| Back on CST
Just a little flash update from Franklin, TN.
Today is day 5 and I am almost through with my training. One
more day and I get to go back to beautiful sunny OC-at least I hope so. This is my
3rd time in Franklin,
TN and I am now used to the area,
though I managed to get lost for a good 10 minutes last night. (thanks for your help Hae! You’re still the best GPS out there even on the other side of the
country) However, I didn’t know what to expect from the weather since I only
had a glimpse of the hot humid weather of TN this past summer. And boy, was it humid!
This time around, it was a bit different.
Tuesday’s forecast: strong storms & heavy rain.
Little did
I know this quickly turned into state warnings for tornado watch and strong
storms. The sound of this was not reassuring at all but none of my coworkers
seemed to be alarmed; perhaps because they are all used to tornados and storms.
Was I maybe overacting? I think not! After my coworkers and I were done with
lunch, I opened the door on our way out of the restaurant, and was pushed away
by the wind-so hard that I almost fell. Luckily, I was holding on to the door
handle and didn’t fly away. Later that evening, I was sitting in my hotel room looking
at the radar map, following the storm moving across TN. I waited that that the “red
area” passed Franklin
so I could go grab some dinner. I waited, and waited, but could still hear the
rain, wind and thunder. I decided to go out anyways thinking that it would only
get worse and that I needed to leave now. It was pouring. I could barely see in
front of me and I nearly drove off the road. I was looking for the place and was
really praying that God would be my eyes because I felt I was driving blindly.
As soon as I found the restaurant, and came to a stop, the rain stopped. I
couldn’t believe it. I guess this would
have been the time when the storm would have passed my city if I was still in
my hotel room starring at the radar map. It was a scary experience but it
wasn’t as bad as today’s.
Today’s forecast: thunder storms and severe weather.
Since I had already experienced the forecasted “strong
storms & heavy rain” of Tuesday and didn’t run into any tornados, I wasn’t
too worried about today’s weather predictions. But around 2pm, the sky was
pitch-dark, as if it was night time. Around 2:30pm, it rained so hard that we
couldn’t even hear what our trainer was saying. All we heard were the rain, the
wind, and the sirens. At this point the rain was so dense that we could not
even see the highway, which is right behind our building. The wind was so strong
that the big light poles were swinging side to side. The sirens were blasted so
loud that I could only imagine the car crashes that had just occurred. But then
one of the officers came rushing down, and told us to evacuate our training
room and hideout in the stairwell. Fortunately, we didn't have to stay there for too long. It seemed
as if the storm had swooped by like a beast.
I later found out that the sirens
were actually tornado sirens-civil defense sirens warning us about the threat
of a possible tornado.
It reminded me of the end times.
It made me think. |
