The images flying around the internet of Hurricane Rita's progress are pretty amazing. One picture I saw earlier this morning (that I can no longer find for some reason) showed a gnarly black sky against some scarily raging waves. It reminded me of the one and only time I have experienced something like that.
I was driving across country, many years ago now and my ex was at the wheel. I slowly began to notice how dark the sky was growing, and commented to him about it.
"I think they say when the sky gets that black a tornado is coming. I can't remember where I heard that, but its the first thing I thought of when I looked at it."
Neither of us took me all that seriously, it was really more of a, "hey listen to what I heard." kind of a thing, because being from California, I really only know about earthquakes.
All of a sudden the semi-truck in front of us (a 3 trailer truck, mind you) wildly swerved across all three lanes as it got blown off the road. I freaked, yelling to my ex to pull off the road and find some shelter, and by some miracle we got off the pavement safely and found a closed but pretty stable freeway-side fruit stand with a large and sturdy looking overhang to park under.
The noise and the sheer strength of the wind was defening and so scary as it whipped around the truck, literally causing the truck to move around and pumping air through an entirely closed vehicle.
Once it passed, we turned on the radio and heard the annoucer say, "A tornado just touched down in Wizard Wells, Texas folks, y'all be careful out there." We waited a while and then decided to get going, but both a little shaken.
I can only imagine how much more scary it is for the people on the Golf Coast facing Rita, and how horrific it was for the people who endured Katrina. If you can spare some time or money to help them out, plese find a reputable charitable organization to donate to.
:O)
