Oklahoma, Where the Wind Comes Whipping Down the Plain

We got up to the lake without battling too much Friday traffic. After having something to eat, I settled down to catch up on all the online stuff, and to watch the Yankees-Red Sox game. Now after losing four straight games to the nearly last place Mets, I was hoping for a little redemption by kicking some Boston ass.

Not much later I began to see the tweets coming out of the Midwest. Tornado warnings, flash flood warnings, and much of it was centered over Oklahoma, more specifically, not too far from Moore, site of the mass devastation less than two weeks ago. More and more, the tweets took on an ominous feel. I turned off the game and put on The Weather Channel. Word was coming across that one of their vans, with the crew inside, was picked up by one of the three tornadoes currently on the ground, and was thrown 200 yards into a field. The distance was later revised to 200 feet, but does it really make a difference? When they showed the van, I thought it had been a car... that's how flattened the roof had become.

The crew all survived, battered and bruised, but alive. A mother and child trapped in their car, were not as fortunate. As of this morning, there are five dead, and after watching the footage of the tornado clouds forming, and hearing the reports from the stormchasers, I can't believe the count is not higher Some areas received 11 inches of rain creating flash flooding.

Why Oklahoma has been chosen as the official poster child of this year's tornado season, is not something to which any of us have an answer. And while the rest of us will go through this first day of June enjoying a weekend full of enjoyment, so many people in the Midwest will be trying to pick up their lives.

As many of you know, I write a couple of columns a week over at sprocketink,com. It's a site where we take the news of the day and give it a sarcastic, snarky spin. After the Moore tornado, one of the founders of the site wrote about it. However it wasn't sarcastic, it wasn't snarky. What it was, was a first-hand account of someone living 25 miles away from Moore. It's very worth your time to take a read.

It's called Crutches and read it here: http://sprocketink.com/crutches/

Now spend a minute or two of your day holding some good thoughts for a lot of good people who seem to be caught on nature's Merry-Go-Round, and be thankful you're not riding on it too..

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Watching the Sky

As I begin to write this blog, the wind is picking up and the next round of the storm is getting closer. We are in a tornado watch, something which doesn't occur in northeast Jersey very often.

There is a certain fascination with severe weather. Now, I'm not talking storm chaser crazy, just the excitement that builds as the forecast begins to include your area. Take hail for example. When we see these TV reports showing hail the size of golf balls, a normal first reaction is "cool."  And it is, unless it's in your neighborhood and that hail is putting golf ball size dents into the hood of your brand new car.

Or hurricane strength winds. Wow, is the general reaction while watching them tear off roofs and pull up billboards. NOOOOO, is the reaction when the wind has just lobbed a street sign through your living room window.

Yes, there is something romantic about being inside your cozy home and watching the weather unfold outdoors. Trees swaying in the wind, thunder, lightning, pouring rain...all totally enjoyable until the power goes out. While if you had chosen to sit in the dark and enjoy the show of Mother Nature, there is a whole different feel when the electric goes out and it is no longer your choice.

No lights, no TV, no internet...nothing. Just you and your loved ones. Then it starts to kick in...what the hell do we do now. Suddenly it is not romantic. Suddenly the room is closing in and you are bored to tears. All enjoyment of the storm has been replaced with wondering just how long we will have to endure this torture.

Right now the storm is about an hour away, it should be here just around sundown. Perfect timing for a power outage.

Wow, isn't it just beautiful outside?
Now where are the flashlights...

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