Something Wicked This Way Came

I am not a big fan of storms, in fact I hate them, totally afraid of them.  When they hit in the night I am even more disturbed by them.  Lately we’ve had a few good ones brew but as is typical for where we are located they either go north, south or split and move around us.  I am not sure if this is related to the river valley but I have no major complaints as most of the really bad ones packing tornadoes have missed us with a few notable exceptions (1974 tornadoes).

Last night we weren’t as fortunate as in the past as a severe storm was headed our way.  The weather radio went off several times for severe thunderstorm warnings, including one right before crawling in to bed.  I could tell this one was going to be bad by the way the cats were reacting.  Noel was searching for a place to hide, and Pixel was freaking out on my bed, not able to decide if she wanted to be against me, under the covers, or up on the pillows.  Animals seem to sense things and instinctively know what they should do so I just let her work out what she wanted to do and eventually she snuggled up against my head but jumped with each flash of lightening and crack of thunder.

Just about the time I was drifting off the weather radio sounded yet again.  This time it was a tornado warning for us.  I won’t mess around with those so I picked up the kitten, who was frozen in terror from the weather radio tones and left my room to inform mom we might want to move down to the lowest level for a bit.  My sister and niece heard me and went that way too.  We called Sarah at the ice cream store, she was working, to let her know and then all of us sat in her room, in the basement, and watched the weather on TV.  Though the doppler radar was indicating a tornado I don’t know if one was ever confirmed, just that where we live was showing rotation and moving east.  I received a text from my daughter, she was terrified too.  Thankfully she was at her boyfriend’s for the night with her dog, having been afraid to ride out the storms alone with her dad at the firehouse for the night.

Jennifer Renee / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

This morning we had no damage to speak  of, just leaves and twig debris scattered around the yard.  The only real damage report I heard, other than several thousand houses without power, was one of the icons of Cincinnati, Touch Down Jesus/Big Butter Jesus, was struck by lightening and burned to the ground.  The church it sat in front of sustained some damage as well. This statue has been joked about and even has a song written and sung about it by Haywood Banks, and is now the big story this morning on all of the local news stations .  R.I.P. big butter Jesus, now reduced to an oil slick in the pond.

The severe weather is a risk again tonight.  I am thinking being in bed very early I might get a little sleep before it gets wild again.  Oh the joy….