Romancing the Storm

photo and image from Wikipedia Commons

Today we have the first tornado watch of the tornado season. So Lucy and I have been outside, watching.

When I was 12, I climbed up the television antenna tower that was attached to the back of our ranch house in Grosse Pointe Shores. My mom and sister and I had already gathered water and flashlights and taken them down to the basement. There was a tornado warning. A twister was spotted heading up I-94 and I desperately wanted to see it. I went outside while my mom was glued to Sonny Eliot on the console TV in the den. I climbed the antenna like a ladder and tried to spot a funnel, aware of the danger, but not caring.

I wonder why I am so fascinated with the idea. Even though tornadoes occur everywhere on the planet, except Antarctica, most of them occur in the United States, and though Michigan isn’t officially in “tornado alley”, we are in the active zone. I grew up with tornado warnings, so I’ve been waiting.

When I saw the movie Twister, I was enthralled. I totally identified with Helen Hunt’s character Dr. Jo Harding’s fixation. But she watched her father being sucked up by and F5. She wanted to develop an early warning system, she had a plan. I don’t have that excuse.

Me, I just want to see one.

In my right mind, I realize the pain and deaths that these terrors cause. I will never forget getting a phone call from my sister when I lived in New York. She was calling from her cell phone, driving on M-59 with the niece and nephew, then toddlers, in the car. In her always calm voice, she left a message saying she just wanted me to know that there was a tornado warning, the afternoon sky was jet black, that there was big blinding hail and the wind was moving her car.

The message ended abruptly. I remember hours of panicky dialing because the phone system went down. Everyone was alright, but the memory still makes me cringe.

Still, in my un-right mind, I continue to go outside looking for the funnels.

Why?

- - - David