OT: Reporting in from the heart of "Tornado Alley"

[SleepingBetty]

Just wanted to let those of you who might be wondering know that my husband, daughter, and I were out of town overnight. My husband was able to take off work a couple of hours early and we got out of town just before the first tornado was sighted. Believe me, I was keeping an eye on the sky! The way the clouds were moving was very interesting. The wind at ground level was coming from the south as evidenced by the direction the flags were flying and there were a few low level clouds drifting to the north. However, above those low level clouds was a line of clouds marching from north to south quite rapidly! I figured as long as we were ahead of that line, we would be okay. We got into some heavy traffic a couple of times, one time because of all the "lookie loos" going through Moore that wanted to see the tornado damage. I mean, really now... if you want to see it that badly, get off the interstate and drive through town! Anyway, when the traffic was creeping along, the cloud bank was moving ahead of us, but once we got past the tornado damage in Moore, we were able to move out ahead of that cloud bank.

We also had the radio on and listened to the reports until we lost the signal. We really had a hard time figuring out where the tornadoes were. After talking to a friend on our way home tonight, I understood why. There were multiple tornadoes and they were frequently changing directions! From what she said, it was a crazy, scary night and I'm glad I wasn't here. It was scary enough just listening to it on the radio!

We came home this evening which was our plan as we have responsibilities tomorrow. We didn't know yesterday when we left if we would come home to a house or a pile of rubble. I am pleased to say that we came home to a house! No damage. No flooding. And we have power! That's more than our friends who kept our dog can say. They didn't have damage, but are without power. They do have a generator for their fridge. Our dog was very scared of the storms and didn't want to come out of his crate this morning. He was very, very happy to see us! All our family and friends are safe. Some had tornado damage. Some had flooding. But, we are grateful that the situation, though bad, was not as bad as the models showed it could be. Had that multiple vortex tornado not changed directions, I likely would not be sitting here right now. I would be homeless.

And now, I need to get some .

[Stormynights]

Just wanted to let those of you who might be wondering know that my husband, daughter, and I were out of town overnight. My husband was able to take off work a couple of hours early and we got out of town just before the first tornado was sighted. Believe me, I was keeping an eye on the sky! The way the clouds were moving was very interesting. The wind at ground level was coming from the south as evidenced by the direction the flags were flying and there were a few low level clouds drifting to the north. However, above those low level clouds was a line of clouds marching from north to south quite rapidly! I figured as long as we were ahead of that line, we would be okay. We got into some heavy traffic a couple of times, one time because of all the "lookie loos" going through Moore that wanted to see the tornado damage. I mean, really now... if you want to see it that badly, get off the interstate and drive through town! Anyway, when the traffic was creeping along, the cloud bank was moving ahead of us, but once we got past the tornado damage in Moore, we were able to move out ahead of that cloud bank.

We also had the radio on and listened to the reports until we lost the signal. We really had a hard time figuring out where the tornadoes were. After talking to a friend on our way home tonight, I understood why. There were multiple tornadoes and they were frequently changing directions! From what she said, it was a crazy, scary night and I'm glad I wasn't here. It was scary enough just listening to it on the radio!

We came home this evening which was our plan as we have responsibilities tomorrow. We didn't know yesterday when we left if we would come home to a house or a pile of rubble. I am pleased to say that we came home to a house! No damage. No flooding. And we have power! That's more than our friends who kept our dog can say. They didn't have damage, but are without power. They do have a generator for their fridge. Our dog was very scared of the storms and didn't want to come out of his crate this morning. He was very, very happy to see us! All our family and friends are safe. Some had tornado damage. Some had flooding. But, we are grateful that the situation, though bad, was not as bad as the models showed it could be. Had that multiple vortex tornado not changed directions, I likely would not be sitting here right now. I would be homeless.

And now, I need to get some .

Glad to hear you are home safe. We just had thunder and lightening here but it shook the house. We couldn't keep the dogs off of us. I am glad the two little ones were the only ones in the house.

[Kiralynx]

Glad you and yours are safe. And glad your home is safe.

Been there and done that with the evacuation -- Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Gustav in 2008. Did not go for Hurricane Isaac in 2012, and that was a mistake.