Today I had some excitement at the Lincoln Home--I got to see a coprolite ("fossilized excrement") that was excavated from the outhouse behind the Lincoln Home. According to the archaeologist who made the discovery, it possibly dates back to Lincoln's time. It was really big and gross-looking. Little did I know that this was just the beginning of the day's excitement! About five minutes after I arrived home this evening, Greg pulled the weather up on the computer, and it said there was a tornado warning for our county. We were pretty shocked because it seemed too cold outside for there to be any tornadoes forming, but according to the Weather Channel, the tornado was headed for eastern Sangamon County (which is where we live). So, we decided to head west. We packed the animal children up and put them in the safest place in the house--the dogs were in the downstairs hallway, and the kitty was in the bathroom. Then Greg and I left home and started driving west. Then the weather radio said another tornado warning had been issued for WESTERN Sangamon County. Then another one was issued for CENTRAL Sangamon County. It seemed that Springfield was being surrounded by tornadoes. We decided that the safest place to go would be the mall, which has an entire level underground.
Before going inside I wanted to take some pictures. We snapped this one facing south in the parking lot just as the tornado sirens started going off. You can see that the storm is sending down some "feelers." My weather radio was saying that the tornado was coming from the south, so we're pretty sure that this was the storm that prompted the first warnings.
As the storm moved over us, the clouds started looking all crazy. In the very middle of this picture you can kind of see a funnel cloud trying to form. At this point Greg and I decided that we should go inside. Some people coming out of the mall said that the mall was closing because of the tornado--they said that people were being forced to leave the building! That didn't sound right, so we went in anyway, and people weren't really being kicked out. Some stores had put their gates up, but the building itself wasn't closed--luckily. So we were down on the bottom level of the mall for a little while, but I was getting kind of nervous since I wasn't able to
see what was going on.
By the time we went back upstairs, the first storm had blown over, but now there was this SECOND storm blowing in from the southwest--which prompted
another tornado warning. So we went back inside, and within just a few minutes we could hear the hail hitting the skylights in the mall. The weather radio was saying that there were reports of golf ball sized hail in Springfield! We ended up being at the mall for about another hour because as soon as one warning would expire, another would be issued. Finally at about 7:15 p.m. we left the mall (we had gotten there at about 5:30), even though there was still a bit of a thunderstorm going on. The sky was literally green--but we could tell that the worst had passed over us. We drove back home and found the animal children were fine, although a little freaked out. There was a line of pea-sized hail around our doorway (luckily is was not golf ball sized!). It turns out that the only reported damage so far was from up in Athens. When Greg and I first left our house and heard all of the warnings of tornadoes surrounding Springfield, we had talked about driving up to Athens--but luckily we didn't! After all of this excitement Greg and I were pretty worn out and hungry, so we went out for a stake dinner. We are glad that tornadopalooza is over.
Before going inside I wanted to take some pictures. We snapped this one facing south in the parking lot just as the tornado sirens started going off. You can see that the storm is sending down some "feelers." My weather radio was saying that the tornado was coming from the south, so we're pretty sure that this was the storm that prompted the first warnings. 
As the storm moved over us, the clouds started looking all crazy. In the very middle of this picture you can kind of see a funnel cloud trying to form. At this point Greg and I decided that we should go inside. Some people coming out of the mall said that the mall was closing because of the tornado--they said that people were being forced to leave the building! That didn't sound right, so we went in anyway, and people weren't really being kicked out. Some stores had put their gates up, but the building itself wasn't closed--luckily. So we were down on the bottom level of the mall for a little while, but I was getting kind of nervous since I wasn't able to see what was going on. 
By the time we went back upstairs, the first storm had blown over, but now there was this SECOND storm blowing in from the southwest--which prompted another tornado warning. So we went back inside, and within just a few minutes we could hear the hail hitting the skylights in the mall. The weather radio was saying that there were reports of golf ball sized hail in Springfield! We ended up being at the mall for about another hour because as soon as one warning would expire, another would be issued. Finally at about 7:15 p.m. we left the mall (we had gotten there at about 5:30), even though there was still a bit of a thunderstorm going on. The sky was literally green--but we could tell that the worst had passed over us. We drove back home and found the animal children were fine, although a little freaked out. There was a line of pea-sized hail around our doorway (luckily is was not golf ball sized!). It turns out that the only reported damage so far was from up in Athens. When Greg and I first left our house and heard all of the warnings of tornadoes surrounding Springfield, we had talked about driving up to Athens--but luckily we didn't! After all of this excitement Greg and I were pretty worn out and hungry, so we went out for a stake dinner. We are glad that tornadopalooza is over.
1 comment:
Wow, what an adventure! I'm glad it turned out to be of no consequence. I'm looking forward to seeing you soon.
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