Tornadoes in Chicago?
Last night, a line of really intense storms blew through the Chicagoland area. When the tornado sirens went off, I didn’t really pay attention. They are pretty common in the suburbs. Then I remembered that they don’t go off in the city. It just doesn’t happen. I turned on the radio for some information. On the very first music break, the dj said that a tornado was spotted a couple of neighborhoods over and was coming straight for my area. Again, [cue Doctor Who] “What? What?”
It turns out the report was false, but I only knew that later. Last night, I went into a couple minutes of frenzied activity—running around shutting everything off, closing the blinds, trying my cell (all circuits busy), grabbing my rain jacket and the dog. The dog paused at the threshold of the outside door. “Are you nuts?” he asked.
But I coaxed him out and tried to lead him around the building to the below ground level room for which we were running. The rain was blinding and the wind was disorienting. Somehow he pulled the other way, and I lost the leash. Luckily he whimpered so I knew where he was because finding that black dog in the craziness would not have been fun.
Finally, drenched, we both made it to the safe room. The news reports were pretty dire, but everything was blowing over us fairly quickly. Just when things were setting down, the power went out.
Today, I’m still without power so don’t worry if you don’t hear from me regularly. Phew! That was an interesting night.
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