The Pugs were worried, but I wasn't worried at all. While I don't have television, I was smart enough to grab my laptop, take it downstairs and live-stream the weather online.
They said it would stay to the west of town. I live in the middle of town, so I figured it'd be okay. There were some nasty sounds, though, so the dogs and I stayed downstairs for a couple of hours until we were given the all clear and the sirens stopped going off.
It was a long night.
It turns out, though, I should have been worried.
I could hear the storm chasers in the background saying "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God" over and over. It took a minute to cut to their video, but when they did, it showed a tornado from 14th Avenue.
Um, 14th Avenue is in town, folks. If I understood them correctly, the tornado just appeared in front of them. They weren't expecting it.
My parents called me later that night to check up. They watched the tornado from their front porch.
I was at their house earlier that night. If I had stayed there, I probably would have had to change my pants.
Some houses were destroyed and some people were hurt. Thankfully, no one died.
Seeing tornado damage as a reporter was something I never wanted to do in my career, ever. The last year I worked as a journalist, though, I got sent to a town that was basically wiped off by a tornado.
Three people died.
The smell is what I remember most. It smells like lumber, because there's pieces of houses and pieces of trees everywhere.
Even the houses that were still standing had to be demolished. The tornado had lifted the houses off of their foundations. The houses were dangerous and weren't savable.
I was always proud of how I treated people that day. Unlike the national media circus that was there and only wanted to talk to families of the people who died (seriously, that actually happened) I took time out of my day to talk to people.
I walked through town with one of the residents. I listened to him. I went there early, hoping to avoid the national circus that came later in the day.
I can't imagine what it's like to lose everything that you have, even if it's all just stuff. And I can't imagine having a loved one die in a storm.
Several people have asked me if I'm going to drive around and look at the damage this week.
My answer is no.
These are people's lives. If it happened to my house, I wouldn't want gawkers staring at me while I'm cleaning up.
Anyway, here's a picture of two Pugs bickering after the storm ended.
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