The storm part I

RV DATE: 69 - 72ish

The Storm!

I started hearing about the pending storm while we were in FT. Meyer. Seems that there was going to be several waves of storms hitting the US west coast for 10 days or so. Since we were still in the land of phone signals, I had unlimited access to various geeky weather projections, and could watch their progress over the mountains and across the plains.

I got kind of obsessive about checking the weather when we travel ever since the episode in the U.P.

If you haven't heard that story, well, you can ask Terri about it some day..☹... I'm sure everyone has found themselves doing something that had seemed so right but turned into holy hell with no way out!!!

So I checked the weather now and then as we made our way towards Memphis. It was going to rain our 1st night, no storms just abundunt rain and potential for Thunder storms later in the week.

Well you know we did finally find a spot for the week. No problem parking since the betters were still counting money and everyone else was pretending to not look. I told Terri I wasn't going to put out much stuff because of the rain but didn't hear an answer. Was she ignoring me or mad about what I said while backing up? But, then I heard a pop of a cork and knew everything would be fine soon 😎

Just then a lady who was walking past asked if we had found a better spot. (She was camped across from the first site we tried to relandscape) My jaw dropped and several versions of "Did you not see what has been going on" ran through my mind.

"Sure did" I finally replied.

All done, time to tune the TV and check the weather. Ok looks good 1" or so of rain tonight but no wind or storms. But wait. What is that tiny little warning in the corner for Wednesday? Too small..can't quite read it...almost.. dang its gone. Oh well time for Big Bang.

Sure enough it rained a bunch! But that was it. Soggy foggy Monday morning but the sun was coming up and the kids would be out a little later.

That's when I saw it! Terri was watching TV and all in red was Special Alert - Storm of Doom to hit on Wednesday.

Now if you have never been in the Memphis area you will never know the fear that comes with a Special Weather report. Immediate stampedes will ensue for milk, bread and TP in EVERY store. FEDEX will have to schedule additional cargo planes for the downtown hub to meet the requirements, but, it will not be enough....

Actually, the storms in Feb and March in the midsouth can be quite terrible. It is tornado season and these monsters can drop out of a wall of rain at any moment. Train sounds and 71 mobile homes are gone. Fortunately they mostly miss Memphis due to the bluffs on the Mississippi River and will split and slide to the North and South of the city joining together again 20 or 30 miles east. But sometimes. Sometimes they hit dead on. Once we got hit by a straight line wind that I can remember. It was a total disaster. I had just gotten to work and saw a black wall racing toward me. Sirens started blaring from everywhere so I ran in the building before it hit and hit it did. Miles wide, this wind crippled Memphis and 3 or 4 surrounding counties. No power for a couple of weeks in many areas and centuries old trees were blocking most roads. Not a tornado, just a wind.

But, this coming storm will be of BIBOLOGICAL proportions according to all of the news channels. 4.5 out of 5 and possibly a 5 in Northern Mississippi (Memphis suburb) it must be a new Fujita scale or something but DOOM IS COMING!!!!

Stay tuned