A Rude Awakening

UPDATE: 6:00 PM Saturday. Two confirmed tornadoes touched down last night just miles from us. If you want to see some pictures go here or here. I guess we were, once again, really lucky. Last August we missed the horrible flood by one block.

I have RLS (Restless Leg Syndrome) and some nights I just know it's going to be a bad night so I take a Tylenol PM before I go to bed. Last night was one of those nights. Little did I know that it wouldn't be because of the RLS.

I went to bed about 12:45 and I had just drifted off when I was awakened to a sound I couldn't quite place-probably because I had never heard it before at this time of night. After a few seconds, it dawned on me that it was the local tornado siren. I jumped out of bed and turned on TV immediately. Two channels out of Toledo had their top weather men giving their up to date, Doppler, and whatever else weather reports. It didn't look good. We were under a Tornado Warning until 1:30. So, I ran in and woke Mr. Snowbird, then tried to wake Bill who lives with us. I found he wasn't in his room but was sound (and I do mean sound) asleep on the couch downstairs. Well, I couldn't wake him, so I dashed in and turned on the TV in the family room. Robert Shiels from Channel 11 is saying that some homes in Putnam County, just to our west, had been damaged and emergency vehicles were on their way there. He said that the storm was heading to Findlay and to take cover!! By this time, Bill was up and Mr. Snowbird had gone back to bed! (Storms don't tend to scare him a whole lot!!) Oh well. Anyway, I gather up a radio, flashlight and cell phone and opened the basement door. I sat on the chair just feet away from the door watching TV. I looked outside and it was barely raining with hardly any breeze. From the accounts on TV, it looked like the storm was going north of us and headed to Arcadia and Fostoria. Finally, Robert said that Findlay was all clear. Just as I was about to turn the TV off, they put the warning back up for Hancock. I'm thinking, "Oh great, here we go again." But trusty Robert said that it was for NE Hancock County which is north and past us. So, I decided to go to bed. Just as I laid down, the sirens went off again. I figured this was for the warning that had just gone up. So, I allowed the Tylenol PM to do it's job and went right to sleep.

This morning, there was nothing in the paper, obviously, since it had "gone to bed" before the storms. But the update on The Courier website said that 8 homes and one business in Glandorf, just west of us, were damaged or destroyed and several homes near Arcadia, just northeast of us were destroyed.

When I was teaching, it always seemed like every school around us would get a "snow day" and we would be open for business. We used to joke about there being a dome over Findlay which prevented us from getting bad weather. Well, it looks like the dome worked again last night. Thanks goodness!