GinaFish.com

There is no place truly safe on the Earth.

If you live along the coast, chances are, you seen a hurricane warning or two.
If you live in a mountainous region, either earthquakes or flooding.
Tsunamis on the other side of the world. Avalanches where it snows. Forest Fires.
Such extreme drought that there is just no water. Sand Storms.

Mother Nature rules the Earth. Where I live in the world is called a few choice names. The South. The Bible Belt. Tornado Alley.

Yep, it’s that last one that I don’t like. Tornado’s can be “forecasted” these days to a certain extent. Our local meteorologist can say with fair certainty that tomorrow there will be a fair, moderate, or severe chance for severe weather. Sometimes that just means thunderstorms, with hail the size of softballs that can be pretty damaging. Sometimes that means tornado weather.

A tornado watch means that the conditions are ripe. Warm air, cold air, fronts moving in and colliding, big masses of air swirling in the sky, much like when the water goes down the drain and it spirals down. Ever notice that the water draining takes everything with it and sucks it down the drain?

A tornado warning means a tornado has actually been spotted. You want to seek shelter immediately instead of gluing yourself to the tv and watching the pretty red and black mass move your way. Definitely go to your safe place instead of standing on the front porch watching for the clouds. (Meek… *wagging finger*)

We live on a county line. I know some states have different names for marking territories like parishes, but within our state we have counties. Which means that I pay attention to when the warning hits the county before me, because unless the storm is definitely North of me, when the weather person says my county, it’s already here.

A little town in Arkansas was devastated by a tornado last Saturday. 80% of the businesses were lost. 35 people were injured, none died thank God. Imagine waking up one day and there is nothing left of the town you live in except a used car lot, and the place you pay your phone bill. The grocery store is gone, the library is gone, the police station has no roof. I don’t know the particular buildings (other than the Fred’s discount store that was on TV alot) that got damaged. I do know that the schools suffered minimum damage and were finally back in session today if they got the power turned back on.

Yes, we have a storm shelter in our back yard, and no, we’ve never had to go in it. All though maybe we should have the year tornadoes ripped through Beebe only 12 miles away. This is the first year that Ethan has been in school and guess what school district he’s in? Beebe. But luckily they have built a huge storm shelter. Now I’ll only half freak out when the coming months display tornado warnings and try my patience while I resist the urge to drive quickly to the school and hold my kids till the storm passes.

Realizing you can’t protect your kids from everything is sometimes a hard pill to swallow. And that’s my little essay on why I hate March, April, and May. Especially this year with E in school.

Thank you for reading my little rant. I’m stepping off the stage and handing the microphone to you now.