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Mass Destruction
Jun. 2nd, 2011 11:21 amAll is bright and sunny this morning, but watching the weather last night, it seemed that the world was having a decent go at ending after all. We were in the living room, with the television on, when we were suddenly told by a BBC Micro that a tornado was approaching and that we should take shelter in an interior room of a sturdy building in case of exploding windows.
Our house is only one room wide, so we huddled up in the basement to hide from the oncoming storm. From the window, it seemed that much like the last time we had a warning of a hurricane, being in the storm of the century was very much like being in a light breeze, and I was all ready to laugh about the extent of the damage being that somewhere on the coast, a wheelie-bin fell over. But just fifty or so miles west of us, houses fell down, trees were uprooted, and cars were squashed by one or both of the above.
And when we went upstairs after the actual danger of the tornado had passed us, it was terrifying. I've never seen lightning like that before in my life - it wasn't just the occasional flash, it was a near-constant light, flashing in the sky like a climactic battle was raging in the intergalactic war with Planet Discotheque. It was only at about eleven at night that it had calmed down enough to be completely dark in the bedroom.
Getting a tornado in this part of the country is a very rare occurrence... you hear about these things happening very far away from you, but it's different when it's right down the road. Even though nothing happened to us or anybody we know, it's a reminder of just how powerless we are against the weather, when it feels like it.
Our house is only one room wide, so we huddled up in the basement to hide from the oncoming storm. From the window, it seemed that much like the last time we had a warning of a hurricane, being in the storm of the century was very much like being in a light breeze, and I was all ready to laugh about the extent of the damage being that somewhere on the coast, a wheelie-bin fell over. But just fifty or so miles west of us, houses fell down, trees were uprooted, and cars were squashed by one or both of the above.
And when we went upstairs after the actual danger of the tornado had passed us, it was terrifying. I've never seen lightning like that before in my life - it wasn't just the occasional flash, it was a near-constant light, flashing in the sky like a climactic battle was raging in the intergalactic war with Planet Discotheque. It was only at about eleven at night that it had calmed down enough to be completely dark in the bedroom.
Getting a tornado in this part of the country is a very rare occurrence... you hear about these things happening very far away from you, but it's different when it's right down the road. Even though nothing happened to us or anybody we know, it's a reminder of just how powerless we are against the weather, when it feels like it.
