Yesterday a massive storm ripped through out part of Texas. We were under a tornado warning for a few hours. Luling south-east of us got hit with a tornado. Round Rock north of us did too. Apparently our old neighborhood up there suffered massive wind damage. Kid 1’s best friend’s parents’ house is ripped up.
I thought we were going to have a tornado, because it did that thing where it’s wind, wind, wind, then suddenly it’s completely still, and then storm clouds just poured in very fast.
To make things a tiny bit more stressful, Kid 2 did not answer her phone for a couple of hours and neither did her boyfriend, so as soon as the tornado warning lifted, Gordon got into the car, and I went with him, and we drove through the remnants of the storm half an hour to her house.
The sun was setting. Huge clumps of clouds flashed with lightning like strobe lights, non-stop, with a second or two between flashes. The road was wet. Everyone drove like a champ, because Texans have zero problem driving through a possible tornado cell. It’s when a single snowflake hits the road that we have a massive freak out.
We got there, and her car was in the driveway. They are fine. She was working and didn’t realize her phone died and her boyfriend had his phone off to study.
So our family is fine. Everyone we know is fine. But the damages to our general area are terrible.
Breann says
Glad to hear that all your family is safe! We recently went through some bad tornado weather here too and worrying about children in it is waaaaay worse than wondering about yourself. ((Hugs)) ????
Breann says
Wow, I got first! It’s been awhile. ????
Keera says
Glad to hear everyone is safe!
Jamic says
Glad you’re all safe.
Nancy Weaver says
Yep, after last fall’s tornado during Round Top Tx Antique Show, everyone was tied down with overkill here for last nights storms. Whew, it seems soggy, but Ok here. Round Rock looks beat up. Glad everyone is good.
Laura Martinez says
So glad to hear everyone is okay. But that was scary!!!
Andrea Smith says
Glad to hear that you guys are safe.
Kat Marvel says
Not to mention the damages to your peace of mind!
Glad everyone’s safe!
Ms. Kim says
+1
Wont says
Thank you for letting us know. Not knowing is the worst. ????
Patty says
Also, why does Round Rock not have tornado sirens or they have them but they don’t work. My brother told me they heard nothing yesterday in the way of sirens and they were rushing from car to house having just returned from Dallas when the tornados touched down. Just had time to grab the dogs and taco the cat and get into the bathroom.
Moderator R says
I hope everyone is ok, Patti! Were the animals scared?
Patty says
The dogs were upset for a bit but Taco could care less about much of anything or acts like he could care less.
He is only perturbed by the fact that they keep him away from me when I am down on Tuesdays because I am severely allergic.
KC says
@Patty – sounds like they’re ok, if rattled, and I’m glad.
Yes, Austin and round Rock have sirens. Some of the smaller communities around them do not, because their cities have not invested in them.
Sirens usually only go off for 1-2 minutes when the warning is first issued, and then once more for the all clear. The sirens are only meant to tell people who are outside to seek shelter. They’re not meant to be heard from inside vehicles or houses. Frankly because of what we demand in our home and vehicles, there’s a lot of sound insulation qualities built into them. I rarely hear ambulance sirens especially because of the doppler effect if they’re coming up behind me for instance. I live about 150 yards away from a Tornado siren, and if I’m inside the house I usually won’t hear it. The house has to be quiet for me to hear it: i.e. no a/c actively running t that moment, no laundry going, no listening to music, or watching tv.
Our weather radar is sophisticated enough now that sometimes we can have a lot of lead time for warnings.(For those outside Texas, warnings are issued when either we have a confirmed report of a tornado, or wether radar shows wind rotation confirming that we’ve got a funnel trying to produce. because of that we’ve managed to increase warning times for people to seek shelter.) For instance when the tornado warning alert came through on my phone I had about 20 minutes before it was going to be hitting my neighborhood. Some areas had more than 30 minutes warning. Of course sometimes they spin up so fast when we’re in a tornado watch, and we have maybe only 3-5 minutes to get the warning out when suddenly rotation starts up. Some cities are starting to do multiple rounds of the sirens, but that can be confusing because of the all clear signal. I remember when we didn’t have today’s weather radar sensitivities and the only time a warning was issued was when you had confirmed eye witness reports of touch down. Which unfortunately took time to be called in, reported, and for city officials to trigger the sirens. And rain wrapped tornados or ones at night just weren’t seen until after the fact.
So it sounds like they were on the road probably when the sirens first went off.
A tornado watch was issued hours before the storms rolled in. The NWS issues those as a head’s up that everyone in that area of effect should be paying attention to the weather because they know that the ingredients for a possible tornado can be produced in the storm front. So people need to be aware and pay attention to the weather and be in a position to follow time sensitive alerts. and such alerts, and ideally should be planning around it. I.E. don’t go grocery shopping, avoid non essential travel during the time period of the watch, maybe adjust your commute times to try to avoid being out during the window of the watch. We get so used to these though that I think most of us are guilty to sort of disregarding them. Like “oh it’s X’s birthday let’s go out to eat” I can be a bit guilty of that too. ^^;
They should have gotten alerts on their phone though, and it’s concerning if they didn’t. Did they accidentally turn off alerts? Was their phone off? Or was the phone tracking in a different gps location at the time the alert was issued (i.e if they were on the interstate were they in an area when the alert was issued at their house, that they were outside of the alert area?)
Patty says
@KC
I am from Dallas, currently living just north of there now. Trust me I totally understand all the radar ins and outs and all the the weather service stuff. During Severe weather I live on Channel 8, the only weather people I trust. I can tell how bad things will get by the main weather guy, and whether or not he has his coat and tie on and if his sleeves are rolled up.
I lived in Round Rock for several years at different points in my life and I never actually heard any sirens when I lived down here…and my old apartment was crap for insulation. My brother said they did not hear any sirens, nor did their neighbors…everyone got the alerts on their phones. Maybe they missed the sirens, or they didn’t go off long enough. They were lucky to get home in time, they live not far from Dell Diamond which did get hit. I will not be driving by to view anything, even though I really want to know if the Hat Creek burgers over there survived. I dont want to get in the way. I hate it when people gawk, especially on the highway.
I do know that UT has sirens and that they went off yesterday, I got the text alerts on my phone as they are my employer (I drive down once a week now to teach). I am currently fighting Taco the cat for my pistachios, this is not cool.
KC says
WFAA Channel 8 is my go to for weather too especially in situations like yesterday!
Randy says
I was texting back and forth with Co-workers starting at 5:52. At 5:56 I was told a tornado was heading our way. At 5:57 I was texted that it was here. At 5:59, the tornado passed by, doing damage to all the houses around us. We personally had no house damage. It was like being in a protective bubble while mahem was going on.
I don’t think there was time to get the siren out. The weather was nice, then it wasn’t. The only reason my co-workers knew about it was because they had the TV on and I was lounging around.
Tink says
Do you not get tornado alerts through your cell phone? I remember I was visiting Savannah once and my phone went off at 4 or 5am, even though I have do not disturb on. It had a broadcast alert of tornado warning or watch, whichever one is the more severe one.
Did you not get alerts on your phones about the tornadoes?
Moderator R says
Not everyone has access to mobile phones- financially, due to lack of ease around technology or being differently able.
They may also not be charged, inaccessible etc.
Tink says
Oh, yes, true. I’m not sure I’d even know what a tornado siren would sound like since they weren’t common in northern Michigan. I’d probably assume it was a call for volunteer firefighters to assemble for a fire. I hear that occasionally if my window is open.
AP says
Very glad to hear you and yours are OK – how scary!!!
Emily says
As a child I was terrified of storms, but there was a persistent myth that due to a quirk of geography, it was not possible for a tornado to hit my town. As an adult, I learned that this myth technically only applied to what had been “town” as of about a hundred years ago… and that it was always just a myth. I called home from a summer internship one day in college and my mom said we’d had an EF4 rip through just a couple of blocks from our house. My brother had nearly driven into it; he abandoned his car and ran to a nearby house to take shelter with the residents. Mom was locked out of the house because we all just got in through the garage door and didn’t carry keys, but the power was out. The tornado had gone straight through where that myth said it couldn’t, and since then we’ve had two or three more do the same thing. I even had one go right over me. It was a little EF1, it didn’t do much damage (none to the building I was in), but it did actually result in a fatality of someone who was caught outside in it. My boss at the time didn’t think we needed to take shelter, so I watched the wind in the tree outside my window suddenly pick up, whip to the right, go freaky still, and then whip to the left, and then go back to normal storm wind.
No fatalities is priority 1. No injuries is priority 2. But… that EF4 changed the landscape near home so dramatically that for a while it felt alien, driving up the hill and seeing blank spaces where there used to be massive trees. I’m still a bit sad about some of them, and sometimes I look at satellite imagery to see if I can still pick out the blank space where young trees are just starting to fill in.
Kayeri says
Are you in Tulsa? I’ve heard about a legend there, but that’s the only one I know of.
Rachel says
If you have both have Alexas you can do the drop-in calling in the future. I’m sure they are other smart speaker options. We use Alexa together for my Dad and I have been really happy so far.
Mariette says
Glad you all are safe.
Carissa White says
So thankful everyone is safe, it was an interesting day!! Sounds like we’re “neighbors “!! We live in Cedar Creek, Cloe to Red Rock! I enjoy the snippets of life you share and soooo excited for the new books!!
Lynn Latimer says
We just got a little much needed rain in San Antonio. I saw incredible footage on CNN of a pickup truck near Elgin being spun around and flipped over, then once the truck was put down the person drove away!!!!!!
Johanna J says
Grateful to hear you all are okay. Our tornado warning here expired around 7 pm.
Ann says
Thanks so much for letting us know! Glad it skipped you all — the video I’ve seen of it is astonishing
Trisha in Okla says
Aww, tornado season. Here we go again… Glad yall came thru ok.
Sechat says
prayers for all affected.
Peace,
Sara T says
My son flew back to Austin last night. Airport was a mess.
Flight landed at 11.40pm. They deplaned at 1:15ish.
Baggage carousels were off.
Folks of the 5 planes before this were sleeping all over.
Finally he made it to campus at 3am.
At least they landed safely!!
Moderator R says
So glad he’s ok, that sounds like an anxious nightmare!
Nancy says
So glad everyone in your family is safe. Tornados are just scary. I grew up in Maryland and never heard of a tornado hitting here until I was in college. Now every summer it seems there are at least several tornado watches, partly because the weather people are better at seeing the conditions with today’s technologyI think. Scary though. One hit College Park and came up through Laurel 20-some years ago. I was living between Laurel and Columbia, and we just got the horrible winds. Bad enough to take the top third of a Sycamore tree in my back yard and dump it in my neighbor’s yard. Did the same two houses down. My first indication, other that the news, that something was going on was both cats went under my bed in the middle and wouldn’t come out. Glad I didn’t have to try to grab them. If that is the closest I ever come to one, I will be very happy,
Mary Beth says
Glad everyone is okay. we’re supposed to get tornado’s today possibly tomorrow.
Not looking forward to the cleanup, either. Yay, Spring?
Moderator R says
Hope you come out completely unscathed!
Marianne H says
Thank goodness you & all your family are fine! I am so sorry for the poor people who were hit by those tornadoes and suffered damage of any kind and degree.
There are so many people suffering today, from natural disasters like those tornadoes, or from the actions of some mad man (invasion of Ukraine). It certainly puts the small things I bemoan into a different light, and makes me realize how fortunate I really am.
Judy Schultheis says
I’m glad to hear you’re all okay. I hope you stay that way.
We’re getting fairly normal weather here for the time of year, which (thankfully) does not include tornadoes.
Normal weather for this time of year does include the occasional flood, but I live too far above the river to have to worry much about that.
KC says
Glad y’all are ok, it was gnarly.
Yesterday in Texas was ‘special’. Across parts of the state you had:
Blizzard Warning
High Winds Advisory
Multiple Wild Fires
Thunderstorms with lightning, hail,
and Tornadoes
At one point we’re hunkered down in the closet with the cats (treats are a great way to get them to come in with you, especially my Rory she’s so food motivated), I have the news streaming on my phone and the radar weather track with the rotation is heading right for us. Luckily for us it weakened as approaching. The neighbors lost a 40-50 year old live oak tree it split in half but hadn’t fallen, so they were out with a chainsaw cutting it bit by bit before it fell on their house.
It was dark, and gloomy and then the sun came out right at sunset and gave us a rainbow.
Patricia Schlorke says
I saw the footage of the Austin/Round Rock area. It looks like what happened in Jacksboro and Montague. Fort Worth was under a tornado warning due to a spin up near the Joint Reserve Base (which is west of where I live). It moved to the northeast. If it moved due east, I would have been in my stairwell with shoes on and my phone in hand. A friend of my from Atlanta saw the footage and texted me later to make sure I was alright.
One of my coworkers told me this morning that her son saw a funnel cloud near their home in Hurst, but the funnel didn’t touch down. Sighs of relief from me and my coworkers.
Glad to hear everyone is ok in your neck of the woods, Ilona.
KC says
@Patricia
I’m in Hurst, we were lucky, the rotation weakened as it approached us! It was definitely gnarly.
Berna says
Glad you’re all safe!!
Kris says
I know that feeling ! I’m on the Parker/Wise county line and thankfully everything went northwest thru Jack/Montague counties. There was a bunch of damage up there too. It’s gonna be a wild spring in Texas this year! Buckle up Buttercup! Glad you guys are ok!
Faith says
Scary stuff, tornadoes! In fact, of all the places I’ve lived, I found the Texas weather the worst, year round…including blizzards and ice storms causing massive power outages lasting a week or more (the outages).
So glad all’s well with your family.
Faith
Patricia Schlorke says
I think Oklahoma and Texas are tied for worst weather. What one state doesn’t have the other one does. It gets crazy. 😀
Donna A says
Pleased to hear everyone is safe and sound. Hopefully nicer weather will prevail. It’s pleasantly sunny in London, UK, I will try and send some your way ????
Chiara (Chandramas) says
Glad to hear everyone is safe.
Much love guys!!!
Angela Knight says
I’m so sorry for the damage, but so glad you and your family are okay!
Jean Morgan says
May God always hold you and yours in the palm of his hand and keep you safe from harm.
Donna says
Glad that you are all safe and sound. Y’all ready to move to Oregon yet?
pklagrange says
I’m so glad that you are all okay. Tornadoes can be unbelievably destructive and can randomly destroy one block while leaving the next intact. We don’t get them where we live in VA (at least to date) and I’m grateful. You may wish to consider Northern VA- cost of living and allergies suck, but weather is not half bad. Lots of sun, cooler than TX with less humidity (although that bar is low) and access to great food and events. Plus you get a ring-side seat for the insanity that is politics.
MariaZ says
Just watched the weather on the news, WOW what a massive storm. Weatherman said they predicted it 7 days out which is amazing in regards that the weather service is getting better and better at predicting these weather events.
Glad everybody is safe
Kelticat says
So glad that everyone is safe. Also glad that I live in an area where I can count the number of tornadoes for the past 50 years on one hand.
Trix says
Glad all of urs are safe. So sorry for the ones that aren’t.
I’ll take my New York mountains blizzards hunkering down by the woodstove and handy dandy generator over being in a tornado’s path any day.
Bill from NJ says
This is all part of weather going chaotic. Having some spent my whole life in the NYC area, we are seeing heavy winds so much more than ever, talking winds 30+ w high gusts.
Tornadoes were extremely rare and usually the were localized and small. Now they are a lot more common, last summer there was a bad storm system that spawned tornadoes and there were like 5 active at the same time and they were strong, which the weather guy said simply never happened.
Glad to hear you guys were okay. We just finished watching this you tube channel where the woman was in Germany and she was in the town of Braunfels, and mentioned that New Braunfels was founded by people from there:)
jewelwing says
Same here, farther down the east coast. Weather has gotten really extreme. I’m looking at moving next year, and at least a partial basement or storm cellar is on my list of requirements in case of weather emergencies. I’ve always had homes with basements. The area where I’m relocating is on the fall line between piedmont and coastal plain. The coastal plain soils and water table are iffy for basements. I’m going to try to stay on the piedmont side.
Pyrane says
????????????
***Pyrane***
Bill G says
Good news among the bad.
MP says
Good to hear you and your family are safe.
Kat in NJ says
Oh my gosh, I’m so glad to hear you are all safe! We don’t get nearly as many tornados in NJ as you do, but we do get some wild summer thunderstorms that have been known to spawn tornados or microbursts, so I can imagine how scary that was. Stay safe!
Joe says
my neighbors –
Gabrielle says
Very glad you are all okay, though sorry to hear about others not so fortunate.
Pam says
I was hoping all is well when I heard the news. Thank you for the update.
Tom says
Glad to hear everyone at House Andrews and amongst the Horde is safe!
We’re hot and clear over here in our bit of the UK right now – have as much of that from us as you wish!
Kathryn says
Feeling your pain-just south of you in San Antonio and my daughter worked a 4:00-11:00 shift last night. I was texting her that the walk-in freezer was her safest bet and worrying when she didn’t reply. Turns out they got slammed (lots of Texans are unconcerned about tornadoes unless one is in sight) and she was the only server.
But a colleague in Round Rock said a their house got skipped when the storm tore up houses on either side of them.
SoCoMom says
I am glad you are all okay.
Wendy says
Glad you all are safe.
Kayeri says
Been there, done that, and I hope everyone affected can get things sorted out with as little red tape as possible! Up here in Nebraska, it’s just a light, soaking rain. Since we had Spring-like weather up until the rain, we all sighed, hauled our jackets back out and reminded ourselves that we really need the rain since it’s been a dry winter here.
I’m glad the family is well! Oh, and our tornado sirens were tested about 2 weeks ago. We have a tower at the other end of our block. You can definitely hear them, even inside. =)
rlaWTX says
Texas is weird and big.
WTX is so windy and dry we can’t see on I20 because of dirt. WestCentral Tx had fires then rain. Central TX had rain and tornados. South Tx was in the 80s. And the Panhandle had snow. ????????♀️
Judith Stanton says
I’m so glad you and your family are safe. When we lived in Atlanta, GA, the west side of the city and the western suburbs tended to have the worst tornadoes. As we lived in Decatur, we thought we were “safe.” All it took was one small tornado coming thru the Morningside area to change my mind. After that, the dogs and cats came to the basement with us every time!
Melisa M. says
Glad you and your family and friends are safe! Thank you for the update. When I hear something happens in Texas- I immediately think of you guys!
Inga Abel says
You should think about moving to Switzerland! No scorpions, tornados, hurricanes, skunks or other threats for your life. The snow mostly falls where it belongs – in the mountains on the slopes. ????
Stay safe and feel hugged!
Inga
Len says
Soo relieved and glad to hear that all your family is safe!
Joy says
Kids ????????
Mine does the same kind of thing. It’s a patented ‘oh-what-yeah-I-didn’t-have-my-phone-on-during-the-catastrophic-weather-or-historical-event thing????
Terri says
So sorry to hear from you about the tornadoes! We see it on the news, but when it hits someone we “know” it hurts!
Lara S. says
We were lucky to be missed too up in Georgetown. It’s horrible seeing how many people had damage and are now also without electricity and water.
Jean says
So glad you and your kids are safe!! Hugs to all the critters, too!! Spring weather sure seems crazier than it used to be (or maybe there’s just more coverage since the news channels are now 24/7…)!
Michelle says
So glad you and your family are safe. We lucked out in East Dallas!
Kimberly au Telemanus says
I live in The Woodlands(so not too far from y’all), and it was pretty rough here, too. I slept through it, mostly, and surprisingly, so did the baby!
Y’all are just the very best parents! I love how much you care about your kids❤️
If y’all are looking for a third, LMK????
My baby just turned 1 year old, and my Mom(who lives just 3 hours away) has never tried to meet him once:(
So, it’s just the two of us, but that’s okay.
It’s always so nice to hear about good parenting—makes me happy ????
Moderator R says
I’m so sorry to hear that, Kimberly ????
Lynene says
Being a parent is scary. Bad for those adrenaline surges. So glad to hear everyone’s fine.
Regina says
The trip to Kid 2’s house had to be the longest drive of your life.
Glad to hear it was a non-event given the destruction suffered in neighboring areas.
I pray you and your family well.
Omar Mtz says
Glad that kid 2 and boyfriend were okay.
Mar says
Glad you are all safe. I don’t think I would live in a place that has scorpions dropping from ceilings and tornadoes forming out of nowhere.
Robin says
I am sorry for those whose lives have been upended and delighted that your nearest and dearest survived without great damage.
I was in Fort Worth when a nasty tornado tried to eat all of downtown. Scary!
Maria M. OToole says
I grew up in IL…in the days before Doppler radar. At least now the science and tech are sophisticated enough that tornado watches are reasonably accurate predictions of a possible tornado, and warnings are a definite “take cover” for a well-defined area.
Not so when I was a kid. Tornado watches would be called in the spring and summer for every damned system of strong thunderstorms that came through, easily 20 or so a year. I think I saw one—one! tornado in 20 years…and it was doing a great job of messing up a plowed field.
So glad to hear you’re all OK!
Sarah says
Glad to hear everyone is okay!
Claudia says
Whew, thanks for letting us know you’re all okay!
Jacqueline says
So glad to here you and the family is well. The discription of the storm and drive is so strong I could feel your anxiety to get to your child. Happy everything is well.
Caroline says
Our main campus for Holmes Community College in Goodman MS took a bad hit yesterday from a tornado that did several million dollars worth of damage but no injuries. We have 2 dorms and our cafeteria that were damaged so bad they won’t reopen until the fall, if then along with two other buildings. Since we have students in those dorms we are very blessed that no injuries occurred. The last count was 40 -50 buildings with roof damage. Our school closed early due to the expected severe weather so we are blessed in that regard. Our school president said he just felt a nudge that we needed to close although we don’t usually. He is very thankful he listened to that nudge as all of us are!
Patricia Keck says
We are in North Texas, the final count was five tornados, Jacksboro was just destroyed. We hunkered down in the storm shelter after I face planted in the mud twice trying to get last dog in. No damages for us but scary.
Karen says
Glad your family is safe ❤️.
Ellen D says
I work in retail. After a couple of bad storms I see why the injuries and worse are so high when people are in public when a tornado hits. It’s because THEY’RE STILL SHOPPING!! We move everyone to the break room. Customers and employees alike watching the news in grim silence as it shows us right in the middle of a tornado sighting. Less than 2 minutes a manager approached a couple of employees. A customer was demanding their purchase be rung up and then loaded. Despite the news still saying to take shelter many of the customers decided this meant it was safe to continue with their shopping took themselves and their children back to the floor. The rest of the employees and a third of the customers remained. A customer looked at me and asked “Why do they think its safe?” I’ve witnessed this more than once with tornadoes hitting nearby.
AA says
Glad to hear that everyone is okay. The immediacy of cell phones is just so hard to pull back from, especially in emergency situations.
Elke Yarbrough says
Happy to hear you and your family are okay. Tornados and Hurricanes are one reason my Stepson and daughter-in-law moved back to NYS this year. They said they loved Texas but preferred wrestling with Snowstorms and icy roads, which they are familiar with, then flooding and tornadoes! They also, missed family, and wanted my granddaughter, who’s 2 1/2 to know her grandparents. However the heat and the rest of the weather where a huge reason for the move.
Amy says
The last time my county (MI) had a tornado warning my brother who lived only a mile away wasn’t picking up his phone.
We didn’t have a lot of warning and he works 3rd shift so he should’ve been sleeping. We wanted him to come over because his house didn’t have a basement I think I called him 40 times in 7 min.
He slept through the whole thing and we saw him later that night. I was so stressed for that whole storm ????
Élodie says
Glad to know you and your loved ones are doing well
Take care