Twister!

OMG, OMG – I can’t believe it!. Dad just woke me up to say there was a tornado forming down the road in the direction of Twister Diner! Have tried to ring Dom to see if him and his mom are okay, but the lines are down and my mobile isn’t working. Dad reminded me they’ve got a state of the art storm shelter and told me they’ll be fine. I’m just praying he’s right.

Anyway, right now I’m in our shelter with Dad, and writing this blog entry on my laptop… To be honest the real reason is I’m doing this is I’m trying to keep myself distracted. Between you and me, I’ve never been so scared in all my life! Once the internet is back online, I’ll post this…if we survive the night – which right now I’m not so sure about. It sounds like all hell is breaking loose outside! 

Okay, deep breaths, Jules, think happy thoughts…  Mustang, that will do. Finally finished the rocker cover and presented it to Dom earlier today. You should’ve seen his face. He looked like a kid at Christmas. Great to make his day like that, and even better to see that great smile of his come back. That’s been missing for too long.

That didn’t work for long – the rain is now pelting down so hard, I can’t think about anything else. It sounds like someone is trying to smash up the roof of our shelter with a hammer. But trying to think positive, at least it’s rain – you can bet a few farmers are probably dancing in their fields right now. Please, let this be the end of the drought.

Dad is arranging buckets around the shelter at the moment. Water seems to be getting in everywhere. If the storm doesn’t let up soon, this place is going to be resembling a swimming pool— Jeez, something in the yard just crashed over. Even if the twister itself doesn’t directly hit us, you can bet it’s going to take days to clean up all the mess outside. I go cold knowing what a twister can do – smashing up houses like they are made out of matchwood. And if a person gets caught up by one… *Shivers* 

I know you’re not here, can’t experience this like I can, but I want to try and capture what it’s like to be here right now. There’s a really damp, earthy smell in the air and listening to the howling wind and the storm siren in the distance, is raising the hairs on my neck. It’s hard not to imagine it as a living creature, something alive that’s angry and tearing everything that it can… Okay, I’ve just had an awesome idea – I’m going to record the storm so you can at least hear what I can:

I told you! Scary or what! Hang on, the wind is starting to die down – the twister is running out of steam! Yep, Dad, thinks so too…

…Okay, another five minutes and it’s gone real quiet out there. Dad’s cracking the hatch open. I’ll report back in a moment…

…We’re back in the house! The sky is clear again and that’s really odd. I know tornadoes can disappear quickly, but the storm clouds that go with them don’t just vanish like that. If it wasn’t for everything scattered all across our yard and the ground still being soaked, I wouldn’t be able to quite believe a tornado had almost hit us. Strange, really strange.

Dad’s just come into my room pointing out it’s 2am and I need to sleep. He’s also promised that we’ll head over Twister Diner first thing in the morning. If there’s any damage to the diner, I’ll do all I can to help them fix it up. Know Dad will too.

So I guess for now this is your storm-chasing reporter, Jules Eastwood, signing off. Take care, everyone.