Some randomness....
Just watched the Healing the Heartland concert and got teared up multiple times. My state is hurting, but also thankfully healing, with help from generous volunteers and donations. It's devastating to see the current state of Moore, OK but also inspiring to hear the heroic and heartwarming stories that have emerged. Moore isn't on national news on a regular basis anymore, but it's on our local news...and on our hearts and minds.
One thing I've read people ask from other areas of the country is why kids were even in school with such a severe weather threat. Those people obviously aren't from around here...and it kind of maddens me a little bit. If we pulled students from school on days there "might" be a tornado, there would be no school held the entirety of April or May in Oklahoma. People say 16 minutes isn't enough warning time. As a native Oklahoman, I can tell you that 16 minutes is an eternity in the land of tornados. It's a hell of a lot more time than those poor people in Joplin had only a few years ago. It's the difference between life and death. Tornadoes can form from a regular spring thunderstorm, touch down, and wipe out an entire neighborhood in a matter of minutes. They're unpredictable and choose their own path of destruction. Sure, they can predict what looks like the makings of a potential tornado...but if they run the sirens for every "might" end up being a tornado, it's a little like crying wolf. And people quit paying attention. I've been one of them, so I can say that's accurate.
As an Oklahoma native, I can't tell you how many times the sirens awaken us with threats of possible devastation. Thank God for those sirens. But, just to give you an idea just how frequently we experience them, friends and I used to play drinking games to the weather reports in college...(wall cloud= one drink, "rotation"= two drinks...and so on...haha). I mean, this is no laughing matter, but I'm just saying...we're no strangers to bad weather. We know the difference between a watch and a warning, a wall cloud and a funnel cloud, flood sirens and tornado sirens, and the safest areas in our homes....or wherever else we could get in a matter of 30 seconds, 5 minutes, or whatever level of warning we have. (Yes, those locations are different for Eric and me. More warning time= safer location). We know that it's supposed to get insanely quiet before it hits. We know that once it does, it allegedly sounds like a freight train. But, most of us have never really been in a beast of a storm like that. We're ready...well...if you can ever really be "ready"...if that moment ever happens...but thankfully...most of those storms pass, leaving behind only a sleep-deprived Okie complaining about the overnight sirens.
That was a rant, but just saying...my heart continues to go out to my fellow Oklahomans (including the displaced animals) just down the highway from me...
So hey.... how about I climb up from the depth I just accidentally went to and mention my Memorial Day weekend... It was stellar, friends!
From pool time to my friend's son's birthday to a visit from Ashley to quality time with Eric, I can't complain one bit. Made it even harder to head back to work on Tuesday...
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| Jenny, Sarah, Ashley, me (obviously) |
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| Are you in Tulsa? B/c if so, you need to order the (off the menu) ginger roll at In the Raw. Hellllo amazing. And yeah, those are fried pieces of goodness on top of it. Ashley always laughs at the fried rolls we have in Tulsa compared to her current home in LA. Reasons Oklahoma is overweight....haha... |
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| Hiking Turkey Mountain with this guy! |
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| I didn't even try this... haha... |
7 comments:
I'm not from OK, I live in Georgia and we don't experience tornados as frequently as y'all do, but I completely agree with you. It's so much easier for people to stand on the outside and tell you what you should have done or what you shouldn't have done. Plain and simple, they haven't lived it, they don't know the "lifestyle" of tornado alley (if you wanna call it a lifestyle...), and they won't until they experience it.
Ok, I'm getting on my own soapbox now ! :) Have a great day!!
Praying for your entire state. That's for the thoughts from a true local. As a California girl I can tell you about earthquakes, but don't know the first thing about tornadoes.
We don't have tornadoes in KY as much as ya'll do, but often times schools and the like are the safe place to go to. So your soapbox was not lost on me! :)
I grew up in New Orleans and now live in Houston, and we are the same way about hurricanes. People just don't get it unless they live in one of the danger areas. And the people that do live there tend to become so lax about it until the "big one" hits.
I'm glad you are OK! Those sirens are so scary but i'm glad that they've given the warnings. Stay safe!
The ginger roll is my FAVORITE! it's so good.
I'm an Okie transplanted to Florida. We don't even have sirens here....and if you don't have a weather radio, you are SOL for bad weather in the middle of the night. 16 minutes is a good amount of time to get to shelter! My aunt and cousin survived the Moore F5 in May '99 in their tub with less notice. I loved your soapbox!
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