Tornado!

Today started out as a pretty normal Monday. We had a little extra school on our docket since we hadn't quite finished everything on Wednesday before Grandma arrived. We were still finishing up our work when it was very close to 5 o'clock.

It was a very muggy feeling day. Pretty overcast, but no rain. Accuweather on our phones forecasted thundershowers for the afternoon, but we still hadn't seen any sign of them by the dinner hour. We started seeing some lightning strikes and hearing thunder and there was some light rain.

After dinner, Brock and I started working on planning where to go from here. We are looking into the Sarasota area and found a campground possibility, but it was too late tonight to check about availability. The thunder and lightning were continuing, but it still seemed mild and somewhat distant. Right around 7:30, both our phones started making a horrible noise like the emergency broadcasting system. Brock saw a text message on his that said there was a tornado warning for our area and we needed to take shelter immediately. Storm was expected to hit within 15 minutes! We quickly got on our shoes and went over to the main building. As we attempted to "seek shelter" inside, we were met by a cleaning lady who said the building was closed and she was cleaning. We told her about the tornado and she just nodded and smiled and said it was closed, but motioned we could stay in the pool area. (not sure she spoke much English). We all gathered around a table in the covered area of the pool and watched the lightning and then the heavy rains hit; we still weren't seeing any winds; the camp wifi is good in that area and the kids were checking email or watching youtube and downloading Angry Birds Star Wars. :O) A couple of us were a little freaked out and panicked ("I don't want to die!"), but for the most part we remembered Whose we are and trusted we were safe in His Hands.

The thunder and lightning put on a good show for us and we stayed in the building area keeping an eye on it for close to an hour and still there was no winds. We looked at the weather site again and there was no mention of tornado now, just beware of the thunderstorm. We decided it was safe to head back to the trailer. It was past time for the little boys to get into bed.

The storm continued to move over us and eventually quieted completely in time for a good night's sleep.