5/18/04 - Stormy Weather Tonight...

I HATE the severe thunderstorms here in Central Illinois, because there's almost always tornado warnings attached...
Tonight we were hit by the second biggest storm of the Spring season (the first, about two weeks ago, did indeed spawn a tornado, that nearly wiped Utica, Il, from the map, and killed 8 or 9 in the process, I recall), and this one had two tornado touchdowns, with one on the ground just a couple miles west of where we live.
Where we live.......in a mobile home park. A NICE one, mind you, perhaps a solid 7 or 8 on a scale of 1 to 10 (with 1 being the worst 'trailer park' a person could imagine), but a manufactured/mobile home (or by any other name) is still what it is. UNSAFE in storms with high winds, and definitely not the place to be when tornado warnings go off...

Nash, my son, and I had just gotten home from a short run to the grocery store, and I was making us both something in the way of supper when the Weather Channel warning alert started beeping, and we saw we were under a tornado warning. It's hard to stay calm, even harder to calm my young son down, but trying to settle him down while I'm trying to settle me down is very, very hard. We turned on the battery radio to listen to the local news, and when they said one had touched down just 4 miles away and was heading in our direction, Nash and I went into action, shutting things off, grabbing our jackets (and Nash's just-pulled-out-of-the-oven supper) and plunging out into the pouring rain. I MISS my Camaro: I could've had it UNLOCKED when we got to it, instead of fumbling for the keys in the wind and rain (and thunder and lightning) while we were trying to keep our hoods up.
We went to my neice's place, on the Northeast side of Normal, where we planned to hang out with her and wait out the storm. The drive there will have me HURTING for days now, as the rain was so furious that I could barely see to drive... had to hunch over the wheel, my face almost up against the windshield as I drove across town. There was so much water on the roads that a couple times I felt the wheels under us leave the pavement! So by the time we got to Trisha's, my neck, shoulders, arms and back were all tied up in knots... We watched American Idol (Fantasia had better win this thing!) then drove back home after it was over, as the storm finally left the area. I took some extra meds for my sore muscles, and hope I won't be in too much extra pain tomorrow...
I've been saying this a LONG time: MH (manufactured/mobile homes) parks should be required to have one to several 'storm shelters' onsite that tenants could access during severe weather! I mean, how much sense does it make that none offer this?? Or at least allow tenants to have one of those 'pods' (little 10 X 10 underground storm shelters--they look like tiny submarines) installed on the lot they're leasing...

I wonder if there's anyplace in America that's 'weather safe'... so people like me, who are terrified of Spring and Summer because of the severe thunderstorms and tornadoes, could move there, and literally 'take a load off' in the stress department. New England might be nice, but the winters there (blizzards) can be dangerous, too. And in the SouthWest, the wildfires in the summer have to be reckoned with...UNLESS one moves to the far southern desert edges of Arizona/New Mexico, where there's nothing growing there (like trees, grass) to burn in the first place. And forget the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts -- hurricanes. Never hear much bad about Northern Idaho, or Montana...BUT, how 'bout those grizzly bears and mountain lions? I've seen too many movies (Night of the Grizzly, The River's Edge) to ever feel comfortable about living in those mountains, in a cabin or house, when I'd be up against genuine predators in the winter months...
And...get this...with all of the above going on in my life tonight, my son and I are still planning on going to see that movie coming out in a week or two: "The Day After Tomorrow".
I may have to see my Doc for a NEW anti-anxiety med after THAT...

Signing off for the night...