Twister..in real life.

As most of you have heard by now, yesterday 16April 2011, tornados ripped through the east coast. North Carolina got hit really badly. As of right now there are 22 confirmed casualties and many many injured. The whole state is under a state of emergency. I decided that tomorrow I am going to red cross and am going to volunteer as much time as I can to help these victims.

Growing up in Michigan, we do get tornados every now and then. However, none are really "deadly." Michigan does a test every first saturday of the month with the "tornado sirens." I didn't hear this down here. Yesterday morning and Friday evening everyone kept talking about how horrible and severe this storm was going to be. Myself along with others didn't think anything of it because back in the fall, we were supposed to get hit with a hurricane. The end results in this hurricane was sprinkles and sunshine. The weather yesterday was kind of over cast, the sun peaking out here and there and pretty humid. It started sprinkling a little bit and Jeff and I had decided to go to Sonic because I am completely obsessed with Route 44 sweet teas..extra ice. As soon as we pulled into the sonic booth, the power went out. Oh great, I thought. I looked behind me to look at the major road, all the traffic lights were out. We decided to leave and head home. Within the .2 miles of driving back home we saw almost two accidents. We get home and sit on the porch because it starts thundering a little bit. The neighbor had her little boy out playing in the rain with his spiderman rain boots and yellow poncho. Then is started to pour cats and dogs, and when I say cats and dogs, I mean elephants and velociraptors.  (Oh yeah and we lost our power too at this point) So we're sitting out on the patio, and we hear this loud thunder that didn't stop for almost 20 seconds. It was loud and kind of sounded like a train. I don't know if this was the tornado or not. But it scared the heck out of me! We went back inside, the power turned back on and the sun was out. The crap? I get online as fast as I can and I hear about two tornados. One in Fayetteville/Ft Bragg and one in Sanford which is like twenty minutes from me. I thank God that this thing passed us. I see pictures, watch the news, see videos, and hear stories and it breaks my heart. I haven't volunteered in a very long time so tomorrow my goal is to get down to red cross and do WHATEVER I can.

Those of you that are in any of the areas that got affected by these tornados, God bless you and your family.
For information on how you can help visit: Highland Hills Red Cross