The NASCAR race was completing, Carl Edwards had just won the Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and on Fox—and we were waiting for him to speak to the cameras. At that moment, a very annoying blast came from the TV along with the familiar broadcast of the National Weather Service robot voice. I guess the local Fox affiliate does not have a weather center—so they decide to break in for a tornado watch. I really could not believe how terrible it looked. I believe in breaking in to inform the viewers, but this was so 1960’s it was terrible.
Even though, I missed the interview with Carl Edwards—obviously, there was something going on with the weather—so I opened up my computer to look at the radar. I saw this image:
Even with Fox Richmond’s old school warning, I did get the message that a big storm was on the way. I got the kids to bed and sat down to watch the radar as the storm approached.
As I watched, I began to hear the rain begin to fall and slowly heard what sounded like an airplane flying over. It was a steady roar. The wind began to pick up as did the rain. I walked toward the stairs and listened as the doors started to whistle from the wind. It was dark and there was no way to know what was going on outside.
I quickly walked up and got the kids back downs stairs, as Monica brought Jenny down.
We sat in the bathroom as the storm blew over.
I kind of felt like a dork when it passed. I looked at the radar and saw what had just passed over us (the above photo) and felt a little better. Then, I began to hear fire trucks and ambulance sirens. After turning on my scanner, I discovered that there were trees down and some damage to homes in this area.
Luckily, we were all safe—but, we also were able to exercise our family disaster plan.