Don't look now, ...there's a tornado outside!

Mobile homes and chicken houses make excellent targets for
tornados. Proof of this will be on the evening news. Tonight.

My morning started early. The weather radio's alarm went off around
five o'clock. Dreaded news for mobile homes, other wise known as
manufactured homes. (In this article, they will be referred to simply
as trailers)

It's a tornado warning.

My neighbors began knocking on the door by 5:03, still in their pj's
and un-combed hair. They had fled their trailers for the more stable
option of my couch.

The bad news was spilling from the television in the form of colored
graphs and charts. If you live in a red county, you're screwed. Orange
county, you're about to be screwed. If you're still yellow, move to
Rhode Island.

Channel 12...The Storm Watch Team. I'm not sure what kind of team
they really are. None of them wore uniforms.

We watched for about five hours straight. I learned a lot. I now know
the names of all the counties surrounding mine. I'm fairly certain the
weatherman has a crush on the news anchor. The female one. And
I know that Vipir radar is WAAAAAAYYY better than Doppler
radar. (but don't tell channel 3) I'm not sure what Doppler is, but I
think its a cool name. Maybe I'll name my next dog Doppler.

Tornados were everywhere. And yes, they apparently hate trailers
and chicken houses. I watched a news reporter trying to explain the
scenario to us worried viewers. It was extremely difficult for him
with all the chickens running loose around his feet. Chickens were
everywhere. In the mangled trees, in peoples cars and some
attached to peoples heads. Apparently, the house the chickens once
occupied, along with all their belongings, had flew the coop.

I couldn't help but imagine the dinner menu later that night at the
local Salvation Army shelter.

Watching the news footage filmed from a helicopter, you could see
where trailers had once been. Just a long rectangular outline in the
grass. The trailer has since become mobile.

Still watching the video, you can see right into peoples homes from
overhead, because the roof is gone. All I could think about was, my
ex-wife would have been so mad if that had happened to her house,
and she hadn't cleaned up in a few days. "Filming my house for the
whole world to see, and its a mess! Look at all that dust on top of the
entertainment center! Is that your dirty socks lying right in the
in the middle of the living room floor? Hey, there's the remote
behind the couch!"

Cars are overturned and destroyed. Homes have no wall. Horses
have no stables. Birds have no trees. Dogs have no houses. Schools
have no roofs. Churches have no steeples.

The weather was bad today, but at least no one was killed. Several
people were taken to the hospital, but as far as I know, no serious
injuries. For this, we are thankful.

Also, for the free chickens......Thanks