It Could Have Least Sounded Like a Train - Indy Tornado Update

 

I was about a mile from the crash pad, finishing my day early when my cell phone started squawking at me.  I looked down and saw this. I'd been in meetings or away from the internet most of the day and hadn't checked the weather. But we've been having thunderstorms across the Midwest both at the Crash Pad and at home for the last week and none were serious, just noisy.

Living in the Midwest you sort of get used to the weather  When I first moved to the Midwest from the West Coast where I'd been based as a pilot, I'd never seen a tornado, only hearing that when they are bearing down on you, they sound like a freight train. One night home alone, I saw the portent of danger in a tornado warning on TV. Alone, and not sure of what county was which, having been in the area only days, I felt fear. I felt more than that when I heard, through the sound of the howling wind and thunder, the sound of a train. I took cover in the bathtub  with a twin mattress pulled off the guest bed, the family dog preferring to be sucked up like a giant fur ball in a vacuum cleaner than leave his warm spot by the fire, refusing to budge.  It passed, and unharmed I called my neighbor who couldn't stop laughing. For what I'd heard was not a tornado, as there wasn't one, just a good storm. It was the train that ran through the 20 acres behind my new home every night a little after 10.

But The "Extreme Alert" is something I've never seen before and I've been a Hoosier almost 10 years.  Ahead of me it was just grey, in the rearview mirror, ugly. Really ugly.  Crash Pad was closer to ugly than clear, but Abby was there all alone.  

I broke a couple local speed laws and got inside my garage as the rain hit and she and I shared a biscuit (mine was shaped like a cold beer) in the closet in the center of my little home.  I left the garage door open, likely to get a lot of wet inside but that way my neighbor the cop would know I was home if there was damage and would check on me.

We didn't hear much really but normal storm sounds, but came out when sounds of rain and sirens faded away.  I called Roberta X to make sure she was OK, and she was, though Random Numbers the Cat didn't like the basement much.

A big tree on the corner is split in half but other than that, no damage at my place, but there were several homes destroyed in the area.

Apparently, THIS is what was following me home and touched down about a quarter mile from the Crash Pad.

 Picture from the local news, and I totally recognized the building.

I got a call that there were no deaths, or serious injury, but a lot of property damage and many homes uninhabitable.   This one was in my little burb, the RV picked up from a neighbor's and dropped through a roof.

So tonight, while you're safe inside your home with your loved ones, say a prayer for those folks here in the Indy area that had homes lost or damaged. And also, remember beer isn't the best idea for a small closet with a wiggly dog that is afraid of thunder as I ended up wearing it. 

She is all happy, and I am all hoppy.

But we're safe.

I barked and scared it away.  I should get another biscuit.