Updated: Bad Weather Ahead

Click on photo for larger image ...
the red dot, with the red arrow pointing to it, is Alton.

I'll be back to make my regular blog post.

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Update: 9:30-ish

City of Alton's Tornado Siren
just went off ...
seek shelter.

Will continue to update as circumstances/time permits.

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Update: Monday, May 23 - 3:45 am

First of all,
I want to let everyone know
that when I made the first post
around 6:45 about the bad weather
heading our way,
I did NOT know Joplin had been hit so hard.

In fact,
I did not know Joplin had been hit at all.

Nani and I had been working outside most of the day
and, as always, I use my cell phone as my camera.

Ever so often, I have to stop what I am doing,
and send the pictures to my email ...
because my phone can only hold so much before its full.

I began sending a couple of pics around 4:00 ...
pics I took early this morning of the seedlings and the sunrise.

Normally, I can send one picture a minute.

Around 5:30, and I have the emails to show this,
the delivery of my messages were real slow.
 
I had to re-send several times because the delivery would fail.

It took FOREVER to send one picture.

I completely lost all service around 5:45.

(click on image to enlarge ... then backspace so you won't lose your spot on the blog)

(I just found out the tornado hit Joplin around 5:30.) 

Around 6:30 I came inside, and got online to check our local weather
... and that is when I saw bad weather was heading our way
 ... and that is when I made my initial post here.

I still didn't realize how bad ... or I wouldn't have left the girls at home,
to walk to the grocery store.

(I bought lighter fluid, to start another fire tomorrow in the drainage ditch,
and some more watermelon and squash seeds ... and some soda.) 

At the grocery store, all I heard was people talking about
how bad the storm was.

No one knew about Joplin yet, or if they did,
I didn't hear any talk of it ... and I was listening.

I heard a lot of talk about hunkering down, and people wanting to hurry home.

I got home about 8:30, and put Nani in the bathtub, and started supper.

At about 9:00,  the neighbors rushed over to tell me just how bad it was
... and told me they would have called, but they hadn't had cell phone service
the past few hours.

Really?
Me either .... weird.

About 9:15 the tornado sirens went off.

Neighbor ran back over, and told us that was just the warning siren
... but start getting ready to go.

If the siren went off again, they would take us to the shelter.

We all put on sweatpants, sweatshirts, and kicked off our flip-flops
 ... and put on tennis shoes.

Laura packed a small bag.
Nani packed a bag of coloring books, and her Spiderman mask.

I put my Bible in Nani's bag, and put on my contacts
... so I could see ...
didn't want my glasses flying off my face
if it got as ugly as it sounded like it could.

We were ready to go.

I went to shut off the computer, and looked at the radar again ...
made the "update" post here, and a couple of posts on Facebook.

The wind began picking up, pretty bad actually,
and we gathered on the front porch
... to run if/when the neighbors honked.

The girls were scared.

I gathered them into my arms, and then stepped back and held their hands.

And said a simple prayer.

You can read what I said, below, in the comments
I brought over from Facebook.

The neighbors never honked ... the sirens never went off again ...
and the winds died down, and the rain softly fell.

We stood there, amazed, and watched the occasional light show.

After about 30 minutes? I don't know how long ...
I booted the computer back up, and looked at the radar.

The storm, literally, passed over us ...
there was "orange, red, dark red, purple" radar colors
all around us, but Alton remained in the green.

Here were the five snapshots I was able to send to my email
before the storm shut down my phone.

(It's still down, by the way.)

This morning's sunrise.

And, a sweet corn seedling ... with a drop of morning dew.

All is well at Mama's ... pray for Joplin, and keep them in your thoughts.

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