Thanks for braving it with me for this one...Terror frazzled the greater far Northern region of California yesterday evening, when news broke of a series of funnel clouds threatening fierce tornadoes that would devastate parts of Butte (my county), Glenn and Tehama Counties. We were advised: "Go inside!"
Photo courtesy of Wayne Riser,source
My local friends posted facebook updates like these:
- "The family and I are all in the laundry room. Hope everyone else is safe."
- A friend's toddler ran through the house, screaming in fear over the looming "tomatoes!"
Tell me you remember this one too.
- Yet another friend posted a photo of her "prepared" children huddled together on the couch, wearing bike helmets.
The point is, we're wimps (in California)!
There was no damage. Today, things look like this:
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I hope you're safe, warm, and enjoying signs of spring.
PS To all my friends doing the A-Z Challenge, good luck and have fun. I'll be visiting and cheering you on.
As you might recall I was born and raised in California and while I remember the occasional wind devil I don't remember hearing about full tornadoes.
ReplyDeleteLOL-- Great perspective!
ReplyDeleteJ
Better safe than sorry.
ReplyDeleteTornadoes scare me - probably because we don't have them. I think I would be velcroed to the carpet under the bed - for at least the first warning.
ReplyDeleteI live in Indiana. Takes more than a measly F1 to scare me. All the same, glad that's all it was.
ReplyDeletePUBERTY!!!!! PUBERTY LOVE!!!!! lol I saw that movie only once. It was pretty funny. Glad you are all OK. Tornadoes are very scary.
ReplyDeleteWow, a tornado in your area? That is unusual. Glad you're all right.
ReplyDeleteWill refrain from subjecting my brain to that theme song...
amateurs! ha! growing up in texas, tornadoes, hurricanes, tropical storms -that comes naturally to us, like breathing. but i understand how y'all must have felt. kind of when we had three weeks of consecutive "snow days" in houston and it DIDN'T.EVEN.SNOW :)
ReplyDeletehope all is well and nothing bad happened. tornadoes show no mercy.
Tornadoes scare me to death. We do get the occasional one in Ontario. Much worse than hurricanes which take a while to arrive and allow you to make preparations.
ReplyDeleteTornadoes I would not want to be near, between them and earthquakes and wildfires, California now has it all haha
ReplyDeleteHey Robyn,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Thanks for sharing! Goodbye.....
Kidding! Did I fool you?
California has some of the bestest wimps I ever met. I'm on a bit of a whirlwind tour of blogland...must go now...
Gary :) x
Ya know, living in southern California, earthquakes don't frighten me, but the thought of tornadoes freaks me out. I couldn't imagine living in Tornado Alley. Give me my 5.1+ ground rumblers any day of the week!
ReplyDeleteWe ARE very lucky, and you never know what's going to come your way. I posted on facebook that I'll probably get struck to death by some natural disaster for posting this. I don't mean to be dismissive. It's just that all the agitation yesterday made me laugh. Then again, I jumped when thunder and lightening shook the house a bit.
ReplyDeleteElephant, I love your idea and think I'll purchase some velcro for the next round.
Herman, I grew up in So Cal and earthquakes don't scare me either. Agree - tornadoes are scarier.
Yvonne, snow days without snow? Now that's funny.
Jo, I didn't know you're in Ontario. I have relatives there, and I've been there. It's beautiful, but you do get some harsh weather to contend with.
Thanks all.
Stay safe, and keep a smile.
xoRobyn
This is funny Robyn - killer tomatoes and I could just picture kids wearing bike helmets in the living room.
ReplyDeleteWhen it is there! Because you guys don't really have tornadoes. We do. A few years ago a bad one hit our little town. Several people were killed, lots of houses were lost, more than one church and the high school. If you are curious I'm sure you can find it on Google with a search of - tornado Phil Campbell AL
We have tornado watches and warnings and I hope to never go through one. I'm glad you're safe.
ReplyDeleteHaha - i love Attack of the Tomatoes.. unfair that they were branded killers... they were just mis understood.
ReplyDeleteHeard about the tremors though! Shudder!
x
I'm sure most Californians have never seen or even dealt with a tornado. I'm glad it was minor with no damage. Here on the East Coast, we are very tornado prepared.
ReplyDeleteHelmets on children during a tornado saves lives. 7 children Died in my home town in my neighborhood 100 feet from me because a wall fell on them and a couple of the children that died had skull fractures. I know you are trying to be sarcastic "well hopefully you are and not ignorant" when you wonder why a parent is worried and trying to prepare their children for safety. Here in Oklahoma it is one of the things you do to prepare your children during a tornado warning first step is make sure your children have shoes on incase windows break and debris is scattered everywhere, second is make sure they are wearing long sleeves and pants, then if you do not have a safe room or storm shelter (which I take it most in California do not) to put a helmet on your child in case of flying debris and falling walls etc. The schools in Moore Oklahoma now have a helmet for every child at School as part of their safety. Whats sad is you are making fun a of your own friend on facebook who is trying to protect their children during a Tornado Warning which tornado warnings are not issues just for fun! I do not know if you are just that ignorant to make fun of you friend who is trying to protect their children or that you lack empathy and just like to get a rise out of being an ass.
ReplyDeleteRobyn girl,
ReplyDeleteGetting around doing my monthlies. Visiting, that is.
Tornadoes are scary things. Killer tomatoes are a NIGHTMARINARA.
Glad you're safe. Love ya.
Check out my office remodel!
I've been through a few tornadoes when I lived in East Texas. Not Fun At All! As far as the tomatoes I also remember watching a cartoon version of them.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that tornadoes simply are NOT a common occurrence in CA. If it had been earthquakes... In other words, when an unfamiliar disaster strikes up (be it the weather or in Life), the first inclination as panic and anxiety. Fight or flight. And since it is unknown, our flight goes into overdrive. In this case, there was nowhere to fly to and no one really knew what they were doing. So, you have kids screaming "Tomatoes," and kids in bike helmets. And everything still being posted to Facebook, because that is what you do in an Emergency. hahahaha.
ReplyDeleteWhenever we have terrible weather, the next day is always gorgeous. It is like Mother Nature apologizing for the misery of the previous day and offering up this gift. I always takes it with a smile. Glad you are all okay!!!
Sorry to the people I've offended. I think your history with tornadoes is much more devastating than what we've experienced thus far with tornadoes. That's really all I intended to express. I do wish for safety for all.
ReplyDeletexoRobyn
Ladies and gentlemen, Jesse Alarcon, the life of the party!
ReplyDeleteI laughed out loud at biking into a tornado. The visual is just hilarious.
Sure, lots of things save lives, but that doesn't make them any less funny. Anyone else remember stop drop and roll? Useful? Yes. But I spent the first 10 years of my life absolutely convinced that I WOULD be set on fire at some point. I mean, why else would they beat that into our heads so much?
Wow! I am sure glad you are OK. Some people find chasing, filming tornadoes is fun. I don't. But I guess if we didn't have people tracking tornadoes we wouldn't learn from them. Happy you still here. Cheers!!
ReplyDeleteTornadoes, earth quakes, and movie stars! Oh my! California has SUCH variety.
ReplyDeleteOnce on my way home from work, when we lived on the flat, eastern plains of Colorado, I saw a huge funnel cloud. When I got to our home town, people were lining the street watching the thing! I pulled up in my driveway, just knowing my husband was hunkered inside with my then infant son, safely tucked in the basement. Nope, they were both on the sidewalk watching it. Shaking my head.
To all those insulted by this blog post, or those who thinks she's stupid for having some fun with it.
ReplyDeleteGET A LIFE! I f you read my comment, you see that I indeed do see the serious of the situation. What I don't see is your pigpile, accusing the writer of being stupid for having fun with something that just ISN'T THAT SERIOUS in her area. You could have made your points politely instead of with "I hope all your friends deleted you". She may have not realized the strong feelings you have on the subject. But you REALIZE what you said. And you are jerks. Not for fearing tornadoes, but for only commenting because it gave you a chance to demean someone.
I'm with the other poster from Indiana (where I live too). Our sirens are always going off around here, so we are pretty used to the warnings. Glad everything turned out ok there! Even though we've seen a few tear through, they can be quite scary!
ReplyDeleteGlad you are safe. I know it's serious, but I did laugh about the tomatoes.
ReplyDeleteNobody has ever been killed by a tornado in CA. We don't know real tornadoes from tomatoes. That's my point. Extra thanks to CW and the beer guys for having my back. I love you guys.
ReplyDeleteAlso, there's now speculation the fear wasn't even a tornado at all - but a funnel cloud.
I'm very openly a weather wimp who's ignorant about tornadoes. (I don't even know if I spelled it correctly.) But ask me about earthquakes, street riots, violent crimes (as a kid, my siblings and I were alone with a murderer, a story for another time perhaps), deaths by cancer and suicide...and/or other tragedies. Nah, don't ask me! Let's just keep smiling.
Love you all, though I'm on the fence about the people who've dropped by to call me a "shit" or an "ass" in response to this post. I will offer prayers that your pain and hate will subside.
Keep faith, a smile, and plenty of good fair trade chocolate.
xoRobyn
Glad Jamaica just gets a bad hurricane every couple of years and where I live isn't easily flooded. Happy you're all right.
ReplyDeleteI have to say the tornado in the picture did look rather puny and limp, but sometimes that's a good thing, eh, Robyn? California is truly a blessed, flowery land - or is that just the part you live in?
ReplyDeleteWe've had our fair share of tornado warnings here. My husband swears our next house will have a basement, if only a walk-out basement, so we can just sleep down there when there's a tornado warning. Unfortunately, they don't really build new houses with basements anymore, so all the ones he finds are 40 years old!
ReplyDeleteApparently we live in the tornado valley now and I hope to never have to encounter one, they scare me. Most natural disasters scare me. I'm glad you're all safe and that the flowers are still blooming an beautiful. :)
ReplyDeleteSo glad to hear you had no damage. Beautiful photos!
ReplyDeleteThat picture is beautiful and so scary!
ReplyDelete"A friend's toddler ran through the house, screaming in fear over the looming "tomatoes!" This was priceless!
As a child I would Always have nightmares about being in the path of a tornado...being from New York City the chances of a twister were nil and none. I blame the Wizard of Oz...! In fact I think auntie em might have locked ungrateful Dorothy out of the storm cellar on purpose!....just sayin' it would have added an interesting plot twist!
Blessings, Joanne
GB, I think most all of CA is beautiful. We are blessed. Except when we're not.
ReplyDeleteJoanne, it IS beautiful. Funny that, because I knew of the tornado warning, I tried photographing the clouds (didn't find my camera at the moment). They were forming gorgeous streams of light. Yeah, all I know and fear about tornadoes is thanks to Auntie Em. That b*tch. LOL.
Be well, all.
xoRobyn
That's one awesome shot!
ReplyDeletehave a nice week
Much love...
The bike helmets are hilarious! We don't get many tornadoes here, but my bff is terrified of them. We had horrible storms on the 4th of July, and she kept trying to convince me we needed to head for the hallway closet (the place she has deemed safest in my house in case of a tornado) to eat our barbeque. I'll have to tell her about the bike helmets. She may like that idea.
ReplyDeleteHi! Nice blog .You have done a great job. Keep on working.Secured Bike Shelter Vancouver
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