Written May 2, 2011; posting delayed until May 10, 2011
Last week, we spent some time in Crossville, TN. We had a wonderful time, visiting with old friends that we met on RV caravans, rallies, and campouts; meeting new friends, some building homes in the community and others that retired from RI. All in all it was a fun time. Then it was off to Nashville (actually we were going to a Corp Of Engineers park in Hermitage) and maybe the Natchez Trace. While in Nashville we got to hear some great music on “Honky Tonk Row” and at the Grand Ole Opry.
It was when we got back from the Opry that things took a change for the worse. While we had had some thunder storms in the last 24 hours, the next 36 hours would be filled with Tornado Watches and Warnings. Most of Tennessee was under a tornado watch on this Tuesday evening. Such a watch, much like a Hurricane watch, indicates that weather conditions are such that you need to be aware that tornados could occur over a wide area. We have lived all of our lives in New England. We are most familiar with hurricanes. Tornadoes were, and still are, a mystery to us! As time went on, Tornado Warnings were established. A warning indicates that tornados in the immediate area are very likely. Usually, they are created if thunderstorms seem to have rotation (or rotating winds), a first sign of a tornado.
For most of Tuesday night, we spent time watching the local news and taking turns with a little shut eye. Most often the location of watches and warnings is by county. While I am quite familiar with the counties in RI, the ones in TN were a mystery to me. So, I got on the web and found a map of TN counties. As the reports would come on air, I would check the map to see if it was near Nashville. Most were not. For most of the overnight into Wednesday, the majority of activity was to the west and the north of us. So with the TV, the county map and a live radar map on the internet, we felt well informed and out of harms way
Wednesday brought a brief respite, but things picked up again as more storms came up from Alabama. We thought about leaving, but looking at the movement of the storms there did not appear any place to go that was any better. Thursday afternoon brought storms a little closer. We packed up important items just in case we needed to leave the motorhome – passports, medications, check books and the like. Around 4:30 they announced a “warning” for the area we were in; so we put the cats in the carrier, grabbed the things we packed up and headed to a restroom across the way. It was a relatively small concrete block building. (A “safe place” in the case of a tornado is a small room with as many walls between you and the outside as possible, or in the basement; a bathroom because of all the plumbing is a good location.) They continually advised people in each area to go to their safe place. In addition, they advised that if you were in a mobile home to evacuate to some other location, even in a low ditch with your arms over your head. This is safer than in a mobile home! In the end, there was some heavy rain and some thunder storms for a short period, but nothing more serious.
So it was back to the MH at about 5PM. After that, most of the bad weather was moving to the east and we were basically in the clear. We got a good night’s sleep and departed on Thursday morning for Birmingham Alabama, deciding that the Natchez Trace would wait for another time. The winds were calm and the sky was blue. But some of the waterfront sites were more suitable for boats!
What will I do differently if (and being realistic, I should say when) we are in the same situation again? I would be sure that I had a hard copy of the county map for the state that I was in. What would have happened if we had lost internet connection? As we all know even in good weather, some RV parks do not have good internet. I would solicit local knowledge from the campground owners or hosts. Where should we go? Is there a warning siren that we should hear? Is there a local shelter that we should seek? We watched all of this on the TV. What if we could not get reception or lost power? We would have had no idea what was happening. So, I think we will invest in a weather radio with an alarm. And always in the future, I will remember that there is nothing that I can do to alter the course of the weather. It will go where it wants; it will be as violent and strong as it wants. And all I can do is try to protect myself and all that are with me – including the cats!! And, oh yes, if in the future a public restroom is my safe place, I will bring Lysol to use before I need to hang on to anything in the restroom!
Stay safe and always stay alert.
PS. While we were fixated on what was happening in TN, we now realize that the situation was much worse in Mississippi and Alabama. In the next few days, we travelled from Mid-Tennessee through Birmingham and onto Mobile. We could see the path that some of the storms took – trees were cut off, billboards were folded like match sticks and rivers were overflowing their banks. Whole cities were leveled. We have seen many convoys of construction trucks, electrical repair trucks, and National Guard. For others it will be a long recovery. We were indeed lucky.
