YOUR SAFE SPOT!!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!!! – This is another “Sunday Story”; no politics here, just a story about what was “on TV” Thursday night.

Ritual

On Thursday nights Jenn and I have an “old” ritual.  Not that Jenn’s old (that only applies to me), but we do have a serious addiction:  Law and Order SVU (look, Jenn I didn’t say SUV!!).  After twenty-five years, the SVU cast has become part of our family.  And since it’s on almost every afternoon as well, we can catch up on all twenty-five years’ worth if we miss one.   So we settled in after dinner, to watch the entire current package, Law and Order, Law and Order SVU, and Law and Order – Organized Crime.  

But tonight our shows are pre-empted – a new show is on. It’s called “GET TO YOUR SAFE SPOT!!”  It’s March in Ohio in this era of climate change, and tornado season is here, a month or more early.  Our local station covers most of Central Ohio, and storms are moving in.  So it’s all WEATHER ALERT, all the time – at least for tonight.

Best Show On TV

We’ve got a couple of hours until our home in Pataskala gets into serious stuff, though the lightning is already flashing.  But, since there are tornadoes on the ground in the viewing area, the local station goes full time.  We are learning about tornado indices (who knew – a 5 or above means there’s a good chance a tornado is on the ground), severe hail (1 ½” sized – ping pong ball), and wind shears.

Just twenty miles north, Delaware is under the gun, and areas to the northwest have already been hammered.  We’ve can see the storm headed for us – a tornado down right now, near Greenville, Ohio.  That’s about 100 miles west of us and that storm cell is headed our way.    

Dave Says

It’s fascinating to watch.  The bright oranges and reds, the greens and purples, all light up the TV screen.  I’m not a hallucinogens user, but if I was this would be the show to see:  lines, flashing colors, lightning, wind shear grids, consuming all attention.  There’s even a new feature:  a new blue spot on the radar.  That signifies debris is in the air (remember that great line from the movie Twister, “debris, debris, cow!!!”).  It’s actually pretty cool, as long as you don’t think about what’s happening on the ground underneath all those “pretty colors”.

Dave’s the weatherman, and he talks directly to the audience.  It’s not just about the map.  Dave will look straight into the camera, straight at you, and say:  “If you live in Ostrander, you need to be in your ‘safe spot’ right now!!!”  And he must know more about me, and a lot of other watchers, then he should.  “Don’t go outside and look for it, it’s dark and you won’t see it until it’s too late.  Besides, 1 ½” sized hail can hurt, and break the windows in your house.  Safe Spot, now!!!”

We’ve Been There

The other part of watching the “Tornado Show” is reminiscing.  Over the past several years, Jenn has trapped dogs in lots of little towns and crossroads throughout the state.  I often go along as the driver/trap-hauler.  We know folks who helped us out in a lot of those places.

So when a tornado was on the ground, “West of Indian Lake and south of Waynesfield” we know where that is:  it’s New Hampshire, Ohio, a tiny crossroads where Jenn sat in near sub-zero weather waiting for two Pyrenees to go into a panel trap, just a few months ago (Rube Goldberg ).  That’s not much there, and after a tornado, I’m afraid there’s even less.  The nice man who let us use his land and shed to put up the trap – I hope he’s OK, and without much damage. (Actually, an F3 tornado did a lot of damage to the area, and killed three people).

The Greenville tornado is not far from another trapper/friend.  We’ve been to her house, exchanging equipment, often enough that I don’t even have to listen to “Siri” on the map application anymore to get there.

We may not be in the “tornado zone” yet.  But the lights are flashing, the hail’s pounding the roof and piling up on the deck, and the dogs are starting to look nervous.   It used to be that when night fell, the storms lost their power.  But tonight, and in the big dawn-thirty morning a couple of weeks ago, lack of the warming sun doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of difference. Climate change?  It definitely could be.  It’s March 14th, just before St. Patrick’s Day, and it’s sixty-seven degrees at 9:15pm.  It’s hot, the dogs are annoyed (especially Buddy, our old man), and there’s still energy in the atmosphere.

Our Spot

I’ve already written about our “safe spot”, the two bathrooms in the house (Singing in the Tornado).  Buddy may beat us all to the bathtub, but Atticus is going to be a problem.  He’s still recovering from his knee surgery, and the only way to keep him off his leg is drugs.  And he is drugged for the night – it will take some serious “treats” to get him up and moving again.  Let’s hope we can avoid — oops, there go the tornado sirens.  Lou’s, the crooner, is listening. I’m betting sings again!!

It takes until the second round of alerts – but now Lou and CeCe, our little one, are harmonizing together – “OOOWWW-UUUUUUH” – it’s the call of the wild.

The storm wore out before it got here – we got lots of rain, some wind, but nothing tornadic.  But it looks like we might be in for a bad tornado season:  Look out, 1974!!!

The Sunday Story Series

Author: Marty Dahlman

I'm Marty Dahlman. After forty years of teaching and coaching track and cross country, I've finally retired!!! I've also spent a lot of time in politics, working campaigns from local school elections to Presidential campaigns.