June 5, 2008 3:53 PM
Real Life in Loudoun - tangling with tornados
I am still sick so not much energy to post. Jonny's IEP/transition to Loudoun Valley High was yesterday and I had to pull myself together for that since it involved 10 people's schedules and postponing might mean waiting another six weeks for the empty spaces on our calendars to coincide.
Other than that, I've put everything on hold as I try to battle this strep/bug/whatever which is trying its best to defeat me.
But sometimes life just won't cooperate.
Take yesterday afternoon and some weather surprises that turned things upside down for a while. It was 2:40 and Daniel was due home on the bus. The sky had turned the deepest threatening gray and so I got in the van to drive to the end of the driveway so Daniel wouldn't have to walk the short distance in what seemed certain to be a major downpour.
Jonny had come home with me from the IEP and as I started the van, he waved at me from the garage. I told him to get in with me. Later I was SO glad for this.
It started to rain as we got to the end of the driveway, and the bus was coming towards our house, but it always goes past and turns in the cul de sac a little further on before looping back to drop Daniel off.
Suddenly we were in the midst of a swirling swooping torrent of sheets of water going in every direction. The van was rocking - actually feeling like the wheels were about to leave the ground on one side and then the other.
I was feeling a lot like Dorothy, expecting to see a witch come riding by on a broom or something. I told Jonny to put on his seat belt and I started saying Hail Marys like crazy. I actually was glad to have something specific to say since words were failing me. I truly did not know what was going to happen next - whether we would be lifted off the ground and thrown somewhere. Would our seat belts hold us? Was I ready to leave this life? I've only been this scared once during an earthquake in San Francisco.
I could see nothing out of the windows, but knew the bus must have stopped at the cul de sac, trapped in the heaviest, most unrelenting rain I've ever seen. Thunder and lightning and pelting, oh my! I think Jonny was originally delighted - like being on a roller coaster. But when he saw me praying, he grew more concerned and prayed along with me.
I turned on the radio and heard nothing but static, then at 92.5 FM tornado warnings for Loudoun County. Wow. So this is what it's like.
After ten minutes the rain let up enough to see and the bus pulled back up the street, but we both sat with our doors closed for another ten minutes because of the thunder and lightning. Since we lived in northern California, my kids knew nothing about lightning when we moved here, but we all know now how dangerous it can be as it has struck houses and trees where we live and occasionally kills someone during a storm. I wasn't getting out of my car at that point.
When I finally did make a dash to retrieve Daniel, I found his bus driver and assistant completely shaken. Apparently they had left the school right before a decision to keep all the kids in western Loudoun in their schools an extra hour - where my older kids later told me, they had to hunker down in the hallways for tornado drills while the most emotionally fragile girls wailed out of worry for younger siblings.
But our adventure wasn't over. Arriving back at the house, Daniel and Jonny and I found the front door - which had been locked - had been blown wide open and rain had shot through horizontally all the way into the kitchen. Our table - 20 feet from the front door - was wet and there was 1/2 inch of water on the foyer tile floor. Additionally many pictures had tumbled down and leaves and debris had been blown in. There was water dripping from the walls as high as 7 feet up.
In the laundry room, where there had been an open window, the rain had shot through the laundry room and all the way down the hall - about 15 feet. Drops hung from the wall there too. And every piece of clothing in clothesbaskets, on hangers, and in stacks on the folding shelf were sopping wet.
All that from a 2 by 3 foot window.
Outside, a huge barn door had been torn off our barn and our trampoline had been picked up, mashed into what looked like a modern and irrational sculpture and the mangled mess deposited a few hundred yards up a slope in back of our house.
In the meantime, a few feet away a glass sat on a table full of water but undisturbed. It sure looked like a tornado had touched down right in our backyard.
We had no power, of course. Actually the power went out before we even had a drop of rain. Expecting a seige, I got the ice cream out for the kids to eat and checked the candle/flashlight/lantern supply. But when you're on a well, no power means no water - so we're talking about something more serious dinner by candlelight. We're talking toilets not flushing and no showers.
Ay yi yi.
Thank God for cell phones. I called Tripp - an hour away at Tyson's Corner, the sky was just closing in and I could hear huge claps of thunder and nervous giggle shrieks from the women he works with. Then I called NOVEC - our electric company.
I have to say they've got a weird sense of humor. After you click for English and reporting a problem, the automated response picks up the number you're calling from and then says it doesn't recognize that as being a service address. Well, duh. If you're reporting apower outage at your address then nowadays that means your phone isn't working.
So you put in your phone number and then the robovoice tells you "Thank you. We will call you when service is restored."
Say what?
Why in the world would I want them to call me when service was restored? And sure enough, this morning at 1:30 AM we were awakened by the NOVEC robovoice to tell us that our service had been restored. Of course, that was half an hour after we were awakened by the actual restoral of the service at which time every single light in every room blazed forth and every appliance spun into action as our kids had evidently not been content to believe the power was off but had turned on every switch in the house to test it.
But being woken by surprise twice last night was not enough. At 5:30 AM the phone rang to greet us with the cheerful voice of Wayde Byard of Loudoun County Public Schools to say, "Due to a power outage, your child's school is closed today."
You gotta love Loudoun Schools! I have been amused the past couple months as they implemented their new automated phone system and we would get five calls from five different principals concerning a global Loudoun issue like a snow day or the school census or something.
But maybe it was too early for Mr. Byard to realize that his message was just a little ambiguous. He didn't say Loudoun County public schools were closed, but "your child's school" - maybe he was just trying to personalize it? But what if it wasn't all schools? With six kids in five schools, how could I figure out what was closed and what wasn't?
So 530 AM at the computer. Yes, our power is back, but our Internet server is down because it is housed in Waterford Village, which is not the most stable place, power-wise.
I spend the next hour trying to set up a dial-up AOL account and learn that only one of my kids' schools is closed.
I spend the rest of the day rewashing all the clothes which got wet and sat overnight in the heat and humidity because the washer and dryer were down.
I have just put the last load in, the kids are home from school, and I think I will drag myself back to the urgent care place to see if they will have mercy and give me a stronger antibiotic.
I've gotta get well. On Saturday I am supposed to chaperone a bus trip of 8th and 9th graders - including Jonny and Maddy - to Hershey Park. I did this last year and had fun - although my fun consists of sitting under a shady tree and reading all day while groups of kids check in with me about where they'll be and when they'll check in again.
I must confess I'm not a roller coaster enthusiast. In fact, I'm scared to death of most everything that moves in an amusement park and have screamed until they let me off after two rounds the three times I've tried to ride a ferris wheel.
I guess I've just never really gotten the big attraction with scary rides. Real Life is about all I can handle.
Posted in Loudoun County, My life | Permalink
Comments
Whew! I'm glad I live in Houston -- we almost never get tornadoes.
Posted by: Michelle Potter | June 5, 2008 8:08 PM
praying that you are better soon. . .
Posted by: Kathy | June 6, 2008 12:08 AM
What a horrifying tale -- thank God (and Mary) you're all fine! We get warnings here in Alabama quite frequently, but the closest tornado experience I've ever had was driving from Culpeper into Warrenton to find huge branches all over US 29, and a couple of trampolines that look just like the one in your picture. My friend and I couldn't stop staring in befuddled amazement; the way we'd come up, it hadn't even been raining.
Having kids spread among five city schools also, I love the superintendent's call about "your child's school"! Here, each principal records the auto call, so as long as I can keep the principals straight, I don't have to wonder to which kid(s) the message pertains.
Posted by: Kalynne Pudner | June 6, 2008 2:14 AM
Oh my goodness! I'm so glad and thankful you are all okay! Hope you feel better soon.
Posted by: Angela | June 6, 2008 11:17 AM
I know how scary it can be during a tornado or even 100+ mph straightline winds. I've had two experiences with tornadoes that I really would prefer to never have to live again but living in North Texas I am fairly certain I'll have to deal with it again many times.
The first time I had picked my husband (this was before we were married) from class at the university and we were driving home in the pitch black away from the tornado (Arlington, TX). Driving down a 3 lane divided street I couldn't see the lines even with headlights the hail was so thick and the outside lanes had very high water in them.
The second time I think was more frightening for me because it was after George was born. A couple of months ago we woke up at 4 am to the power going out (we have UPS's upstairs that beep loudly when the power goes out) and then heard the wind outside..sounded like a freight train. I ran upstairs (through a very cluttered apartment, amazing I didn't trip and break my neck) in complete darkness, snatched George up from his crib and ran back downstairs to hide in the bathroom.
Our apartment (and amazingly our cars) was just fine except for some roof damage, but the large tree outside our kitchen window barely missed the building as it snapped below the ground and came crashing down.
Now when I know it's going to storm at night I make sure the baby's put to sleep in the bassinet in our room instead of upstairs in the nursery. That way I can actually get to sleep.
Posted by: Courageous Grace | June 6, 2008 11:29 AM
Barbara, Wow! Amazing story! Our Blessed Mother surely looked after her children in those moments. God truly does look out for us, doesn't He? I hope you feel better soon! Julie c.m.
Posted by: Julie c.m. | June 6, 2008 12:58 PM
Crumbs!how did I miss that post? How dramatic and scary.Thank God you were all kept safe.
Posted by: Clare | June 6, 2008 7:11 PM
I miss the severe thunderstorms that part of the world is privvy to. We just don't get them in this area, and they just seem like summer to me. I remember seeing tornadoes rip through Bowie, MD back in the summer of 1994--my last summer spent in that part of the world. And I also remember back in 2002(?) when my 1st mother in law's neighborhood in LaPlata, MD was ravaged by an extremely severe tornado. Houses across the street from her disappeared, a father and his children were critically injured, the Safeway lost its roof (where our cousin was working!!!) and had to be rebuilt.
We were back east last August to visit for a few days. No tornado sirens that visit. But my previous visit east (May 2004--my grandmother's funeral) I was alone in LaPlata when the tornado sirens went off. I was so afraid.
The phone calls from the schools...we love them here! With one of the snowiest winters in over 30 years, this system alerted us at work even when school districts were closing early. Unfortunately, for the receptionist, she often received 15-20 of these calls because our employees are scattered over so many school districts.
Glad to hear that everyone, everything (except the trampoline---may it rest in peace) survived.
Posted by: Ceci | June 8, 2008 1:15 PM
Wow!
I'm with you on the roller coaster rides. I also humiliated my INFP self with uncontrolled screaming the two times I was on. Never again.
Posted by: Julana | June 13, 2008 9:28 AM
