June 26, 2012

• Therapy Blog

  Yesterday was an intense day. I wrote a lighthearted blog about the concert goers from the night before because I was avoiding thinking about my afternoon.

  We had some really bad weather – an enormous, freak storm that came out of nowhere and wreaked havoc all over our city. It sure felt like a tornado, but I’m hearing it was a “super cell.” The photos of the storm clouds are scary, whatever you call it. But not as scary as it was being in it.

  I had to pick up our son from camp at a college campus about 15 minutes from home. Our daughter and I had just gotten back from our overnight trip, and she didn’t want to come with me to pick up her sweaty, sporty brother. I knew that thunderstorms were predicted, and we discussed it. She said she’s not scared of storms (true) and after a brief check of the radar (pretty clear – storms were far west of us and the worst of it was predicted to hit much later and far east of us) and a quick text to let her dad know she’d be home alone (his office is less than 2 miles away), I told her she could stay home.

  Our son was walking off the playing fields with his teammates when I arrived about 25 minutes early. The coaches had heard thunder, so they were encouraging parents to take their kids home early. I was happy to oblige so we could get home quickly. But that’s when things got ugly. I got a little turned around on the campus, and struggled to find my way to an exit gate. The wind was picking up and debris was starting to pelt the side of the car. This campus is surrounded by beautiful, enormous old trees. I wanted to get away from them with the wind getting stronger. I finally found my way off campus, only to find one of those huge trees had just crashed across the road about 4 cars ahead of me. I don’t know what it was, but I just sensed that things were about to get way worse. I quickly turned the car around in a private, ritzy circular driveway and sped back to campus. Just then, the sirens came over the car radio that there was a tornado warning, and the rain started to come down in sheets. I saw the football stadium ahead of us, and just as I pulled into the lot, my cell phone rang. Our poor daughter was home alone and terrified. She had been on the phone with her dad when the power went out. When it came back on, she called me.

  I instructed her to get into our shelter spot in the house. (She’s so responsible that I’m pretty sure she was already there.) I grabbed my purse and yelled to our son to get out of the car and follow me into the stadium. Our first stop was in a passageway under the stadium with brick columns. We huddled behind a column and I kept talking to our daughter while our son cried beside me. I was watching the wind and rain whip debris all over the place in front of us, and wished we could be better protected. That’s when I noticed that the men’s room was open, and we went in there. The entire stadium was deserted, but I felt like we had decent shelter from the storm. Our daughter was calming down, but the conditions she was describing at home were bad. And I knew that the Mr. was likely trying to get home to her in the midst of the storm. My voice was calm, my face was calm, but my hands were shaking like nobody’s business.

  Our son told me that someone had walked past. I went out and found a young woman who worked on campus, who had also come to the stadium for shelter. I invited her into our cozy men’s room and explained why I was on the phone. She told me that a tree had nearly landed on her car, and that a metal gate about 5 feet from where our son and I were first huddled had been ripped off by the wind.

  While I talked to my daughter, she searched for information on her phone and was able to tell me that the storm was much worse at home than it was where we were. I couldn’t quite imagine that, seeing what I was seeing out the doorway.  We stayed on the phone awhile longer, and when she seemed to indicate that things were finally calming down, I told our daughter that I was going to hang up and call her dad. Just as I said that, I heard a banging and she said, “Someone is at the door!” It was the Mr., of course, who came home as soon as he was able to get there safely.

  There was a significant amount of tree damage in our neighborhood, including a large tree down in our next door neighbor’s yard. Amazingly, we had no damage to our house, and only lost power briefly. The kids shook off the experience pretty well, and the Mr. is always grace under pressure. I was on edge all afternoon and really felt my fear once I settled in for the night. I guess having to stay so calm in the midst of it caught up with me when I finally had a chance to decompress and reflect on it all.

  My biggest fear is having some natural or manmade disaster happen and being unable to get to my kids. I had one of them with me under scary conditions and one out of my reach, but we were at least in contact. Even so, it was not a comfortable place to be. We are all safe, and the weather today was lovely. I even stumbled into a carpool and didn’t have to return to the scene of my storm experience, so I think that helped me get past the whole thing. That, and writing a blog about it. 

  • 9:43 pm
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