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An Angry Sky

Mom and I had a bit of adventure last night. First we walked down to get the mail, and I noticed how pretty the sky was. We walked back to the house, I grabbed my camera, then we walked back down the driveway.

Meanwhile, a cloud moved over the sun so I lost my dramatic lighting. I snapped a few anyway. I could hear distant thunder, but didn't really think much of it. Until the sirens in town went off. Oops. Now it might be for the fire department, or it might be a weather warning. I hustled Mom back to the house and turned on the TV. Tornado warning. Nothing confirmed on the ground, just radar indicated possible rotation. It rained, but nothing dramatic came of it. We had our supper, and I kept an eye on the sky. This was the sky after the rain stopped. Ok, not terribly bad. It looked to be to the north, and that is where the new tornado warning was for. There was also a warning, with a confirmed tornado on the ground, to the south. Yay we were the filling in a tornado sandwich! About fifteen minutes later, I went outside and saw this. I can only describe that as angry. It was still to the north, and I thought it was moving east, but as I snapped a few photos, I realized it was heading my way too. EEEEK!

The storm tracker still said it was several miles north of me, but I wasn't taking any chances. I grabbed Mom and headed to the basement.

This has been one of my worst fears since Mom moved in with me. How do I get Mom to the basement in the case of a tornado. My basement is downright scary looking. The steps are not easy to navigate. There is a mystery pipe channeling rain water from the outside into the basement, and the rain runs down one of the dirt walls and creates mud at the bottom of the steps. The steps go through an old cistern, and it is here that I thought I would put Mom if worse came to worse. Now, to get her there.

With her in front of me, I opened the door to the basement, and encouraged her forward. She took one look, cried no!, and held on to the door jamb. I pried her hands away, held them, and sort of pushed her forward. She slowly started going down the steps, me holding on to her waist and trying to hurry her along. I could hear the wind picking up. Finally, we're at the bottom of the steps, standing in a 1/2 inch of mud. Most of the rest of the basement has about an inch of standing water from the rain we had just had. I wade through and get the pump going. We stayed in the basement about ten minutes.

I found out later that the rotation/suspected tornado was within a few miles of us. I'm glad I forced her into the basement, even though she was not happy with me.

Posted by Annie at 6:41 AM 
I'm so glad you are safe!
And, now you know that you CAN get your Mom to the basement if you must.

Is that a hawk up in the clouds? You've captured a bird / hawk in two of your images, it seems to me. Nature's drama is sure awesome.

I hope you have peaceful skies today!

~Amanda (gr8aunt)

June 18, 2009 at 7:54 AM Cursing Mama said...

That must have been really frightening! Would it help if you had some pallets with plywood on top to have her stand/sit on?

June 18, 2009 at 8:44 AM Eyes to See said...

That last picture does look scary! Glad you shared it! Glad you didn't get hurt trying not to get hurt!

June 18, 2009 at 9:32 AM colleenmc said...

Just dealing with the tornado is bad enough, dealing with absolutely having to have fast compliance with mom compounds it. Gosh, I'm glad it all worked out well. BTW the pictures are so vivid, really good, thank you.

June 18, 2009 at 10:00 AM 
What an amazing photo! I'm glad everything ended well.

June 18, 2009 at 1:00 PM 
Don't it just tear you to pieces trying to get them to do what they don't want to do? It sure does me and I end up feeling like I'm just a big ole bully.
(((HUGS))for what you had to go thru yesterday. You did good, honey.

June 18, 2009 at 1:02 PM 
Whew! I thought about you two last night with the storms, especially after I heard about where they were headed. I'm glad you are both safe. I too worried about storms and bad weather and how I would get Mom to a safe place since she couldn't navigate the stairs to our lower level. We went to an interior room.

June 18, 2009 at 2:49 PM 

June 18, 2009 at 10:51 PM R.G.Sell said...

Good work on being vigilant (about the storms) and getting your mom to safety!

June 19, 2009 at 10:07 AM 
I was recently journaling some of my mom's memories and learned that her greatest fear is thunderstorms. So I was relieved that there wasn't too much storm!

Oh--and my mom doesn't live with me....but my basement sounds like it's the same as yours...I read your post and imagined me trying to get my mom down there....YIKES!!!

I'm glad you're ok.

June 20, 2009 at 12:50 AM Forget-Me-Not And Bleeding-Heart said...

She must trust you so very much to have gone down in that cellar. Thankfully, you escaped what could have been a disastrous situation. Good for you.

June 20, 2009 at 2:03 PM 
You do see the most dramatic skies from your vantage point. And you take wonderful photos too. Glad you are both ok.

June 21, 2009 at 9:11 PM 
I'm glad you managed to get both of you in the basement. Perhaps something reminded her of going into basements in an emergency.

That sky does look impressive.

June 22, 2009 at 12:42 AM