Nature Does Her Thing

"You've never seen it miss this house, and miss that house, and come after you!" - Jo from Twister

I've been watching the tornadoes hitting the south with an understanding of what they're going through though certainly not the scale. I remember very clearly dealing with tornadoes while living in Oklahoma, especially the one in 1999 that restructured OKC as we know it.

What's been interesting to me is listening to NPR's coverage here in NY. NY isn't used to tornadoes and had an apoplectic fit when a tiny little one hit Brooklyn. What seems to amaze people is the random nature of it. With hurricanes, an entire area is devastated. But tornadoes hit one house and skip another and it's entirely random. One house will have wind damage, another will be gone. The NY commentators seem especially devastated by this.

I've lived through earthquakes, tornadoes, monsoons and a blizzard. Of all of them, I think the uncertainty of the tornado is the hardest to grasp, though there's a sense of calm around it. You can literally sit outside and watch it coming, as long as you duck into an interior closet or cellar before it gets to you. You can't see an earthquake coming, but they're over quickly. Hurricanes are tracked and can be prepared for. Blizzards usually have indicators. And you kinda know when a tornado is coming - you can feel it in the air. The sky turns green and gets calm. There's not usually rain. Then a black funnel drops out the sky or comes along the horizon. If it doesn't drop on you, it's kinda awesome in the sheer power of it. But it's like watching through glass until it gets close. It's so hard to believe. But that's nature, in all her beautiful and destructive glory.