Last night we had some rough weather—thunderstorm and tornado watch—during which we lost power for three hours. It was only the third time we had lost power over the last 35 years.
Having grown up in Tornado Alley, such events bother me less than they do my wife who grew up in California where such meteorological fireworks are relatively rare. St. Louis has pretty much everything: thunderstorms, tornados, hurricanes (they come up the Mississippi), hail, derechos, blizzards, you name it. I don’t recall any dust storms but I don’t feel particularly deprived by that. At any rate my wife, the dogs, and I spent a half hour in the basement until the threat of tornado had passed.
I need to assess the likelihood of our experiencing frequent power outages. If we’re increasingly likely to have them, I’ll think about getting a generator. The gas line is already run so installation shouldn’t be too costly.
A friend from New Orleans that waited out Hurricane Andrew with me, grew up in California and got a job in Muncie Indiana told me that tornados were the worst and couldn’t see how Midwesterners stand it. He said earthquakes are usually over before you figure out it’s happening, hurricane warnings start to gel several days before so you can get supplies or evacuate, but tornado watches and warnings only give you time enough to worry. He asked me what I do, I said I pretty much ignore watches and go to the basement if the tornado sirens go off. Basement? He didn’t have one, so I didn’t help. He moved back to California later that year.
I left that out! St. Louis is subject to earthquakes as well. The New Madrid fault line is about 160 miles away.
In fairness St. Louis has flooding but doesn’t have mudslides like Los Angeles does.
Tornados cut a narrow swath coupled with a wide warning because they’re very unpredictable .
Those of us who are local are likely far too sanguine because the window of time to take cover is short and the odds of being missed are quite large. So it goes.