather and it never gets old.

Night before last we were expecting bad weather in East Texas...severe thunderstorm warning. How exciting! We might lose power but I have a kerosine lantern (also called a coal oil lantern) and lots of candles. We have generators, etc. We're all good. I also have a crank radio, bottled water, cell phone and flashlights. My trailer is guaranteed to withstand winds of 100 mph. No worries.

As the evening progressed things started looking more ominous but I still wasn't too worried. Daddy went to bed and about 10:00 p.m. I noticed it was dead calm and I flipped on the weather channel to find that Cass County (where we reside) was under a Tornado WARNING...not a watch (conditions favorable for the formation of tornados) but WARNING (something's been sighted or is on the ground)! Yeah, here I am in Who Knows Where, East Texas in a TRAILER HOUSE - aka tornado bait - with a funnel or tornado sighted. Um, yeah...what to do?

Frankie was sleeping. I ran to Dad's and he was sleeping. I banged on his doors and windows until he responded...approximately 2 weeks later.... I alerted him and he got on his PC.

I called Tony to tell him we may not have phone service for a few days but I'd call when I could.

In the meantime, David called from Wichita, KS to tell me that BLOOMBURG is under a TORNADO WARNING! Yikes. That's our nearest point of civilization... To those not familiar with the National Weather System, when they start pin pointing tiny villages like this, that's getting really specific. Like, if you live here, you might be doing your imitation of Dorothy right now!@ Say hello to Kansas for us!

It was still calm which means all the wind is being sucked upward somewhere... I still waited wondering what to do. Then the local weather said to put as many walls between you and the weather is possible....not a good sign. I did all I could do to protect us. I piled blankets, pillows, Frankie a change of clothes and shoes, flashlights, water and the crank radio into the hall. I shut all doors leading off the hall. Talk about feeling totally vulnerable... I did wonder if I should bring the chickens into the trailer with me but I could see the headlines of FoxNews ..."Texas Woman's body found in home with two dogs and house full of chickens. Story at 11".

The wind hit like nothing I've ever seen. Mature Oak trees were swaying like crazy. I carried a sleepy Frankie into the hallway. The tv and a/c units were still on and we could hear the weather channel going. Dad called to tell me how things were going and at that moment all went black. All electrical functions ceased. Frankie was scared, Elvis was shaking so hard he was practically having convultions, Ringo was panting and as usual, I was sweating... It was sooo hot and soooo dark and very noisy. We actually heard the train noise and I thought "Oh Lord, here it is" only to realize it was really the stupid train passing by our place. I don't know if I was more irritated or relieved! LOL!

The storm passed quickly and obviously we survived. We didn't have much damage either. Not even one chicken was blown out of the tree! I later found out that while Frankie and I were huddled in the hall singing "Jesus Loves Me" that Daddy was standing on his front porch watching the whole thing. I mentioned to him that he was nuts and asked him to next time at least use the video camera to capture the storm. I always wonder what kind of people capture those things on video and now I know...old Rednecks.