An hour and a half later, the snow was still coming down!
Then Mike and Lissie posted a picture of their back yard. Apparently the snow fairy visited several states last night!
Of course, here in Texas, an April snow is just a fairy tale some people make up to trick small children into thinking it might snow after January. So I jokingly took a picture of my rose bush on my phone this morning to show everyone that Texas really does know how to do spring right!
Unfortunately, about an hour after I took that picture, it became very clear that Texas does NOT know how to do spring right! As I was driving back from the post office with Ian, I happened to tune into an announcement on the radio (it was turned down low) about tornadoes on the ground near the city where James works!!! Of course, that freaked me out and I immediately called James. He has to switch schools midday and I knew if he was between schools, he might not have heard the latest weather report. I didn't get a hold of him, but fortunately he texted me right away to let me know he was ducking and covering with his eighth graders. He even sent me a picture a little later! There were two nasty lines of storms that moved through, so they were stuck for almost two hours.
As soon as I pulled up at home, our sirens started going off! As I was making plans to take Ian into the bathroom with a mattress, I turned on the TV and pulled up the live radar on the screen. Ian had no clue what was going on and just wanted to play. So I told him he would have to play by himself for a while. I turned around to see that he had decided to duck and cover under the laundry.
Fortunately, we were far north enough to miss the tornados. However, since I didn't know if we would get massive hail, I cleared out space in the garage to park my car. It must have been adrenaline - the garage was a mess, but I had a big enough space cleared (thank goodness for a small car!) in a matter of minutes.We were very, very fortunate to have missed all of the nasty weather. We only got fifteen minutes of fairly light rain and then the storms moved pass. I was also very lucky to not have been at work or school today. Both places got pounded pretty hard (with the area by my work being far worse than the area by my school). I had to miss my much-needed nap because I couldn't afford to join Ian in a nap while the tornados were still close enough to be in striking distance, but that is extremely minor compared to what happened in the rest of the metroplex.
The damage done by these tornados was intense. Watching the news was horrifying. I know so many people in the metroplex and the damage is almost incomprehensible.
Here are a few pictures from today:
Funnel cloud on the ground about 20 minutes from James' school.
Funnel cloud in South Dallas area captured by News 8 live weather camera.
Tornado on the ground approaching the city where I work.
If you look closely (double click to make bigger), you can see two semis in the air!! These tornado were powerful monsters.
A tossed semi. They were all over the place.
This semi landed on top of a house! You can see the wood of the house has been smashed to smithereens.
I saw the story behind the car and this house on the news. The owners had actually trimmed the tops of the this large tree recently (all the leaves were blown off in the tornado), which is probably what kept it from being blown down. The fact that the tree remained in place probably stopped the car from being slammed into their house. This house is about five miles from where I work and apparently this neighborhood has basements in most of the houses. These people got very lucky more damage wasn't done.
These are their neighbors across the street. The twister hit them much harder.
Again, about five miles from where I work. These pictures are so hard for me to look at! Not only do I feel so bad for the people who came home (or up from the basement - a rarity in this part of Texas) to find this damage, but we are actually looking at maybe moving to this area this summer. It is much closer to James' work so he wouldn't have to fight traffic in his current hour long commute. It is closer to my work as well. And now a lot of the neighborhoods have so much damage. If we had moved at Christmas time, that could have been us!
Roofs (and whole second stories!) were torn off the tops of several houses.
Another picture from wfaa.com of the tornado headed towards my work.
Damage near my work. (Thankfully the building I work in and everyone there was safe!)
Huge hail reported in a town by where James' aunt lives. Can you see why I was so concerned about my car? The hail damage here can be extensive during spring storms.
Perhaps the most amazing story of the day happened in Forney. A tornado ripped through there, completely demolishing several houses. In one of those houses, a grandma was home with her 18 month old grandson and two other young children. She took them into the bathroom for shelter. Apparently the winds were so strong that they swept everything away and were trying to pull her 18 month old into the air. The grandma kept holding onto his feet and he survived with only a couple of scratches. It makes me tear up even thinking about it! You can see the full story here, including a shot of the house with literally on the bathtub standing: http://www.wfaa.com/news/weather/Grandmother-hangs-on-to-grandson-in-Forney-tornado-winds-146022335.html.
Funnel cloud in South Dallas area captured by News 8 live weather camera.
Tornado on the ground approaching the city where I work.
If you look closely (double click to make bigger), you can see two semis in the air!! These tornado were powerful monsters.
A tossed semi. They were all over the place.
This semi landed on top of a house! You can see the wood of the house has been smashed to smithereens.
I saw the story behind the car and this house on the news. The owners had actually trimmed the tops of the this large tree recently (all the leaves were blown off in the tornado), which is probably what kept it from being blown down. The fact that the tree remained in place probably stopped the car from being slammed into their house. This house is about five miles from where I work and apparently this neighborhood has basements in most of the houses. These people got very lucky more damage wasn't done.
These are their neighbors across the street. The twister hit them much harder.
Again, about five miles from where I work. These pictures are so hard for me to look at! Not only do I feel so bad for the people who came home (or up from the basement - a rarity in this part of Texas) to find this damage, but we are actually looking at maybe moving to this area this summer. It is much closer to James' work so he wouldn't have to fight traffic in his current hour long commute. It is closer to my work as well. And now a lot of the neighborhoods have so much damage. If we had moved at Christmas time, that could have been us!
Roofs (and whole second stories!) were torn off the tops of several houses.
Another picture from wfaa.com of the tornado headed towards my work.
Damage near my work. (Thankfully the building I work in and everyone there was safe!)
Huge hail reported in a town by where James' aunt lives. Can you see why I was so concerned about my car? The hail damage here can be extensive during spring storms.
Perhaps the most amazing story of the day happened in Forney. A tornado ripped through there, completely demolishing several houses. In one of those houses, a grandma was home with her 18 month old grandson and two other young children. She took them into the bathroom for shelter. Apparently the winds were so strong that they swept everything away and were trying to pull her 18 month old into the air. The grandma kept holding onto his feet and he survived with only a couple of scratches. It makes me tear up even thinking about it! You can see the full story here, including a shot of the house with literally on the bathtub standing: http://www.wfaa.com/news/weather/Grandmother-hangs-on-to-grandson-in-Forney-tornado-winds-146022335.html.We are so grateful to be okay. My heart just breaks for everyone who experienced such tragic loss today. I can't imagine coming home from work or school (or out of the safety of the bathroom) to find half of your house had blown away (or worse!). I know I will hug Ian and James a little tighter and linger a little longer in the days to come as the metroplex recovers.
Wow, I have been through several North Texas storms with tornados, but I have never seen anything like that in this area!! That is so scary. Glad you are all okay!!
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