Put Your Head Between Your Knees and...

The recent tornado that sent us running for our closets has been classified as an EF-5, with 210mph winds. It is the highest possible rating there is. It was 3/4 of a mile wide, contained four vortexes, and traveled nearly 75 miles. Nine people died and many, many homes were destroyed. It has been named the Binger-Guthrie Tornado. If it hadn't receded back into the clouds about seven miles from here, Stillwater would have been leveled. Fortunately, before receding, it began to head north while a smaller tornado headed south. My son's dentist lost the entire top floor of his house to the smaller one...



I've been told that a century ago some Indian chiefs prayed a no-tornado blessing over what is now Stillwater, and that's why our sirens seldom go off. Nearly all inclement weather seems to go around us. Storms come toward us, part a few miles west of us, then re-merge a few miles east. It's crazy, but I'm damned glad those Pawnees loved this area so much. I'm also glad I didn't know how bad the monster was when I was sitting it out with my family. If that thing had come through here, I wouldn't be writing about it today. Unless you're in an underground storm cellar during an EF-5, you're not going to come out of it alive. But everything turned out fine for us. Other people were not so fortunate. A young mother lost two of her three children.

May isn't a great month around these parts, and we're done for this year. Well, except for Fall, but hopefully, it will be uneventful. Hopefully, We'll go back to the way it was before.

And now Massachusetts has been hit by a twister. Massachusetts? Is there any place on Earth that's natural disaster free? I may have to research this...