What Next?

I always thought that living in upstate New York was always the safest place to live, especially as far as natural disasters are concerned. The past few weeks certainly have proven me wrong. First we felt the earthquake, as small as it was. Then we experienced the wrath of Irene, followed by the horrendous flooding nearby us.

Yesterday it was a tornado that touched down in a neighboring town! Click HERE for a YouTube video of the storm and tornado. We were home at the time and knew a bad storm was coming from the intensity of the thunder. When I looked at the radar on my computer, I discovered a tornado WARNING for Glenville where we live. It was one of those moments when you can't believe what you are seeing, but yep, there it was, "the tornado will be near Glenville at 5:50PM". I yelled for Dave, who was outside watching the approaching storm, grabbed my cellphone, purse, asthma meds, and computer (I could actually get wifi in the basement LOL), and flew down the cellar stairs. Dave opted for standing at the back window eying the sky, with the cellar door open, commenting "if there is a tornado I am going to be really pissed off!" I knew that we would be safe because our house is concrete, but the aftermath could be devastating. The wind really picked up from several different directions as one of those dark, flat bottomed clouds passed by. Then the sky got lighter and the rain eased, so thankfully we were in the clear. This morning I learned that the tornado began in Amsterdam, about 10 miles away, and travelled west for 7 miles, into West Glenville. If you do the math, that means it was approximately 3 miles from us...way too close for comfort! It was only an F1, but still did tons of damage. We were lucky and Someone must have been looking out for us once again.