I was warm, cuddled up underneath my fluffy comforter at 8:30 this morning, dreaming and completely oblivious to my surroundings when a shrill siren interrupted my REM.
Confused and wondering why the tornado sirens were going off so early in the morning (especially since it was 40 degrees out) I opened the blinds to an overcast and non-threatening sky. Stumbling into the living room, I turned on the TV and sure enough, we were under a tornado warning.
A few miles west of us in Lawrence, KS (home of the KU Jayhawks) a tornado had ripped through the KU campus and was heading our way. I woke Chris up and called my friend Crystal who lives a couple miles away to see if we could hide out in her basement (we’re on the top floor of an apartment building on a hill, full of windows). She says sure, we hop in the car (still in my pajamas and black hoodie) and drive about three blocks before we realize we’re not going to make it. The sky in front of us turned an ominous shade of black and the winds began picking up. Semis began pulling off the freeway in front of us. So…we look around and decide to head into a small church (pajamas and all) on the corner next to us.
I’m happy to report that the people at the church were completely friendly as we all hung out in the foyer watching the storm go by. If we weren’t moving in a couple of weeks, I’d like to say we’d go back and visit them in more favorable circumstances. To the people at Shawnee Park Christian Church, we say thanks.
We go back home and a few calm hours pass. Chris goes to band rehearsal and about half an hour later, the sirens are going off again. I call Chris, and we decide to go to his parents’ house in Missouri, so I load up the cats (and my laptop, of course) and begin driving to the church to pick him up. With two miles to go, the same black clouds, wind and hail start pounding my car. Ignoring the 55mph signs and even a red light, I fly down Shawnee Mission Parkway at 85mph (passing a cop I must proudly add – I DARED him to pull me over) and get to the cafe/bank building where Chris and I met and there is a basement. My friend Jess Chapman was working at the cafe, and she let us in to take cover as her dad called and updated us on what the storms were doing. After the sirens going off several times over the next half hour and the baseball sized hail passes over, we decide to try to make it to his parents’ house again. We swing by the grocery store when Crystal calls and asks where we’re at, as another funnel cloud has dropped over K7 (about 1/2 mile from where we were at the time.) We decide to keep going, since his parents live the opposite direction and make it to their house in one piece about 20 minutes later.
We hang out with them, enjoy Taco Salad and watching the storm coverage from a safe place. Eventually the storms made it to where they live but not nearly as bad as they were earlier. It hailed up to golf-ball size and we ran out in their yard to grab a few. We watched I-Robot and let the remaining storms pass and here I am, back in Shawnee, watching the lightning flash from miles and miles away.
Here are some pictures of the storm I took from a local TV station’s website. Crystal will have some photos of the baseball sized hail that hit Shawnee (where we live) tomorrow, and I’ll link them here.
GOOD NIGHT!
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i saved your life.
Oh man I hate tornadoes! Glad you were all safe. Did you take your cats into the cafe?
We did :) They were closed though. One was in a carrier and the other we just held!
I think that may have been a little affirmation for you and Chris that you made the right decision to go to TX and the rest of those poor people were just innocent bystanders. giggle.
We might get lots rain, pretty crap summers but not tornadoes or hurricanes, maybe Scottish weather ain’t that bad after all!
We had hail the other day (more like big, firmish/soft snowflakes), which I found quite exciting, but I’ve never seen the likes of your hail! That could knock a person out!
We don’t have class here at the university today. Rotten considering everything that’s happened, but a disguised blessing for me because I had a midterm tonight!
Reading this, I actually began cheering you on at the point where you passed the cop speeding. Go girl, GO. :)
I have some pics of the hail at my house about 3 miles from Westside if you want to post them, they did not tourn out as sharp, I just grabbed the camera and snapped the pics.
Sounds like some rather horrendous stuff! Glad you all are okay!
pansies. j/k i was scared too, but the KU texas championship game was on and there was no way my dad or i could miss it. even for a tornado.
are there tornadoes in tehas?
i will miss you too anne!
and that was some monster sized hail. what a crazy day!! mine wasn’t quite that hectic…but it did start…uh well lets just say never call emily in a panicked tone and say theres a tornado coming and to wake laura up. she freaks out.
looking back…it was quite funny! but i still have no idea why my dad called HER instead of my cell.
oh well! hope you’re having a great day! :)
i’ve lived in ohio, missouri (a couple of hours south of st. louis), tennessee, and colorado. with the exception of maybe the years in colorado (about 3 years total), it seems like i’ve always lived somewhere that was a little tornado-prone. and i’m pretty tornado-phobic. i love spring, but hate those severe spring storms. i’m feeling your pain…
i hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there ARE definitely tornadoes in TX! but, hopefully you’ll never come as close to one here as you did last weekend ….
OH goodness…glad you’re okay! In the 2 1/2 years I lived in KC we didn’t have any tornadoes like that. Plenty in Wichita though growing up. I guess now I’ll have to worry about effects from hurricanes…ugh…
congrats on texas by the way!! Sorry, I’m a little slow…
Hey, Annie, surely you can’t forget Circleback. And don’t forget the time a tornado followed me driving home from school in Arlington. Yes, we do get tornados, but not as many as in Kansas. Can’t forget “The Wizard of Oz”. I’m not sure about Rockwall and Sachse. Even Mansfield has had a tornado come through. See you in a few weeks.