Wind should not sound like a freight train

But last night, it did. When the wind sounds like a freight train. then a tornado is nearby. Needless to say, it was quite scary.....

It was around 6:45, and Erica and I were upstairs practicing violin. A small band of rain mixed with hail fell and then the sirens went off. I think this was the first time I have heard the sirens. When we lived in Indiana, the sirens would go off whenever there was a severe thunderstorm watch. Those sirens went off quite frequently. I think the sirens are used differently here - they are used to warn people of a tornado watch and mean - "go and seek storm shelter".

Because I had been conditioned to "ignore" the storm sirens, I really didn't think much of last night's wailing. Plus, the wind was still at that time and it didn't look "funny" outside. About 5 minutes later, the winds picked up. Still, not a big deal. But then I heard the wailing of a freight train. After I quickly glance outside (and there were no big trucks driving around the neighborhood), I decided that it was time to head down to the basement. I grabbed Erica and said "We need to go to the basement - now". As we headed down the stairs, amidst her inquiries of "Mommy, what's wrong? Why do we need to go to the basement?", the power went out.

Scott and Brian were watching an episode of the "Muppet Show" on DVD and were completely oblivious to the whole situation outside, but we all made it down in the dark.

The wailing wind subsided, and we all went to bed early. Our power was restored around 2am Monday morning.

And big surprise - school was cancelled today. I drove the kids to their after school daycare, and I quickly realized that I would have to stay home with them today. The east side of town was still without power, and several blocks of the major roads were closed off due to several big power poles being downed by the storm.

Fortunately, our house did not sustain any (apparent) damage. One of the houses down the block had half of the shingles on their roof torn away, exposing the Roof-wrap plastic. Several housees in the area are missing shingles. So I guess we should be very grateful.

More storms are due this Thursday.....hopefully, they won't impose their wrath on us here.

Adding the link to the local newspaper article on the storm.