Memorable Storms

My last post got me to thinking about some of my most memorable storms, some that were spectacular, some that gave me a bit of fear, and some that had bad endings.

On a Trip

One of the first storms that I remember was a storm that occurred during a trip to Michigan to visit Grandpas. I don’t remember my exact age but it must have been between 6 and 9. We had a Suburban (long before SUVs were all the rage), and Kris & I were in our usual spot—the third seat. We had fallen asleep; Kris was on the seat and I was on the floor.

I think the thing that woke me up was Kris’s attempt to put a pair of sunglasses on my face. I’m not sure if she was trying to keep the lightning from waking me up or to keep me from being blinded from it if I did wake up, but nonetheless, I woke up with a pair of sunglasses on. It was a fierce storm, and it was raining so hard Mom could almost not see to drive. I remember feeling a small bit of fear in my heart. The vehicle was rocking from the wind, the lightning was so constant it was almost as if it was broad daylight when I think it was really evening or even night. But Mom drove on unflappably and I knew that as long as Mom was driving, we would probably be okay.

Tornados

The year I was in the fifth grade, we had a series of tornados that ripped thru the area. We go thru tornado-watch weather every year, but I think that year was a particularly bad one for tornados actually doing their thing. I don’t remember that much about the actual storms themselves, but I remember the aftermath. My teacher borrowed her parents van, and we all got into the van and went to town to view the storm damage. There was a lot of it, but the thing that has always stuck out in my mind was the 2x4 that had impaled a brick wall. I think I could almost take you to the very house that had been impaled.

The Plains of Texas

When I was 17, Dad, Martin, Alvin, and I drove out to California to go to the church furniture factory that Dad was working for. Alvin and I were his helpers at the time; I was the main driver (Alvin was too young to drive) and Alvin was his pew installation helper, which would explain why I got to go on that particular trip. We took I-40 all the way out. We had stopped for food or fuel somewhere in Texas. It was probably around 8 or 9 at night, and we were driving straight thru the night. As we were preparing to get back on the highway, a huge wind hit bringing lots of dust with it. We got back on the road and it seemed that the storm just grew in strength. We were driving a loaded dual-wheeled truck with a crew cab, but I remember the truck rocking from the force of the wind. I know there was incredible lightning to go with the wind but I don’t remember if it ever rained. The lightning seemed so stark because we were going thru a very deserted stretch of highway with little oncoming traffic and no streetlights in sight. It would go from being able to only see in the sphere of the headlights to complete daylight and being able to see for a very long distance. It was a magnificent storm.

That night also stands out in my mind because it was later that night that I had one of those defining moments in life. It was the wee hours of the morning and I was driving. Dad, Martin, and Alvin were all sleeping. We were still traveling thru the plains of Texas and the exits were few and far between. I was driving along when I noticed that my fuel gauge was hovering around the quarter tank mark. I made a mental note that it was time for fuel and switched tanks. I was horrified to see that Dad or Martin had run that tank down to less than an eighth of a tank. I switched back to the quarter tank and hoped for an exit quickly. I watched that tank dwindle down with no exit in sight. I switched tanks again, hoping that I had been mistaken about the amount of fuel left in that tank. I hadn’t been.

I finally saw an exit coming up and saw that it had one lonely gas station. I pulled off at the exit and into the gas station only to find that it was closed. (Oh, I forgot to mention that some sort of brake pump had gone out at some point during the night and it was all that I could do to get that truck stopped. I would literally stand on the brake with all my might to get small results. I learned to approach things slowly.) As I had gotten off the exit, the truck was beginning to sputter and had been doing some chugs even before I saw the exit. My nerves were shot!! I couldn’t handle the pressure of no fuel and bad brakes any longer. I had awakened Dad earlier as things were beginning to take a turn for the worse and he had told me to just make sure that we got off at the first exit and had gone back to sleep. Well, I’d had enough and woke Dad back up and told him that I was done—couldn’t take it anymore! We swapped places and he got back on the interstate to see if we could make it to the next exit.

I was envisioning sitting in the middle of a Texas desert until morning, which was several hours away. I desperately tried to sleep to take my mind off the situation. Nothing doing. He switched tanks back and forth trying to keep it on the tank with the most fumes. Somehow (I think God carried us there) we made it to the next exit. We got there and pulled up to the pump, only to find that it was only equipped with the big semi nozzles that wouldn’t fit into our small tank opening. We had to have fuel, so Dad put the nozzle up to the hole and tried to get as much in as he could. It ended up making a royal mess on the ground but there was nothing else that we could do. I made up my mind that night that I would never come that close to running out of gas if I could help it. The fuel light in my car rarely gets to show its colors, and on the rare occasion that it does come on, it doesn’t shine for long.

The Salt Flats of Utah

On the way back from California, we crossed the Salt Flats in Utah. The wind was blowing so badly that there were numerous tractor-trailers and RVs on their sides. We stopped at a rest area part way thru and walking against the wind was a real challenge. I rather enjoyed the feel of the wind. That same day, we saw a rainbow somewhere east of Utah.

The Hail Storm of 1998

The storm that has had the biggest impact on me personally was the hailstorm that occurred on April 16, 1998.

At that time, I was working for the Postal Service as a Data Conversion Operator (I typed for a living, as did Sara and Kris) in Bowling Green. It was the day after taxes had been filed, which made for a busier than usual day. I remember walking into work that day. The sky was fairly clear and the sun was shining. I don’t remember what time I was clocking in at the time, but it was probably sometime between 1:00 and 3:00. I clocked in and went to my desk, got my walkman out and put on an audio book or music, and started typing.

I don’t remember all of the times or exactly how everything transpired, but within an hour one of our supervisors made an announcement that there was a tornado-watch in effect and that we were all going to have to gather in the hall. There were probably 250 to 300 people working at the time. People got out of their seats, and everyone headed for the hall. There was, of course, a bottleneck at the double doors leading into the hall, which made things very slow.

Suddenly, our most unflappable supervisor came running from the break room at the other end of the hall thru the crowd hollering for everyone to move faster. He ran to the supervisor’s station and got on the microphone and started saying more of the same. Now, if he was in a state of near panic, everyone knew that it must be serious. It turns out that he had been in the break room watching the live coverage from the local TV station. They had a camera crew that was outside covering the storm live when suddenly the camera crew realized that the tornado was headed their way. I think they lost the camera feed but still had audio feed as the crew dove for cover (I’m sketchy on exactly what happened). When he saw the clouds they had been filming and their subsequent dive for cover, he knew it was more than just an idle warning, which put him into action.

We all crowded into the hall, bathrooms, and some people had to go into other doorways just off the hall. We were all just sitting there when suddenly here came Mr. Unflappable again and said, “Everyone, DOWN!” We were already almost all on the floor but the few standing people got down and we all just huddled there for a bit and then it hit. There was such a beating on the building (it was a metal building) that even though there were some hysterical women, we really couldn’t hear them because the hail on the building was so loud. At the time we didn’t have a clue what it was and I remember thinking that it sure wasn’t what I expected a tornado to sound like.

The awful racket continued for several minutes before it finally dissipated. After the supervisor’s were certain that the danger was past, they sent us back to our seats to sit in the dark. We had lost our power and only had emergency lighting. They wouldn’t let anyone out of the building for the time being. We sat there for at least an hour or so before they finally said we could go outside. We walked out into the drizzle and sadly beheld our cars. Almost every car on the lot looked like it could make itself at home in a junkyard. Windshields looked like they had been hit with baseball bats; side and back windows were busted out. The cars looked like someone had gone crazy with bats on them.

Kris, Sara, and I walked out together to survey our cars. My car still had its side windows but the windshield was smashed and the back window was holding on by tint only. There was glass everywhere and the rain left water standing in the car. Kris’s back window and driver’s side window were nothing but mere shards and her windshield was smashed. She found a piece of hail in her car that after an hour or so was still the size of a golf ball. According to reports, the hail had been the size of a baseball in that part of town. You could tell what part of town people had been in according to the size of the dents in their car; our side of town had the biggest hail. Sara’s back window was gone as well and the windshield was smashed but I think all of her side windows were still intact. All three car bodies had been pummeled.

Martin brought his big flatbed truck and a trailer with his Explorer on it and loaded all three cars up and took them home. We drove his Explorer home. For once, Bowling Green didn’t look like much more than a ghost town.

We had to take our cars to get them assessed at a large tobacco warehouse that had been set up with claims adjustors. The scene inside was unbelievable. Brand new vehicles from car lots were lined up inside this warehouse waiting for car haulers to come get them and haul them away to be crushed. They didn’t salvage anything! Not electronics, engines, tires, seats…nothing!! It made me so sick. I would have been willing to take one of those badly beaten vehicles and replace the glass and drive it. Brand new, I tell you!

Sara’s car had enough value that it was worth fixing completely, but Kris’s and mine ended up being totaled. We went to junkyards and got the parts necessary to make them drivable. Kris still drives that car. The Taurus that I was driving at the time (Mom and Dad’s) went to my brother when I purchased my own car. For several years, hail damaged cars were the norm. I still occasionally see a hail car (besides Kris’s), but not very often.

That storm left me feeling a little bit betrayed. I’d never really been affected by a storm before. At least I didn’t feel as if I’d been singled out by the storm because it affected thousands of people and many of them worse than me. I was glad that I didn’t live in Bowling Green. People had to wait for a long time to get their roofs fixed; at least it was only my car and nothing else. According to this article, the damage was estimated at $500 million.

Lightning Struck

Then there was the storm in 2002 that gave me a new respect for lightning.

Kris, Sara, and I were at some social function at one of the local churches. The evening was winding down, and we could see that a storm was approaching because of increasing wind and lightning. We decided to head for home and try to make it before the storm actually hit.

The wind and lightning really picked up on our drive home. I don’t remember much of the storm itself or even if it did rain or just blow over. I actually think it might have blown over. That is why we were so surprised to find out the following day that our house had been hit by lightning.

Our computers all had surge protectors on them, but what we didn’t think about protecting was the router on the network. It came in through the router and branched out. All three of our computers were hit in some way but they weren’t total losses. We had to replace parts here and there. The lightning fried Sara’s fax machine, my sewing machine, garage door openers, and the air conditioner. It seems like there may have been several other things but I’ve forgotten.

I still enjoy lightning, but I now prefer to enjoy it from a distance. I’m a true believer in surge protectors, but still don’t manage to always keep everything protected. I hope it never comes back to haunt me.