A slew of tornados blew through our area on Thursday night. Worst spate of windstorms that i remember in our 8+ years here in Winston Salem. Getting it out of the way upfront - our family, our house was not damaged or ever in harm's way. But others in the area weren't so lucky.
Started late Thursday evening, as we were wrapping up Caroline's softball game near downtown Winston. The PA lady said that there was a "tornado warning" and that we should all start to leave (the game had ended already). I was sure she meant "tornado watch", not warning, and i was right. We drove home to not a hint of a storm.
But once home, we turned on the weather, and found that a line of storms was heading in from the west, and had likely already spawned one tornado just across the Virginia border. The radar-hooks were blooming in adjacent Davie county, the far-eastern edge of which is a burgeoning bedroom community for Winston commuters. Several of my co-workers, including my two closest work friends, live there in Advance.
The weather folks on tv drew arrows on their maps to predict the path of the storm, and most of them would initially be coming right for us. But all the bad wind stayed south of us. Besides Advance, there was damage in the south part of Clemmons, down near the Davidson county line. And then later, the funnel dropped down again in Greensboro near the airport. That's when the one fatality occurred.
At home, we tracked the radar in the living room. I had sent Jackson to bed, telling him that there would be rain and lightning, but not to worry. I would wake him up if we needed to go to the basement. A little after 10pm, after yet another large cell arose in Advance, looking very likely to take a more northern track our way, i decided to get the boys and shepherded everyone into the basement. I just didn't want to have to rush if that time came. Jack woke with a panicked look, knowing exactly whyi roused him.
We watched the tv reports from the basement. Walked outside to marvel at the heavy rain (about 3 inches total), but the wind never got bad. Caroline soon got text messages from her old boyfriend who also lives in Advance. He reported that their neighbor had their roof blown off, and big oak trees were down everywhere. Turned out, as we learned the next morning, that their neighborhood was one of the hardest hit.
About 1130pm, i decided that the danger was past, and we all went upstairs to our beds. It was exciting, in a way, though. And it was one of the rare times when all 6 of us were together in the same room.
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