Scarey storms & Sirens

We had two scarey incidents during the time we lived in our trailer. One was the trailer in 1981 which happened on March 2nd. I'll never forget that day. It was a beautiful sunny, very windy, and warm day. It hit 70 degrees which was considered unusual for that time of the season. But as the day progressed , storm watches & warnings came around. Heidi had Greggy Rouse staying all nite. Amy was asleep in her bed. Heidi and Greggie were playing Barbie, and Billy was sleeping in his crib.

I don't think Heidi & Greggie were even aware of the weather. Not me. Around the time I had decided to put my jamys on, I started hearing this noise. It sounded sort of like a train but not the train vibrations I was used to. I started thinking it sounded like what probably was how the first trains called locomotives would sound like. I remembered hearing people say that's what tornadoes sounded like.

I rushed to the living room to see if I could see anything even though it was dark. I saw our big ole tractor tire rolling across the yard. So I rushed & got Heidi & Greggie to Billy's room with me. I don't know where my thinking was. Trailer's are not safe but then the idea of running outside & where to was not security to me. It didn't last but a few minutes but a lot of damage was done.

The next morning was sunny, bitterly cold, and more windy than ever. We had an apple tree in front of the house. I remember what all day the roots of that tree coming to surface several times. That was scarey watching the force of the wind blowing this tree to angles repeatedly. The day after that was a blizzard.

Our awning over the porch was blown off. portions of the wood fence was damaged, our block storage building was cracked enough for the need of replacement, and the attached carport was blown apart. Let alone surrounding damage on neighbor's property like the garage that was setting on the fence next to the girls' bedroom and one of Alice's big palm trees had been blown down. She was blessed with to damage due to the tree falling.

The next storm happened when Aunt Lori & Marsha were staying all nite. Grandma was probably in Montezuma. It was another sunny, windy spring day. Watches were out again. I had emergency provisions set up to grab this time & sitting in the back corner hallway ready to grab & run. My plan was to go to the block bldg (guess this was before the tornado incident). We were sitting at the table playing games in the kitchen. Had the radio on. Heidi was sittin in the wooden high chair. Billy wasn't here yet.

All of a sudden the storm warning sirens went off, I jumped up & started hollering instructions to everyone on what to grab & where to go. So we all scrambled but as I went to go out the door I happened to glance in the kitchen for a double check & there was Heidi still sitting in the high chair with big eyes & fear/confusion in her eyes. Poor Heidi , mom forgot to tell someone to grab her. So I grabbed her and ran to the storage bldg.

Amy, Marsha, & Lori were under a mattress. I didn't think Me & Heidi would fit so I found a cubby hole and climbed under the most cushioned sleeping bag we had. Poor Heidi was really scared & sure didn't want to be there in that dark/hot bag. She started crying then. All I could do was try to comfort her for the few minutes we were there while the sirens were on.

No storm came; we were safe and were all able to laugh about how we all scrambled & handled the whole thing. I think Heidi wouldn't sit in the high chair for the rest of the day.