I don’t know if I’ve told you this, but I currently live in Temple, TX.  On Wednesday, at around 6:50, an EF-2 tornado came tearing through town, and the circulation passed very close to my house.

Usually I’m standing outside watching storms approach.  I like storms and they’re pretty cool to watch.  They have interesting cloud formations and I know where is safe to be and where isn’t.  My house wasn’t safe to be, that day.  I ended up holing up in the bathroom with my cat, while the power went out.  Fortunately, I was prepared, and have a light I wear around my neck when power outages occur (or can reasonably be expected).  As the storm passed, the hail was loud and incessant.  Once the core passed, the lightning was scary.  I found out my fence had blown down.

Fortunately, I’m pretty prepared for short term inconveniences like this.  I have two large battery banks that I can use to keep my phone charged (I barely made a dent in one), I have a few UPSes that can give me a few hours of internet, and, well, I got through it.  The power came out at 4:30 AM after ten hours.  The net was out until about 3 PM the following day.  There’s always more preparation I can do, like I need to buy more battery powered backup bulbs, but it worked out.

I was lucky, though.  My house was otherwise unscathed.

Those of you from different countries (which my blog is mostly but not entirely targeted to) may not understand how violent these storms are.  The winds were as powerful as at least a low grade typhoon.  I was hiding in an internal bathroom, and was seriously concerned for my safety and that of my cat.  It was not out of the question that my house could have been seriously damaged or destroyed.  I was one of the lucky ones.  Those in west Temple weren’t so lucky.

I was out driving and saw signs of damage everywhere. Street signs blown down.  Traffic lights damaged or twisted out of alignment.  Tree branches in the road.  It’ll take a while for my city to recover.

But I was able to get food, and otherwise Amazon is still delivering, so for me anyway, things are back to normal.

I hope the rest of Temple gets back to normal soon.