We are under a tornado watch until 2 am. It’s quiet, not much wind and the rain’s all gone, but I am staying awake in case I have to drag everybody else down to the basement. DH‘s blood pressure was much too low today so I am also awake watching him sleep ☹️

Oh goodness, KSWL, how stressful. Hope it passes over without incident.

Very heavy thunderstorms early this am and more rain expected all day. The dogs are terrified of the thunder and lighting but my phone weather app says we are having a 30 min lull. The oldest and youngest in the house, nearly 88 and 29, are sleeping soundly; one can’t hear and the other isn’t bothered, lol.

Fortunately, nothing bad yesterday for us, but the last Thursday early evening we were in the bathroom with the cats for a warned storm over our area, which is crazy over such a densely populated area. There was rotation but nothing touched down. Last night we had some thunderstorms, and there likely was a tornado about 45 min south of us. These areas are more rural but obviously people and farm animals. There was a tornado warning west of us, but that system had lessened by the time it got here and the energy was fueling the supercell 45 min south. We don’t have a basement, so we have to use the hall bath since it is in the middle of the house with no windows.

The tornado's path went past houses of friends and my sister. I had DH text her to make sure she was in her basement. Her doors were blown open. Trees down around her neighborhood lake. Shingles in her front yard, maybe from the houses that got demolished in Eagle Point, which is across hwy 280 from her. She lives in the valley where we used to live. Tornadoes usually hit one of the mountain ridges and bounce up, but not this time.

I am told the golf course neighborhood next to our last neighborhood has a mess. A friend's son was there working, and afterwards went to help at the daughter's house of the founder. All of her windows were blown out. When I was watching our local weather guru, he left the set a minute to call his wife to make sure she was in her safe place. They live there.

A friend's daughter lives in Eagle Point and they have a new baby and a 2yo. They left earlier to go to his parents house/storm shelter. Their house did not get hit. Eagle Point is large/lots of houses.

I just looked at my sister's NextDoor account. Her neighborhood was also hit. 5 to 6 houses on her street were damaged. So that's where the shingles came from. Lots of trees and power lines down in the area.

We are a bit more north. It was weird during the storm (knowing tornado was coming) because we had zero wind at our house, only a lot of rain in a short period of time. Lots of sirens (firetrucks, etc) after the storm passed. This after being very windy earlier in the day and the day before. DD2 doesn't have a basement, and their hallway bath is being remodeled, so she had all the sofa cushions and their shoes in the bathroom.

Very lucky only five were killed in Alabama yesterday. Tracking has gotten so much better, down to naming streets. People with any sense know to listen to one of our local weathermen when a bad storm is coming.

We’re your cats nervous, gscience?

There were tornado warnings all south/southeast of us (and southwest of us yesterday afternoon) overnight but we just had crazy rain and thunder. It’s weird, seems like we are getting more tornados/tornado warnings than we used to. The mountains to the west usually do a good job of de-fanging really bad storms, but lately weather is sneaking up from further southwest and we are getting hit.

We had crazy rain all day yesterday and into the night, 5" according to the local news, and lightening like I've never seen in the wee hours. I had a dog sleeping on my pillow till the light show was over. No big winds here, power is on and all we have to deal with is saturated ground. Our little creek looked like a raging river yesterday. Hope everyone else is ok.

Lots of rain and flash floods around us for the most part. A police officer was struck by lightning in a town not far from here. And 5 people killed in a town in rural east Alabama and a lot of damage in SE Birmingham, just east of where our youngest son and his family live. Then it moved on to GA and I am hearing some areas south of Atlanta were affected, so hope Kswl and her crew are ok. It does make for stressful nights when you can’t see what’s going on.

We actually had tornado watches in our area (not my immediate area/county) which is unusual. There was talk of a tornado touch down in middle Tennessee, but I am not sure if it was confirmed. Glad to hear you are okay @User. Hope you can nap today!!

@Allison0704, B’ham seems to have been hit pretty hard. Y’all okay?

Glad you’re all ok, and yes, we need Allison to check in, too!

@bbstx yes, thank you. I posted above.

Interesting, Allison. No post by you is showing up on my thread!

That is odd. Here is my post, copy/pasted. Can anyone else see?

~~~~~

The tornado's path went past houses of friends and my sister. I had DH text her to make sure she was in her basement. Her doors were blown open. Trees down around her neighborhood lake. Shingles in her front yard, maybe from the houses that got demolished in Eagle Point, which is across hwy 280 from her. She lives in the valley where we used to live. Tornadoes usually hit one of the mountain ridges and bounce up, but not this time.

I am told the golf course neighborhood next to our last neighborhood has a mess. A friend's son was there working, and afterwards went to help at the daughter's house of the founder. All of her windows were blown out. When I was watching our local weather guru, he left the set a minute to call his wife to make sure she was in her safe place. They live there.

A friend's daughter lives in Eagle Point and they have a new baby and a 2yo. They left earlier to go to his parents house/storm shelter. Their house did not get hit. Eagle Point is large/lots of houses.

I just looked at my sister's NextDoor account. Her neighborhood was also hit. 5 to 6 houses on her street were damaged. So that's where the shingles came from. Lots of trees and power lines down in the area.

We are a bit more north. It was weird during the storm (knowing tornado was coming) because we had zero wind at our house, only a lot of rain in a short period of time. Lots of sirens (firetrucks, etc) after the storm passed. This after being very windy earlier in the day and the day before. DD2 doesn't have a basement, and their hallway bath is being remodeled, so she had all the sofa cushions and their shoes in the bathroom.

Very lucky only five were killed in Alabama yesterday. Tracking has gotten so much better, down to naming streets. People with any sense know to listen to one of our local weathermen when a bad storm is coming.

I can't see your post Allison - just your c/p. Very odd.

Wow, Allison, how scary. So glad you’re ok.

(I can’t see your original post, either. This board is so wonky.)

FWIW, Allison, your original post just now showed up for me.

I can see it now, but not earlier.

The cats are not happy to be locked in the bathroom.

There was a tornado in VT today! Crazy. I’m in Maine and the wind gusts are pretty dramatic tonight.

Saw some news reporting on Reuters this morning - awful and extensive damage to many large homes.

Thinking Allison's post may not have shown up (it visible now) because servers in her area may have been impacted...?

My heart goes out to anybody who's had to go through even the slightest tornado damage, it is so devastating and scary and the damage in many cases particularly with the landscape is irreparable.

Thanks for your details, Allison. I didn’t see your post originally either. Strange what happens here with posts sometimes. Glad your family members are ok. The folks in her community are very lucky. It sounds like many were in those houses we saw in the news, and although the houses collapsed in some cases, the injuries were very minor and the people survived. Not so for those 5 in rural east Alabama, where 3 in one family didn’t make it. These things happen in seconds. No time to waste when those warnings come.

Holy Cr*p!!!

I can't imagine living in a house with no basement!!!! If I had to move to "Tornado-Alley", I wouldn't buy a house without a basement

Faron!

@carolb_w_fl_coastal_9b I am 20-30 minutes from there, and posts were showing on other threads. Maybe mine contained a word H doesn't like.

@Faron79 basements in houses in the south are few and far between. I’ve never lived in a house with a basement or known anyone who has. The only exception is my sister. Her houses in MN, IL, & CT had basements.

Basements are not uncommon in our area. Further South, closer to the gulf coast, no. Every house I have lived in has had a basement, and all of my close relatives, now that I think about it. Though DD2 doesn't in her current house.

Water tables in some of the south make basements very uncommon, if not impossible. I lived in or near the Mississippi Delta region my entire life except university and recently. I have been within 200 yards of three tornadoes. The first was when I was a baby so I don’t remember it and have only heard tales of my father, who was at work, climbing over trees blocking the road to check on us. The second was when I lived in Little Rock and hit my neighborhood about a few blocks from us. That was a bad one, trees down blocking most streets and no electricity for days. However, the only damage to my house was a few shutters. Thankfully, the only direct hit was an EF 0 and probably off the ground by the time it hit our house. No warnings on that one, and we left the house for vacation before daylight that morning and didn’t even know about it until later in the day when our housekeeper called.

Us too @Allison. We have always had a basement. And an attic.