Living in Tornado Alley

The emergency siren went off yesterday as I sat in the basement. The weatherman said the storm headed right for our house. The sirens go off every year but the threats are hardly ever close to our house. 

I hoped we wouldn't get any damage because last year, after it hailed in April (and after our insurance paid us,) we paid a company over $800 dollars of our own money to fix our broken stuff. (And they took nine months to do the work!)

As I sat in the basement, I thought please don't let it happen again as I waited for the storm to end. The storm totally passed over us and Andrew said "what a let-down." Personally, I felt happy. 

Per stayed in the kitchen (with the news on) and continued to cook dinner. He said "I'm not gonna let this food get ruined if the storm turns out to be nothing!" After the storm passed and Per declared the situation safe, I emerged from the basement and we sat at the table and ate what he cooked!

My friends in other parts of Olathe had hail, but we didn't. Their power went out for hours but ours only went out for seconds. Some people sighted a tornado to the south of us but it happened 20 streets away. 

I've lived in Tornado Alley for 21 years but, in all that time, I've never seen a tornado and only had hail damage twice. We live in what I call the Olathe jet stream. The wind always blows at Heritage Park (located just south of us) and the storms almost always go north or south. I feel glad to live in Johnson County. We may have severe weather but are rarely affected. 

If I lived in Eastern Kansas or Oklahoma I'd be more worried. If I lived there in a trailer, I'd be even more worried! Yet, people continue to live in those types of homes in those places - go figure. You never know where a tornado is going to hit...look at what happened in Joplin, MO. 

My kids learned about tornado safety in elementary school. They got scared every time they heard sirens.

One time, when we lived at the Wyncroft Hill apartments, the weatherman said a tornado might touch down only a mile away. The sirens went off and one of our sons started packing our bags. Per and I stood outside on our patio watching the storm. Our son came out to us and said "you'd better pack two pair of underwear in case you pee your pants." I laughed to myself but the siren truly scared him! Our other son wouldn't watch Twister. He had seen a similar scary movie at school.

I'm used to the sirens and the severe weather, but realize that the kids and new people get scared.