Sunday, August 23, 2009

Wacky Weather

Friday, August 21st started like any other August 21st, course it was my mothers and nieces birthday, AND one of Madames classmates birthday, later that day she was to attend a party for her. I hope all had a good day, it only happens once a year!
Madame and I transplanted many plants on this day, there were a few I had that needed bigger pots and a few I just received through the mail, ordered more than 2 weeks ago, boy! We were excited. Needless to say, as we were innocently transplanting and before we knew it something was amiss in the weather. Madame and I traveled from the back porch to the kitchen several times before we noticed....Sophia, the street smart stray, was acting weird. She was going in and out at a frantic pace, even jumping up on the deck to find the door closed, jump down and jump back up. Small thunder in the distance, maybe that was bothering her. Soon enough, while waiting too drop Madame off at her party, the outside became very darkened, almost as if it were night. A little rain came, but not bad.
Come time to leave we knew we had to dash to the truck but once we were outside we found it we still humid and NOT raining. Hump!
No sooner had I turned on the truck on....the emergency broadcast tone was sounding. "Is this real?" Madame asked, "No" However it seems to be toning longer than usual....
"This is a emergency broadcast system, beeepp...."
"There is a emergency tornado warning for my county, my town, and western Maine. Beeeepp"
"The emergency tornado warning is from 3:52pm to 4:15 pm, with a tornado watch in effect until 7:00 pm. Beeepp."
I notice the rain pick up and feel it's about 3:50 pm. Okayyy.....
"The tornado warning is 12 miles from (neighboring town) and traveling east, this is indicated by Doppler....."
"The tornado may or may not be on the ground, in the event you have a tornado, take immediate shelter......."
"This means, if you have a basement, place yourself on the western wall, sit with a blanket covering your head....''
''If you are traveling, do not take shelter under a highway......''
''If you are in a mobile home, evacuate immediately...... cover within a nearest ditch, if no ditch is around, take shelter under the strongest entry way of any shelter....." Would he add, hug and kiss your loved ones? Wow...I have never heard a emergency broadcast before, I told Madame we may be staying and to make the short run to the front door.

By this time I had backed my truck up to the front steps, it was raining in sheets and lightening every few seconds, Madame began to cry. I do admit, I jumped while unlocking the door, the thunder sounded and sounded LOUD. We phoned Dad, he was another town away and had not a lick of rain. He calmed Madame by reminding her he was from down south and witness a tornado come across his front yard.
Our trees bent over and looked pretty scary, the rain felt as if it was going sideways and within seconds all our windows has free standing water on the sills.

Madame noticed a waterfall on the stone steps at the back door, poor Tartarus, he was beside himself...never leaving my side and panting so badly I though he would have heat stroke.

Soon, most of the bad wind and lightening was over, here is what my driveway looked like just after 45 minutes.



The other half of the photos clearly shows the flooding to my front door and still lighting and thunder was sounding overhead.



It is suspected two tornado's set down in my area, highly unusual for Maine. This house was lifted and turned, it's in a abutting town to us.

And this is a photo sent to news channel 13 from a cell phone. Looks like a funnel cloud to me! It was in the next county over by this time. It hit my area fast, a lot of people felt unexpected.

I can say that I've heard a emergency broadcast now! Never before had I, unreal. C&G Design

9 comments:

Kathleen said...

OMG Dawn.....How awful. I, too, have never heard an emergency broadcast before.....and I am always saying, "At least we don't have tornadoes in Maine". Guess I won't be saying that anymore. The photo of your doorway, looks like a pier on a lake. Great funnel cloud pic. Poor Tatarus, and Madame. You have a great story to tell, now. Hugs, Kathleen

tina said...

Very unusual for Maine for sure. Quite common down here though. You did a great job describing it.

Birgit said...

That must have been so scary for all of you. I'm so glad you're all okay. The skies were black, weren't they? We got high winds but no tornado's, thankfully. It was an eery night for sure!
I'm so glad you're all right!
Hugs~ Birgit

Jean Merriman said...

Wow Dawn!! They said on the new last night that the weather station in Gray had confirmed it was a tornado. When I hear that I thought OMG I was there 24 hours earlier.

Whoever took the cel phone picture did a great job.

I guess you don't remember the 3 weeks we spent in Arkansas on vacation back when you were in school. You should. Out of the 3 weeks we probably had 15 tornadoe warnings and we would pack up and go over to Wilma's in laws as they had a basement versus being in a mobile home. We even saw one while driving over there one night. Down there, back then, tv stopped all programing and there was just talk about the warnings and spotters telling where they were. Funny about the rain as when were lived thru them down there, it would get dark but a very eerie calm would decend all over. Have I jogged your memory?

Protector of Vintage said...

So sorry to hear about the scary weather. Unfortunately, here in Minnesota, the sirens alert us to bad weather/tornado sightings several times throughout the summer...never a pleasant experience.

Lola said...

OMG Dawn, I'm so glad that you all are ok. Storms are never pleasant. We are in Tornado season at present. Yesterday coming back from Jacksonville we encountered a very hard rain with thunder & lightening. It rained so hard so fast the streets were flooding & made for difficult driving at times. No, I was not driving, Young'un was.
Today sunny & in the 80's.
Again, I'm so thankful that your all are ok.

CC said...

OMG.... how awful for you. I know you were scared out of your wits.
I live in Texas in what is commonly known as tornado alley..I know that fear you felt. I'm so proud you are all safe.

Debbie said...

Hi Dawn...Oh my God I didn't realize those tornadoes were in your area! I saw the same damaged homes and properties you did on Channel 13 but NEVER thought of your area!! Thank GOD you are all ok! My dog Obie gets exactly the same way as TarTar does...the heavy panting and if he could, he would crawl into my brain! We were not effected here at all by it. I can't believe how much water your yard took on! Kathleen said it best, your photo of your doorway looks like a pier on a lake! Wow! How about your garden? Any damage? If that was any closer it would have wiped that clean....thank you God it was not. Poor Madame...she will not soon forget this storm. That was so neat that hubby comforted her by phone.:) I am glad you are all ok and I feel bad for the folks who got hit so hard. We are painting today....well hubby is...he wants to do it himself, and is doing a fabulous job. We chose Benjamin Moore's Harbour Town....a nice sage color...beautiful and soothing like nature. We are taking photos...can't wait to post about it all!

Skeeter said...

Am glad all is fine and I dont care to hear an emergency broadcast thank you.... Yikes...