nightmare, revisited

It’s almost unfathomable that we could experience another nightmarish day of tornados again after last April – that catastrophic weather could be spawned across the country once again.  First Illinois, then Alabama, Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee again, and I don’t even know the continuing scope of today’s damage.  But locally, our fears have become reality.  Again.

A tornado (tornados?) tore through our county again today, hitting almost yards from some locations that had been devastated last spring.  Our home was spared, yet again other nearby neighbors not so lucky.  Again.  My friend Jenn’s neighborhood was hard hit, and my heart goes out to them.  A neighborhood next to our middle school sustained major damage, homes destroyed.  Injuries.  Reports of people pinned and trapped in collapsed buildings eastward in the county.  The news is heartbreaking – from here to surrounding states.  And the night is not yet over.

Our Red Cross disaster assessment team go out as quickly as we could, and before we could even get assessment numbers on one neighborhood, we were called back in because of a second round of tornado warnings being issued.  I’ve seen one very small neighborhood, a few streets, and I don’t even want to imagine what else lays out there, judging from reports I have heard.

When we got the call to come in, take shelter, we headed over to the local EOC, watching radar, listening to reports being radioed in from various sources.  We ran out of daylight, and now the only responders are emergency fire and rescue personell.  I know it will be an around-the-clock for these people, along with our Red Cross Disaster Director and the shelter staff.

The Red Cross has opened a shelter, the calls from local residents are coming in at a steady pace.  As I write this, we are under another tornado warning.  I am home with my family, and our hand-crank radio is at hand.

So, not unlike last spring, I am signing off for a period of time unknown.  I think it will be Utilitaire #fail … as there is work to be done, and not only locally.  I suspect I may be deployed within the coming days, weeks, depending on how we can manage locally.  We’ll see. But I am ready to go.

Please support your communities if they have been hit; please support your relief agencies who will be working to serve across the country.  Families are in need.  Donate your time, donate supplies, donate your dollars if possible – they will be greatly needed.

And please … have a plan, make a kit, be prepared.  Godspeed.

the Red Phone at the EOC … can’t help thinking we need a BatPhone