Anyone else hit by the thunderstorms/tornado warnings Thurs?

I hope anyone here who was in the middle of this weather last night is OK and can check in soon. We had one death here in Guilford County and 3 injuries. The poor person was in a small truck. There were 3 tractor trailers flipped and downed power lines and trees. They just showed a neighborhood in Clemmons where there are at least 5-10 unliveable homes. One lady and her 2 sons hid under a staircase and the house collapsed around them. They crawled out through a space about a foot high.





I made the mistake of turning on the TV around 10:30 last night and I get CNN type coverage of the storm from the weather ghouls on WFMY news. They covered the weather for about 6 hours straight.

I brought in a few things but frankly the threat of tornado warnings freaked me out a bit. I've lived here awhile and just don't recall a tornado warning. Then the guy says the cell is headed and settling over my side of town and then even mentions my street name! Aughhhhh! I took cover in the downstairs 1/2 bath under the stairs for about 20 minutes. I had Rabbit with me (my rabbit) and of course the kitty Velvet was hiding and I was pretty upset I couldn't wrangler her into a carrier.

Anyhow, thankfully, even though there were reported tornados and at least on report of a touchdown all we got here was lightning, thunder, machine gun like pelting rain and the dreaded hail. My patio flooded with water about 3-4 inches deep because my patio is the low spot in the back.


This is just nothing stuff in the grand scheme of things but I lost 4 tops from some Triumpator lily seedlings and my phlox David is shredded. A lot of soil from my containers is layered all over the patio, I guess the rain splashed it out. I removed some of the wet tissue paper iris flowers and staked a few of the more battered ones.

Anyhow, I hope everyone is OK and checks in with someone when you can! =)

weird....feeling pretty lucky today.

We had several houses not far from here totally destroyed by tornadoes, not tree damage even. Our road is closed to anyone other than residents so trees can be cleared.

I was up until about 3 and it rained hard for a bit, maybe an inch or so, but nothing major at all. Everything's fine this morning. ahem...someone in the house had to use checking on the shed and yard after the storm as an excuse to come home early though....lol

Glad to hear you are OK. I was up till about 5 am just from nerves trying to get settled:) Hey, any excuse to get off early is a good one;) I've been watching some of the local news coverage and can't believe the damage.

They were saying that there might be another storm cell similiar to that one passing through again on Sunday. Really hope not though.

Wow, sorry to hear you guys were in the middle of that last night. It passed my area just to the west of us. We didn't even get much rain from that system last night.... just a few small showers. I had to go out & water everything today.

We had a tornado warning a few weeks ago and my nerves are always on edge when that happens. We live in a mobile home, to boot, so that makes me & my Mom very nervous when the watches & warnings come. And I worry about my critters, too - I know we can grab the dogs, but not the cats.

Those cats are sneaky fast buggers:LOL:
I'll tell you strange things were going through my mind since I am never prepared for these kinds of events. I was in the bathroom clutching Rabbit wondering where my birth certificate was...I did manage to grab the cell phone, charger, purse and tax forms:LOL:

I guess I should get some sort of security box set up and it definitely reminded me I need to buy renters insurance!

Oh, thanks - I never thought of the documents before. :(( Already have insurance, so that's ok, but didn't think of the other things.

It's a good idea to have a safe deposit box at a bank with your important documents. You would be surprised how hard it can be to prove who you are.

I live close to the ocean so I even took a video tape of the inside of my house with furniture etc just in case it ends up out in the ocean. Tape is in the safe deposit box along with my passport and bank account numbers. That's enough to get going again and speed up insurance? Not so sure about that last item.

I found out the hard way about proving who you are to a small extent when I tried to renew my drivers license after Sept 11. Before all I had done was bring in my old license, take the tests and pay. When I went the next time, after Sept 11, the DMV had a new requirement. You had to have your full middle name spelled out on the license. OK, so I tell them my middle name. No, not good enough. I have to bring in something addressed to me, preferrably an official document with my entire middle name spelled out on it! I've never used my middle name on anything. Even my original social security card has my initial on it. I had to send off for my birth certificate from Virginia so I could have it to get my license renewed.

When I thought the wait in the DMV line couldn't get any longer then I had to wait for the mail:LOL:

Definitely getting my act together after this. Very good tips from everyone.

WOW! I drove by the damage today, I knew it was close but it really was right down the road, not 2 miles even. Tornado damage is not something I've really seen before, it was wild to see the way it skipped around. It looked like it happened to be in and around one of the newer cluster neighborhoods, so there was a lot of damage with so many houses close together. I'll try and get some pictures because I'm sure it will take awhile to clean up

2 miles to a tornado is nothing so you really got off lucky:) Thank God!

I just saw the reports from the ones further West that happened last night. Total devastation where they hit. One county had 13 confirmed fatalities.

I thought it was funny that one of the local newscasters mentioned one of the areas with tornado damage was in a newer subdivision, that they were newer homes and well put together. How would he know? I've watched new construction go up ridiculously fast and just because a home is new doesn't mean it's well built. I'd much rather be in a 100 yr old well maintained home than new construction in the event of a disaster. I don't think there will be as many of the new homes around in 100 yrs.:LOL:

dmac
I second that opinion.