May 16, 2008 02:29 pm
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When I was little, I was scared of tornadoes. Really scared. Really, really scared.
Every time the tornado sirens were sounded, I thought that meant that the whole city was sure to be destroyed.
I can remember at least two occasions when my mom woke up my brother and me and made us sleep on a mattress in the basement while she kept an eye on the TV.
I’m a light sleeper anyway, but there was no way I was getting any sleep under those conditions.
Tornadoes were a little less scary during the day, but only a little. It didn’t help that you could measure how much darker the sky got.
Everything changed, though, after I saw the movie “Twister.”
You would think that seeing a movie about bunches of tornadoes wreaking havoc on characters you were supposed to care about would just further my phobia, but it didn’t.
For some reason, that movie helped me get over my fear of tornadoes.
Maybe it was the fact that the main characters were in the tornado and still survived, or the fact that it showed how random a tornado can be, for the most part not taking out entire towns.
Either way, it eased my fears, and made it possible for me to hear the tornado sirens and the horrible blaring of the emergency alert on the TV or radio without immediately feeling like I was going to lose my lunch.
On Saturday, May 10, I was working outside all day. At around 11:30, it got a little dark and poured for about 10 minutes. Then, as quickly as it had started, it was gone.
For the rest of the day, it was gorgeous out. Nice temperature, nice sun, not a drop of moisture to be seen.
When I got home, I was planning on doing a few things outside, but just as I started, raindrops began to drip down. At first, it was nothing, but then it was enough to force me inside.
Before I could even make it in the door, the tornado sirens started up.
It sort of worried me that the sirens were on when the weather didn’t seem that bad.
I turned on the TV, and before long, the rain was pounding down and bringing hail with it.
The hail at my house was about the size of a half dollar. I have never seen hail so big, but it was small compared with what other people were getting.
When the rain and hail wouldn’t let up, I decided that the time had come for formulating a plan that would keep me safe. I moved a chair into the pantry, brought a pillow to protect me from the potential hazard of falling cans of food, and turned the TV way up so I could hear it. I would close the door if things got really bad.
When the rain let up, I figured it was safe to remove myself from the shelter of the pantry. It was about then that the ambulances started roaring by, first one way, then back the other.
Then the helicopters started going back and forth, and I knew that people were in trouble.
Last Saturday’s tornado was the worst storm I can personally remember, and what I saw was just a tiny fraction of what the people of Picher and Newton County experienced.
These people are in my thoughts, but I know that they will move forward, because people in this area are strong and resilient and have lived through this before.
We will pick up the strewn pieces and rebuild as best we can. We will help our neighbors who are left with little or nothing, who must start over.
And we will hope that we never have to do it again.
Address correspondence to Anne Kettenbrink, c/o The Joplin Globe, P.O. Box 7, Joplin, MO 64802, or via e-mail, akettenbrink@joplinglobe.com.
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