Just so you know

we weathered the storm pretty well. I slept through it, actually, waking to a telephone call--my mother checking up on me. Some of our schoolkids were sent home because they were on emergency power and there was wind damage and downed lines, but all in all it was very mild. A friend of mine had her window screens blown off, and she, her husband, and son huddled in the bathroom since their house isn't rated for a lot of wind.

Other parts of the state and surrounding ones didn't fare so well. There's a college in Tennessee whose main dorm complex was virtually destroyed. In another town they found a baby covered in debris but alive, with no word on its parents. One woman in Arkansas was found yards away from her family home next to the body of her 14-year-old Labrador. She'd been in the hallway of their trailer. The rest of ehr family survived, at least. Scary.

Of course, one of the most dangerous things to be in if you're hit by a tornado or high winds is a trailer. When I was a kid, we lived in one at my grandmother's and actually as part of base housing when I lived in South Carolina. I hope never to live in another--they just aren't safe. I know other houses and buildings can go to kindling, but they don't normally lift up and wind up yards away from where they'd been.

In the apartment building I live in now, I'm on the first floor and have a couple of interior rooms I can go to, like the bathroom and kitchen, away from windows. If the roof came off, I'd more than likely be okay. Of course, I slept through the storm, so who knows...

To those injured or affected by the storms, and certainly to those who lost loved ones, my thoughts are with you.

Storms brought devastation