I've been told the best you can do if you're in a house without a basement is climb into the bathtub with something over you like a mattress.

(Except that in my house, the bathtub is on the 2nd floor corner. But we have a basement, and I'll be there crouched under the old cast-iron sink, clutching my favorite cat.)

Yeah, I saw someone asking "why so many deaths, were people (like the videographers) just ignoring alerts?" but when your NEIGHBORHOOD IS GONE there's not much you could have done to protect yourself. A lot of people in the south don't have basements; if you live in a trailer you're basically fucked.

Yeah, I love hearing people Monday morning quarterbacking from their safe (likely non-trailer) homes on the choices that people facing an immediate disaster make.

(Um, not directed to anyone here obviously!!!)

What an awful situation in the Alabama/Georgia area.

I can't believe all the tornado activity this month. April really is the cruelest month.

And also I heard something about a hurricane developing, which is a couple months ahead of the season.

Frank, there's nothing on the National Hurricane Center's website. (Why yes, I do have it bookmarked.)

That footage from Alabama is terrifying.

flea, I'm glad that you and the fam are OK. Hayden, I'm glad you're family is all right as well.

Job ~ma for Kat!

I'm totally obsessed with my nails right now, but I can't remember the name of the color. It's OPI, some sparkly aqua shade.

Frank, there's nothing on the National Hurricane Center's website.

Phew. That's a relief.

I don't have to report to the new job (have I mentioned that enough yet?) until tomorrow, which leaves me to clear up a bunch of stuff I've been putting off like car inspection and oh yeah, quitting the supermarket job. SIGH

The destruction in AL is heartbreaking. People often make fun of trailer parks getting hit by tornadoes but that just means that the poor are in more danger in those storms.

I'm in utter disbelief that there is snow again in WI. I'm dreading leaving the sun and 90 degree temps for drizzling, freezing rain and snow tonight.

I can't comprehend a mile-wide tornado. I had to map out in my head how far 1 mile is from my house, and I am gobsmacked to think of a tornado that huge.

I've been told the best you can do if you're in a house without a basement is climb into the bathtub with something over you like a mattress.

I have many memories of doing this in my childhood. We moved from a street nicknamed Tornado Alley (where everything BUT my first home was leveled in the Big One of '73 a couple years after we left) to a block bounded by trailer parks and fairgrounds. Thankfully we never had worse damage than an outside utility room door getting yanked away, but relatives two blocks down lost part of their roof.