Tornado Alley

My weather radio sounded the alarm. We were under another tornado watch, not unusual this time of year in Texas. When a storm is imminent, it’s eerily quiet at first—no wind and the sky sometimes has a greenish gray tint. But then the sky darkens, the wind begins and thunder starts rumbling in the distance. When I was a child, I resented leaving my warm bed to run through sometimes driving rain to a cold, damp cellar, but my parents knew the damage such storms could do. Older and wiser now, I have a safe room installed in my garage. So why wasn’t I in it instead of on my computer while a storm was brewing? Because, unlike when I was a child, I could see by the radar on my phone that my area was at the edge of the worst weather. I stayed alert but got only wind and rain. So I prayed for those in Oklahoma and beyond where the main part of the storm was headed.