It’s that time of year again when the weather starts to get warmer, the blue bonnets are blooming, the fireflies are scattered throughout yards across North Texas… oh yeah and we have to keep one ear open at all times for tornado sirens.
I’ve lived through my share of tornadoes, growing up in the DFW area and living in Oklahoma City for five years. When I was in the sixth grade, a tornado hit the town of Lancaster in south Dallas County. It ripped Lancaster apart. At my parent’s house in DeSoto, my mom, my sister and I were sitting in the bathtub like that scene in the Disney movie Cool Runnings because that was the most secure place in the house.
We had a small radio that we listened to weather updates on. When the storm passed, the front wall of the house across the street had blown out because of the pressure that built up from the storm. A trampoline from a neighborhood a mile away was found on my street. A large pecan tree on the next street over had been ripped from the ground and was lying in the middle of the yard next door. That was my first real taste of the power of Mother Nature.
When I lived in Oklahoma City, I traveled all over central Oklahoma covering damage from tornadoes for the radio station I worked for. I saw houses that were destroyed, 18-wheelers that had been tossed like toys. I even saw a tree branch that was at least eight feet long and about four inches in diameter shot like a missile through the side of a house, luckily no one was hurt.
Predicting severe weather has come along way since that Lancaster tornado. We now know days in advance that there will be a chance for tornadoes and heavy rain. The risk of damage and injuries will always be there, though. That’s always the worst part for me: the unknown. Let’s just hope for a calm Spring.
Robbie Hoy
