After I put the kids from my class on the early bus at work, I headed to the house. On the 10 minute drive the weather went from wonderful to pouring. So I detoured to the kids school so I could get Canyon and Sahara wouldn't have to worry about it. Plus Sahara could follow me home. Pouring turned to 0 visibility, 60 mph winds, hail the size of quarters and me on a basically abandoned hwy. I was freaking out! The radio and my phone were telling me to take shelter immediately.... Where was I to go??? I couldn't see a thing, no cars in sight either way. I couldn't even see past the shoulder of the road.
I continued on to the school and as usual, was the last one in the pick-up line waaaay down at the stop sign. Storm still surging. I had 2 choices; run to the storm shelter at the school from my truck in the storm and be pelted with hail and blown away in the wind and down-pour, or stay in the line, in the truck and hope for the best.
So, I called Jared (wondering where he might be since he is usually at the house and his truck wasn't at the house when I passed by and I was worried he was driving around in that too). He was in the pick up line. He gets Canyon 2 days a week from school and I forgot his day was Wednesday. So, I got out of line and drove to meet him. His mom called him to get into the building. She works at Canyon's school. I drove him around the loop and dropped him off and he mad-dashed into the building. I went to the far parking lot to wait. The kids were not being released and were all in the safe rooms. As soon as I parked, he called back to tell me I needed to also get in now. I guess it was about to get worse. There happened to be a towel in the back seat and I wrapped it around me and waded my way through the parking lot to the cafeteria door where he let me in. I was soaked and really had to run through a river through the parking lot to get there.
This picture was taken nearby but the tornado that went through our area I haven't got a picture of. I don't think anyone could get a picture because the storm was so bad.
40 minutes after school was out, they finally released the students.
Sahara said a neighboring school district and town, Dover, called from I-40 that they were coming back from a field trip with 3 buses of kids and asked if they could shelter at Pottsville High. She said those kids went in their cafeteria.
Checked back at the school I work at and only the early bus kids got to leave. Everyone else was sheltered for over an hour there.
We knew this storm was coming and we knew it would be bad. We just didn't think it would develop right over our heads in a matter of minutes!!!
It was scary and exciting!
Canyon came out of the shelter with 1 shoe on. Apparently in the hurry to get to the shelter, he lost a shoe in the classroom and his aide said he was worried about it.
Water is at it's highest in the driveway/carport. Anymore and it will be in the house. The pasture is a complete pond, again. Luckily we don't have animals out there this time.
What an adventure!
By the way...still no Sascha :( She has been missing 11 days now. People tell me stories of theirs being missing for weeks even months and then being returned. She's now on 9 lost/missing/animal/swap/garage sale sites, listed with 3 animal shelters, has an ad in the local paper, and 16 fliers are up.
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