Tornado--The Morning After

Three days ago, I was interrupted from my routine by a screeching warning signal overlapping my son's cartoons. I basically tuned it out because they are always doing that darn "testing of the emergency broadcast system." Finally when it didn't subside, my son rebelled. "Fix it, Mom! Change the channel!" followed until I finally, with great irritation, stopped what I was doing. Across the screen of the television loomed the tornado warning that I thought must've been a mistake--the sun was shining outside. Just to double check, I opened the back door and looked in both directions. One way, a slightly overcast day, but clearly nothing to worry about. But glancing the other way, I beheld a menacing black cloud coming closer with every second. The four-year old, clearly smart beyond his years, yelled, "We have to get the dogs on their leashes, and go down to the basement before the tomato comes!!!" (I love how he calls it a tomato.) We descended, heard things rattle upstairs a little bit, and eventually came back up. Our home came out pretty much unscathed, but those around me weren't so lucky. We lost cable, internet, and electricity for a little while, but it wasn't until the next day when I was trying to drive around did I discover the damage around my community and realized just how fortunate we really were.