Tornadoes: When Mother Nature Gets Nasty

After living in Houston for many years, I thought moving to Arkansas would mean an end to worrying about hurricanes and violent weather. Wrong. Arkansas experiences tornadoes along with other tornado alley states like Kansas, Oklahoma and Iowa. See map.

Last night in Little Rock, the tornado sirens went off and on for over an hour. I ate dinner on a tray in the guest bathroom (no windows). Ugh! I did carry cushions from the sofa in there to make it a bit more cozy. Thankfully, the steep hill behind our street is a natural barrier to a lot of crazy bad weather.

Folks just 8 miles to the north in Mayflower and Maumelle, AR got the brunt of the tornado's fury. (The strength of a tornado is based on the Fujita Scale.) 

Watch this news video on the devastation. To add insult to injury, the same area got hit in April 2011 nearly to the day. Some people are looking at rebuilding homes that were just rebuilt. Awful!

So there are lots of folks "in harm's way" that need to pay attention when tornado sirens blare. An article in The Atlantic explains how tornadoes are predicted, rated (by wind strength), and tracked. It also explains that a person has roughly 13 minutes average lead time upon notification to find shelter.

All I can say is pay attention, take shelter when the sirens sound and treat violent weather with respect.