Southerners on my Friends list, y'all alright?

[annathepiper]

The tornadoes that ripped up the South last night are the top headline story on seattletimes.com today, including photos, and stickmaker was telling us on the Murk last night about tornado sirens firing off near Frankfort and power flickers at his place. My brother's wife says they're okay. wildshadowstar, how about you, are you reading this?

How about all the rest of you Southern-dwelling folks out there? Let's hear from you!

Comments

[bloody-keri.livejournal.com]

They didn't get down this far, but I hear at least 50 people were killed. That's shocking. And it's a little early in the year, too. Tornado season doesn't really get into full swing until March!

[annathepiper]

Count's up to 54 as of the latest headlines, I saw. O.O

Definitely, definitely reminded of how I don't miss tornadoes one bit.

[morgie.livejournal.com]

Stupid tornadoes. Stupid TN-living.

Naw, we're all good here. Not even roof damages.

[annathepiper]

Oh good, hurray for intact roofs! Thanks for checking in and glad to hear you and yours are okay. :)

[starfallz.livejournal.com]

I slept through everything last night, but haven't seen anything untoward here.

[annathepiper]

Glad to hear all the excitement passed you by!

[starsongky.livejournal.com]

Most of the damage was in the far southwest part of the state, near Memphis. We did get a tornado warning in Lexington last night around 1-2am our time, most of the damage was on the south end of town so it missed us for the most part. We found part of someone's gutters (not ours) in the neighbor's driveway and a broken plastic picnic table in the middle of the street. So other than lack of sleep we're okay.

[annathepiper]

Glad you and Rickey and the boys are un-tornado-blown! How's the Lexington electricity situation?

[starsongky.livejournal.com]

fine in our area, barely a flicker. South side took some hard hits, they had New Circle Rd shut down this morning between Nicholasville & Harrodsburg after a pole snapped and dropped live power lines across the roads. A few of the schools let out around lunchtime when they figured out they wouldn't get the power back on until some time this evening. They've still got a couple of neighborhoods out last I heard.

[annathepiper]

Yowtch, power lines across New Circle! That had to have been a traffic nightmare. Glad to hear it's not too heinous though.

[wildshadowstar.livejournal.com]

Forgot to mention in the email that I just shot your way that as of 7:30-ish this morning, 7 people in KY alone were reported dead due to weather related issues. Don't know the circumstances, as that was what was reported to me.

[annathepiper]

*snugs!* Thanks for checking in, babe, I am very relieved that you and Marc and Didi are all okay. Got your email as well and will be answering that.

[caligogreywings.livejournal.com]

Was woken up around 9 maybe? I dunno, I was groggy. There was a godawful loud crack and bang, and then we were up when the sirens started. If you haven't lived in a tornado area, you just don't know the heart stopping horror you feel. You're body jerks awake, and you just listen for a second, hoping they got the alerts going way before anything hits the ground. You get up, hit the TV, skip through the channels as fast as you can, getting to channel 3, channel 6, 12, 13, 42, whichever local channel has the best reports of your area, hoping they're talking about it right then, hoping the projected time gives you enough time to grab the blankets and hit the hallway. You turn the TV up loud, so you can hear it, check the radio's batteries, and hope despite your preparations that you don't need them. You listen as they talk about rotation, listen for every little town they mention, calculating the storm's speed and the distance to your own house, and just hope.

And afterwards, 10 to 20 minutes after they give the all-clear, when you're sure it's up the highway towards the next town, that you crawl out, or get up, look outside, and call your family, friends. You check everyone, maybe forget that one friend already moved up North, they're no longer where you need to worry, and move on to the next one. Everyone's O.K., but the news moves on to tell you who got hit, how many died where, shows pictures of the trailers and that one lady in the mumu that's always on there. And you turn off the TV, and go back to what you were doing, sleeping, eating, reading, the danger gone from your mind that fast.

[annathepiper]

I haven't had to deal with serious tornado weather since leaving Lexington in 1991--and after, just the once, flying back from my brother's wedding.

But I still remember from when I was a kid.

Thanks for checking in, I'm glad you're okay!

[drglam]

Union University is 45 minutes from my home town.

My people are all ok.

[annathepiper]

*snugs!* Good to hear it! Union was in a couple of the pics we had posted off the AP feed on the Times index.