Thursday, January 10, 2008

TORNADO IN VANCOUVER!!!

We had a bit of excitment here at 12:30PM this afternoon. As I got in my car about 12:15 to go back to work after lunch, I heard thunderstorms overhead. At first I thought it was a plane, because our house has a flight path over it. I got to work and the thunder was getting louder and there was a huge grayish cloud with black all around it. The lights in our classroom flickered and we went out to get the kids off the busses. I had 2 kids with me and one of the bus drivers said she had just had a report over her radio that were were under tornado watch. Well, we've had them before, and after having lived in Texas I knew it could last awhile. I handed off my kids to Audrey, the other staff assistant, as the secretary came over the intercom telling us to get all the kids into the main building into the hallway. I helped check the other buses to make sure all the kids were off. My last bus #24 pulled into the drive and we all hurried to get our kids as the secretary kept coming over the intercom....each time more adamant that we get in NOW.
We were inside the hallway for about 30 minutes until we got the clear to go to our classes. It was a bit interesting because we are in a cluster of schools...4 schools altogether. The intercoms were saying to get all kids out of portables immediatley. Well the trouble you see is that our entire school is portables. Our secretary was asking the district on the phone what they expected us to do since we were all portables. As we sat there they were getting reports that the tornado had touched down in 3 places. We were sitting ducks! We were safe though, but it has been an exciting day!!
Josh came home and was so excited about it all. Vancouver had a tornado touch down in 1972 that was much worse and 8 or 9 people died. There have been no reported injuries from this one.

9 comments:

Jenny Jensen said...

It was funny...within 15 seconds of Josh calling me about it, Jessell called me and was on the other line, but i didn't get to that line in time, and she left a message telling me about it too!! Remember the last time it happened and I slept underneath the stairs for a week!

Shelly's Space said...

I remember that well....you took all your earthly posessions under the stairs with you because we were under a tornado watch. After that we never did tell you when we had a tornado watch because you were so scared!!!

Kristie said...

Wow!!! That is crazy!!! I am glad that you guys were all okay!!!!!!!

Debi said...

Well, actually sister dear, you were probably under a tornado WARNING at the time they were telling you to get the kids into the main building. There is a difference between a watch and a warning. A watch means that the conditions are ripe for a tornado and a WARNING means that a tornado has been sighted or is right overhead when they are watching it by dopler radar. A warning is MUCH more serious! You guys were very brave today! Mom called and left a message on our machine about it tonight. I pulled up the news on the internet and saw all the pictures and read all about it after I talked to her. I'm glad you are safe and sound in your cozy little home tonight. :)

Shelly's Space said...

Thanks for clarifying the difference between a watch and a warning.....I see there was a really bad tornado back east today too, ours was only an F1, but it was exciting for us nonetheless:)

Amanda said...

WOW--That's the kind of excitement I could live without---especially while I was in charge of lil' ones!

So you live so close and have a long enough lunch that you get to go home for lunch? that is REALLY nice:)

Shelly's Space said...

Yes Amanda, I only live like 3 minutes from work. I can come home and eat, make any calls I need to and clean the house if I want:) I love it!!!

Debi said...

How long do you get for lunch, Shelly?

Shelly's Space said...

We have about 50 minutes. Since we don't get any breaks in the mornings we add it into our lunch. I'm usually home for about 45 minutes. We just need to be back by 12:30 to get the kids off the busses:)