In The Wee Hours Of The Morning.....

....I WOKE UP WITH AN EERIE FEELING as strong gusts of wind whoosed through my half-open windows and evil-sounding thunder clapped in the distance. As the wind got worse and thunder louder, I lay shivering in my nightgown wondering What would I do if I suddenly heard the roar of a tornado and had only minutes to act? Would I go get neighbor Martha as I fled? Take refuge in my car? Head down the hill to the creek culvert that goes under the big 4-lane highway nearby? Sleep with my clothes on nights where nasty weather is predicted, like again tonight, for fast escape?

I live on the second floor of a two-story 4-unit condo building where I normally feel extremely safe. My second floor location allows me to keep my windows and French doors to the deck open whenever I like; I simply don't worry about break-ins. Not that they couldn't happen, it's just that strategically it's much less likely. I'm also on higher ground here, such that the historic flooding that overwhelmed Nashville last year and came all around, mercifully, didn't come close to our building.

See this and this.

I actually felt guilty that flooding came so close yet we were so unscathed while thousands of others were devastated.

Anyway, I must have fallen back to sleep as I reviewed possible escape routes in my mind. But this morning seeing the news of the horrendous devastation in Joplin, Missouri last night, I can only pray for mercy and compassion for its people and families and know that only by the Grace of God go any of us.

As next-door neighbor Martha left for work this morning, I met her outside on the steps and said, Martha we really need to get a tornado plan so let's think about it and talk some more.

She agreed but said she didn't like the culvert idea....for obvious reasons if the creek is high....the culvert would be underwater. Still, it the water going through the culvert is not high, it would still be my first---get low as possible---choice. We're going to tour this possibility later today and size up our alternatives---including prayer and knowing, when you're time is up, it's up. Still we God gave us brains to make preparations for the worst in the eventuality it happens.