Bad weather coming

Spare a good thought for my area of the country this evening. We are under an 'enhanced' risk (bordering on 'moderate') for large hail, winds up to 80 mph, and tornadoes.

We've already had two rounds of hail; the second one took out some of my garden and dinged up the side of my garage. I don't want a third, especially not with large hail. (I may have to get an insurance adjuster out to check the roof at some point; I am still thinking of biting the bullet and have a re-roof done this summer even if it means I have to close out one of my little "emergency" accounts to do it).

Of course, I'm most worried about tornadoes. My house is pretty solidly built and it's weathered a good 70 years here, but still - a strong twister in the wrong place would destroy it. I've decided I'm going to trust that the bathroom (with me hiding out in the tub with several quilts and maybe the rubber yoga mat over me - they say to get under a mattress but I can't LIFT a mattress) will be a safe enough shelter, as the storms are supposed to come late tonight, and it's creepy being up in my building late at night (there are rooms that are safe to shelter in here). There aren't any "public" shelters other than on campus, and I don't feel much like spending the hours I'd rather be asleep playing a game of sardines with my colleagues and whatever town residents realize our building has shelters. (The last time I went to an on-campus public shelter, some woman decided I was her new best friend and proceeded to tell me about all the surgeries she'd had in the past year. I don't know. I have that kind of face, I guess).

I don't like hail but tornadoes....I have a long held fear of them. I was *just* old enough to remember hearing about the 1974 outbreak (it killed a lot of people in Xenia, Ohio, which wasn't near to where I lived, but still, it was in *Ohio* which was the state where I lived at the time). And I remember far, far too many summer afternoons when the sirens would blare and we would all run down into the basement to wait it out....someone grabbing the cat first if there was time and he was somewhere nearby. If I had enough prior warning I'd usually grab a favorite stuffed animal or two, or, I admit, if we had a LOT of warning (like, there was a tornado watch), I'd take a backpack and fill it up with all my favorites and just grab the backpack. (Heh. Now they talk about having "go bags" with a battery radio and a flashlight and stuff in it. As a kid, I had my own type of "go bag").

I still occasionally have bad dreams about it....I remember one, where my brother and I were home alone and we had to get from the top floor of the house into the basement as a tornado was visibly approaching. We never actually *experienced* a tornado....the biggest thing that happened, when I was *very* young, was lightning hit the chimney and knocked part of it down (and the rebuild was never as good; the bricks were poorer quality). Also the basement flooded at that time - I remember sitting on the open basement stairs watching my mom bailing water up and out one of the windows to my dad, who was trying to dump it on the ground where the yard sloped away from the house....my mom said she felt a slight shock when the lightning hit, I guess she was lucky - she was standing with her feet in water. (I guess we were also lucky in that the chimney got hit - so no fire was sparked)

But yeah. I'm really hoping this isn't as bad as they're building it up to be. One of the OKC area schools (Mid-Del? I think?) went ahead and cancelled classes for today. I guess they don't have safe rooms, or something, and figure the kids are safer at home? (Though what do working parents do, when there's no school and probably the day cares are closed as well?)