Tornado warning!

I dropped my husband off at the airport this morning before I came into work. The day was warm and seemed a little cloudy- but nice. Not too humid- but became increasingly more so as the day wore on.

Now, I have not spent anytime in the Midwest, aside from this trip, so I didn't know this is what they typically refer to as "tornado weather".

At 5:15pm, the class and I were in the room on our headsets, all on a conference call. They were receiving feedback for the mock calls they had completed that day. All of a sudden I heard a loud horn/ siren coming from outside. I looked up and caught the eye of the trainees with a question on my face. One of them said- TORNADO. (This was the moment I wished my husband was around, so I could tell him all teh "speaker" looking things on top of the buildings downtown really WERE siresn, instead of microwave towers, like he kept saying. Oh well- guess my "i told you so" will have to come later)

So I said to the people on the phone as calmly as I could muster, while my adrenaline started pumping, "We have to go- there's a tornado"

I grabbed my purse and my phone and started following the Nebraska natives to the hallway. I realized the trainer in the room next to me was just standing in her class- next to the window. I know she is from Portland and used to stormy skies, but I also knew she hadn't spent much time in the Midwest. I said to her "Its a Tornado. We need to go. Do you hear the sirens outside?"

She said "Yes- but I didn't hear anything in the building, so I figured it was more suggestive than directive." I was like- "I'm following the trainees. They've handled this before. We're headed to the staircase. I think you should come." She said "Ok- but let me grab our manager" - who is from Burbank, like me, and probably didn't have any idea what was going on.


I didn't want to loose the trainees who headed to the staircase, so I pushed ward. Down 6 flights of stairs and into a room that was used as a gym. There was a TV and a bathroom there in case we had to be there a while. There was also a treadmill. While I thought about walking for a little bit, I didn't have my shoes- so I refrained.

At this point the internal building alarm system started going off telling everyone to get to the "core" of the building. I figured we were comfortably there and just kept watching the news in anticipation of feeling the building rock or shake or lift off the ground.

Needless to say, after the first 20 mins waiting- I started getting impatient and realized that this might be the only tornado I would be in. The news said that the funnel was over Boys Town (where we were) and so a few of us snuck out of the room to see the clouds through the windows. I took a couple pics and then headed back.


We waited it out for close to an hour before the news finally said it had passed and the building announcements stopped. We headed back up to the 6th floor. Most of the trainees took off, but I had to hop back on the phone for my daily debrief and that's when the real weather began.

The roof of the parking garage looked like someone had a pressure hose blowing particles off the top of it. The hail was gumball and golf size- alternating as it hit the windows next to me. And just as quickly as it came- within 25 mins it was gone and the sun came out as the clouds passed along in the sky.

Something I have learned about the Midwest being here, is the wind blows fast and hard and it takes things it has been collecting from one state to another- whether its freezing rain, clouds, or debris. My dear friend told me before I left, "if you don't like the weather in the Midwest, just wait 20 mins" and only today do I understand what that means.

I left for the hotel around 7:30pm and the sun was only starting to set. I guess it didn't get dark right away since the clouds had reversed and the sun was below them. The air was still warm and electric and it was humid. I was hoping I would get to hear some beautiful thunderstorm when I got back to the hotel- but so far nothing as I get ready to sleep.

Who knows what the next few days will bring before I head home on Sat 3/28. My friend Tara was flying in tonight and I so grateful that even though she was delayed in the air for 30 mins she made it in safely. She said she say the funnel cloud in the air from the plane! Amazing world. Amazing day.