I'm Not In Kansas

But we still had a tornado! We had two tornadoes, to be precise, on Tuesday, August 6th, but only one started in the town that we live in. Fortunately, it must have started a bit to our east, and it was only an EF1. Still, winds got up to 110 mph, or 68 kmph. Another EF1 touched down to our southeast. As far as I have seen, it is nowhere near the devastation you can see in news reports of huge tornadoes. There are lots of large branches down, and damage to houses and cars, but nothing like a really bad tornado where homes just disapppear. The big thing is that over 300,000 people in the Greater Cleveland area do not have power, including us. Fortunately, Mr. BTEG bought a generator the last time we had a long-term power outage. It can't power our whole house, but it's keeping our fridge and freezer going, and both my computer and Mr. BTEG's are also running off of the generator. For internet, I'm using my cell phone as a wi-fi hotspot, since the cell towers are working. As of today, Thursday, August 8th, we are over 48 hours without power. Trucks from other power companies a bit further out are pouring in to assist, as is common when a big weather event hits and knocks out the electricity. 

We did receive a tornado warning on Tuesday, meaning a tornado had been spotted on the ground, so take cover immediately. I went into the downstairs bathroom in the middle of our condo, which has no windows. Mr. BTEG was at a doctor's office, and they hustled him out of the lobby with glass windows, and into an exam room. Neither of us saw or heard any major winds, so it wasn't until looking at the news that I read about the tornadoes. I'm thankful that I have not seen any fatalities reported, and that the tornadoes we did get were not more powerful. I'm praying we get electricity back sooner rather than later!

Update August 9th, 5:23 PM

More information is coming out in the news. I found out exactly where the tornado here started, and it did start to the east of us, but only a few miles away. One house got its side completely taken off, around where the tornado began. I'm thankful that I still haven't seen anything about fatalities. I also found out that there were two more EF1 tornadoes, significantly to the south and to the east of where we were, making four in total.

We still don't have power, but we are definitely not alone. Power company trucks are everywhere, and it seems they're coming from places as far away as Alabama. There are also lots of trucks out dealing with all of the large fallen branches. Neighbors and businesses are pulling together, offering phone charging, snacks and coffee, and time in A/C if needed. Tornadoes are not so common here, but bad storms certainly are, so most of us know the drill.

Final Update August 10th, 4:25 PM

Power came on at 3:16 PM! We went approximately four days without electricity. Linemen showed up from seventeen other states to help get us back up, and I recognize all of the hard work it took to restore power.