Is That Dorthy Flying By?

Today the tornado sirens went off. It never ceases to make my heart rate accelerate and my whole being start to panic. My voice gets a nervous, fast edge to it and my hands get clammy. Immediately I start to worry about the safety of my family. Apparently today they were doing a state wide test so no tornado or threat of them... Whew.

The tornado panic attacks were instilled into me when I was pregnant with Tiny. We lived in a trailer home, and as you all know those are the worst things to be in during tornadic storms. Our wonderful state was having heavy rains that year. My hubby worked 2nd shift and didnt get home till late at night. The first time I had to make a run for it my sister and cousin both called me to tell me there was tornado warnings in the area (Im so lucky to have family that cares). As I was waking my kids up I heard the mournful cry of the sirens start. My heart rate picked up but "psh I dont get worked up during storms" I thought to myself. The rain started pouring literally like huge buckets were being dumped from heaven. The sky was an eerie green (even though it was late at night), I threw George on my back and put Blondie on my hip and made a run for the shelter, which was a "safe" block away. I was pregnant keep in mind. I ran with water running down my face and into my eyes. We made it to the shelter and sat huddled and dripping along with all the other tenants who heard the sirens. My cousin called me to tell me all was safe a little while later. We trekked back home. I had to change the kids pajamas because they were so wet fromt he rain. Fast forward a few weeks and again, a phone call, getting the kids out of bed and making a run for it to the shelter. This time though panic attack set in a little bit. These childrens lives were in my hands. I ran as fast as I could, poor George was a bit freaked out. Understandably so. We got to the shelter (which by the way may or may not have been safer than our trailer. It had huge heavy mailboxes, was only partially under the ground, and had lots of windows. Safe? I dont think so.). After waiting awhile someone said that they opened the basement to the house. So we ran over to the much safer shelter. A nice lady shared her blanket with us while we waited for an OK. It was pitch dark down there and all we could see was people opening their cell phones. Fast forward again about a week, I took my hubby to work this fateful day. 10:30 rolled around and it was time to pick my hunny up. It was raining really heavily and I saw rivers pouring through the street but had no way to let him know that I couldnt pick him up. So I was like "I can do this, I know how to drive in rain" all the while sending frantic prayers to my Father above. I got the kids buckled in and called my mom to tell her to pray and keep me calm. Those of you who dont live in the Midwest theres just no way to describe the rain during storms. Its incredible. When I pulled onto the freeway I couldnt see the line on either side of my van and had no way of knowing if I was going to drive off the road. I might as well have not had my windshield wipers on for all the good they were doing. I turned the radio on and heard the man saying to pull over immediately if you were driving. Umm, I cant see the side of the road to even think about pulling over. I kept driving because I didnt want to get hit by another vehicle. My hands were beginning to shake and I experienced panic that Ive never ever felt before. I kept running a horrible story through my head about a man and his family that I heard about several years ago. He, his wife, and five kids got caught in a flash flood and his whole entire family died that day. He said as they were getting swept away they were singing praise songs to Jesus. I just knew that was going to be me and my precious children. My mom was on the phone she could hear the crashing rain being dumped on the van. We kept creeping along. There was a gulch type thing and at the bottom there was rivers of water I hydroplaned through it and actually felt the van being tugged off the road. Lord keep us safe, Lord keep us safe, I kept crying out to God. Finally we got to the exit and the rain was subsiding some. My hands were shaking and my heart pounding in my ears. I pulled into the parking lot to wait for my husband and got into the passengers side, let him drive home! He came out and I tried to tell him the horribleness that we drove through to get there. When we got home my hubby turned the TV on and low and behold I drove through four possible tornado storms all coming to the same area... where I was driving. Man oh man. But this isnt the end of my tornado scares that year. A little while later we were in a dead sleep and I heard the tell tale heavy rain and all the sudden in the distance I heard those screaming, sirens. I shot out of bed and woke my sleeping husband and yelled "THE SIRENS ARE GOING OFF!! GET OUT OF BED, I'LL GET THE KIDS!" Full on panic going on there. I ran across the trailer got the kids out of bed, George started crying (it was getting to him too) and went to the door my sleepy husband met us there. He decided we should drive to the shelter. I snatched up my purse and frantically started rifling through it trying to find my keys all the while breathing like I was going through labor. "I cant find them, wheres the keys, ah, ah, oh man, where are they" more frantic searching. All the sudden my wonderfully calm husband was like "Ju! Calm down!" Which gave me a case of nervous giggles. We both looked up to see a huge branch of our tree ripped right off as if it was a blade of grass. OH MY GOODNESS! Finally theres the keys, we ran out to the van and made it to the shelter. We get to the shelter and see another young couple there with their little boy. He said that he was leaving for work and actually SAW the tornado at the end of the road! He said he turned around and went to get his family to safety. Or as safe as the "shelter" is. We waited it out and he got a call from a friend saying all was safe.
So if your ever with me and I get wild eyed and go into a full on panic attack because of heavy rain, this is why. To many dashes to safety by myself in a short period of time. I love storms, but theres a certain fierceness when it becomes not fun anymore. Thankfully now we live in a basement apartment so we dont have to worry this year. Unless Im driving that is.