Friday, February 01, 2013

January Storms

The night of January 29, 2013 we went to bed with strong wind warnings. The wind outside our window sounded pretty loud but it's not like we've never had that before.

About 2:15 am the wind was loud enough to wake me up. I sat up for a while looking on my phone at news stations and weather websites. I found that we were under a tornado watch but we get those practically anytime a few people sneeze at the same time. News channels around here like to scare people and if you ran for cover every time they freaked out, you would just live in your hall way or "safe spot".

A little after 2:30am I decided I was tired and going to try to go back to sleep. I prayed to God that He watch over us and keep everyone on campus safe. I then laid down and as I did that my husband, Walter woke up. We spoke for a moment about how loud the wind was. As we were talking the wind got even louder. We agreed that maybe we should leave the room because we were on the second floor. We got up and started getting ready to leave. In just a few moments we started hearing pine cones hit our bedroom windows with great force. After just a minute we were just about ready and Walter headed for the door while I grabbed my cat. 
My cat, Spooks, is a big baby, he's afraid of everything. When the weather gets a little loud he hides and can't be found. Oddly enough he had been sleeping on my feet and when we got up he went just under the step of our bed, no farther. So I was able to grab him and put him in my left arm where he likes to be. I then decided to take the three steps to the head of my bed to grab my flashlight since the power was flickering. Meanwhile Walter got about 2-3 steps away from our bedroom door (still inside the room).

Just after I put my hand on my flashlight, the window that I was about a foot and a half from exploded into the room. The rest of the time that I was in the room I was in a daze and details are fuzzy. Just after the double paned window exploded I turned my back to the window and screamed. The wind at that point was so loud that even to me my scream was barely audible. Amazingly, despite the explosion, despite me screaming, despite the wind roaring into the room, Spooks was staying still in my arms. If he is freaked and someone makes a slightly loud noise or moves to quick he will jump and run.