As I got in the JEEP to head to work at 0630 hours, NPR was interrupted by the Emergency Broadcast System signal.
The bleating of the EBS attention signal was followed by an announcement that our county was under a tornado watch for the next few hours.
By the time I had travelled 5 more miles, the signal came on again and announced a tornado warning for the county just north of us. A tornado was coming off the Gulf and heading inland.
I sent a text to my friends Dave and Tami who live up that way just in case they had missed the announcement.
Then I continued on in the rain, drinking my green tea (melon, dragonfruit, acai flavored) and munching on a blueberry Belvita breakfast biscuit.
It was a rainy breezy drive, but nothing out of the ordinary.
At work, I settled in to some pre-Student planning at my desk.
After about ten minutes, the wind and rain outside went from pitter-patter to thunderous downpour and screaming wind.
I'm in a second floor room with no windows, so I stepped next door to peer out of my fellow teacher's window.
I was just commenting on the wind when another teacher came upstairs announcing that she had a tree on her portable classroom.
I went to investigate, calling 911 as I did.
Outside, the rain was pouring and debris and branches were everywhere. A school desk was jammed into the chain link fence about 3 feet off the ground.
About that time, my friend Denny came around the corner and said, "Hey there's a tree on your vehicle."
Denny is a legendary kidder, so I responded, "Yeah, right."
"No, there really is."
Uh oh.
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| This is what I saw when I got out there. Excuse the blurry pics, it was pouring rain and still only a little after 0700. |
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| A whole line of old cedar trees that shaded our school parking lot were twisted and snapped off and lying across multiple cars. |
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| This is my parking place after I pulled the JEEP out from under the Cedar which, while not super tall, did have a diameter of about 16 inches (dbh). A little more towards the JEEP and all that hard, woody weight would have crunched into my beloved. |
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| On the outside: Stoic. Yeah, it's just a tree on a car. Ain't no big thing.  |
On the inside ...
My baby, my baby!
You're okay, you're okay!!!!
It's a JEEP thing.
You might not understand.
21 comments:
I understand totally, but in my case .....it's a Subie thing. ;-)
Glad your Jeep is going to be okay.
Oh, right there with you FloridaCracker, right there with you. Whew!! Sorry about the cedars, but so glad the JEEP (imagine this red) is fine as frog's hair!! Be safe!
Oh hooray! Jeep beats tree!
That is really as close as it gets. Glad the jeep came away so well. Wow, tornado winds. Is that unusual there?
that worked out well. not even a scratch? you are one with nature. and jeep.
Did they think it was a tornado or just high winds? Glad the JEEP is okay. How was the classroom? And the teacher? I imagine she is really shook up!
Oh, BIG weather! As long as no one is harmed ( and I guess we can include the jeep) it's quite exciting. Cathy, I was keeping track- up to 90 mph winds around Cedar Key!
Hi FC,
So happy baby JEEP came out okay!!
You are a lucky man!
P
Glad the jeep is ok and no one got hurt. Luckily it was before kids getting to school.
All,
My Mom called to check on me after she heard the report of 90+ mph winds at Cedar Key. Wow!
So glad our kids weren't there yet when it came through.
WoW! We had a close encounter of the uh-oh kind, as well.Musta been the same storm(s). They hung around all weekend and reached a crescendo EARLY yesterday AM. Thankfully, not close enought to do any damage here. So glad your baby is OK!
Found a picher what reminded me of you. Gonna post it n a few, God willin' an' the crick don' rise.
So glad no major damage to your baby! I totally understand, our special cars and trucks are like our kids, especial when you need it to get from point A to point B!
Wowzers! Can't believe she's okay.
We had a waterspout come on shore yesterday- came within a block of the kids school and my work. Glad your Jeep made it! Scary stuff.
Wow! Glad the JEEP and everybody else is okay!
I was thinking about you last night when I saw the pictures of Cedar Key on the news. You guys got hit hard. We just a had a little rain and that silly waterspout (I still haven't seen one of those yet crossing the bridge).
Glad everyone was okay. I'm sure Peanut and Coquina were scared.
Good about the JEEP, but Aw MAN, those cedars were so beautiful!
I do understand. Who do I live with. LOL
Living in TN now, I'm trying to adjust to what seems near-constant tornadic activity. Not adjusted yet! LOL, so glad your JEEP wasn't damaged, and that you weren't either.
That's one tough JEEP. I'm glad she's ok - and the rest of you are too.
Yesssss, we'uns do understand, since Uncle has a JEEP too. TWO in fact, a real old CJ 7 "Black Bart"' and an old Cherokee that replaced a Wagoneer ( yep, wif' the wood panels).
Thanks fer yore kind words on the loss of our clan Labrador...jes' has the worst achy-breaks heart ' round heah. Mebbe JEEPs an' Labs is a natural go together?
Hug yore bear fer me.
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