I Run To You

This world keeps spinning faster,
Into a new disaster.
So I run to you, I run to you...
-- Lady Antebellum

Today, I watched as the skies turned black, and heard the tornado sirens go off. Tornadoes are nothing new in Minnesota. I have grown up with them. So I turned on the TV to see if the sirens were anything serious. And watched as the reports listed actual tornadoes in Brooklyn Center, then Blaine, then North Minneapolis, then Forest Lake. One after another they were dropping from the sky. Never this many. I started to gather my things. My cat, my drugs, my phone, my laptop. And went to the basement.

I am absolutely terrified of tornadoes and I am not sure why. I have lived with the threat of them my whole life. I was five when they nearly obliterated the town of Fridley. My friend from high school and college roommate, Colleen, lived in Fridley at the time and remembers her father throwing her and her siblings to the floor and throwing himself on top of them to protect them as the windows of their home imploded. She remembers the aftermath when it wasn't safe to walk on the rain-soaked grass because downed live power lines were snaking through the wet grass. She remembers the devastation.

Although I have never seen one, I remember more than one night of being wakened by my dad and taken down in the basement when it was storming or sirens were going off. When my children were born, I had nightmares of seeing tornadoes coming down the street and not being able to get to my babies. When it stormed and my husband would stand in the street and watch the clouds, it would make me panic.

We live near an extremely large body of water and I think the temperature variances it causes does odd things when it storms out here. One time, a tornado did go through, not too far from here. We were having a party for Laura. She and all her little friends and their mothers huddled in our basement until it passed. I have seen the clouds over our house churn in an obvious circular pattern and look as if they were going to drop a funnel, and then move on.

Today, there are tens of thousands of people without power, dozens hurt, and at least one person killed. What was even more disturbing about today's storm was that it was not the usual sticky humid hot day you associate with a tornado. It was 11am and rather cool. And they just kept coming. It will take some time to clean this all up. At least when these disasters strike, it brings out some of the best in people.