Twisters hit deep South
(best to print out then wrap your lunch in it)

‘Death is so mundane after it happens
....not to the living or the imediate family;
 but to the dead"
.

Tonight we had tornadoes come through at 3 a.m
Few times I have seen Death as it actually is .
I mean the power of Death
The illumination;   not the suffering;
The source ; and the vibration of the power.... that makes it manifest in
physical reality of the moment into an enity of all its own.
The Prince and undisputed lord of the destruction of all matter
reflected in a moment of  awesome power
before consuming you like a snack.
To experience this first hand your personal saftey must be  at stake
 with little or no protection from the calamity excep to  ride it out and hope
 you fall from its ugly mouth like some overlooked morsel on the   tides of
fate.

I was once in a fire that was  out of control..... where seconds would count
to get out of there
 and yet you see something of the supernatural in that split second of
observing the fire  that registers in your  memory forever.
The  mind is working so fast and your adrenaline is pumping;
 there is little time to think about what you have seen untill you reflect
back on it later and  out of harms way.
That one  memory then becomes indescribable
 because of its impact on the soul and its own uncertain transition in the
moment
The out come is  you will most likely relate some other graphic aspect of
your ordeal as it is more easily tocomprehend and share with others..
Still your brief encouter shall last you all your days with the smug
satisfaction that it will be revisited upon you on the  day of your last
breath.
Not exactly a comforting thought ,but one that visits the mind on occaision
in tempests of exceptional ferocity.

.  ,Tornadoes at 3 am fit those conditions perfectly .There is nowhere to go
.
You awaken in darkness to violent thunder storms and lashing rain.
 You are nerve wracked and half asleep.
.These storms are so powerfull and numerous you feel helpless and belittled
in their power and might.Nothing describes their power except some Biblical
passages from the book of  Revelation and  at 3 am it somehow dosn't do it
justice
In the deep country there is no protective infastructure of the town or the
city.
You are alone and in the mercy of nature and its power
.There is no poured basement here as the spring and fall rains make it
impossible to keep one.

 The baby is crying in the darkness from the house shaking in recoil from the
continious crashing  of the lightning  all around us.
The air is electric in its deafning splits and crashes followed by pregnant
long rumbles..
.You grab Baby Mary  and head for the central hall where the flashlights are
and the emergency radio is located.
In a few minuets the wind has really picked up and lashes the house in
torrents of tropical rain
that won't quit;
the rain drums the roof in simultaneous downpours that test the integrity of
its permeability and last years fix up..
Suddenly the wind shifts  and  hail  begins to pelt the house horizontally in
staccato rythym mixing with cloud bursts from above.
The old house begins to "pressurize" in the wind howl and your hair begins to
stand on end  as you wonder what is going on  .. The house lights went down
seconds after you made it to the hallway and the baby is still crying from
all the noise.
.
I get my wife and baby with the dogs and head for the fortified room with no
windows and turn to the emergency channel...
Nada ..zip...Im getting ..static ...and lots of it
.My wife who is normally composed and grew up with all this looks at me with
concern
..she is holding the crying  baby while trying to sooth it...  and we are
looking at one another in  flashlight as the house makes sounds we have never
heard.
.I tell her to sit tight while I try to see whats going on
.I make my way back out into the hall way and head for the kitchen where
there is a big picture window facing east and the horse pastures;
 Looking out from this vantage I see little.
The illumination from the lightning blinds me at first in its intensity
 then affords me a short   macabe scene of small black funnel clouds 100 feet
above the ground trying to ground themselves in desperate fingers of
downdraft.

 Its difficult to see in the flashes... as the hail is  rolling down the
glass;
 but there they are
..black skeletal fingers with putrid green black funnels churning the sky
with  deadly suction
They are literally forming above me in twos an threes and take to  spining in
madcap procession ; dancing across the angry sky in cadence with the  violent
wind.
The ones that are substantial and don't play themselves out
 generate their  own of sheet lighting from within
 and ride  the night sky in an awesome display of power and force.
Its their color that struck some primordial fear in me .
It could be the dawnof time on the Serengetti Plain and this drama would be
playing itself out with the same intimidation and fear.
. Heck.... if I was out in it.... I would be lucky to be struck by the
lightning
... and considered lucky.
No...The fear is to  be consumed by this  hideous black green hole that makes
giant sucking sounds from the air in  which lightning cannot escape from.
An black energy hole that historically has been known
 to suck the fish from their waters and the dead from their graves;
 leaving no trace of any living existence what-so -ever .
 Not a tree or a stump or a blade of grass....
.Nada- zip- nothing to signify anything living had ever been there.

There are some miracles however. Last year a woman when she heard "the sound"
got into her claw foot bath tub with her baby and rode a mile and a half to
land up right in a field.Badly shaken ;.Mother and baby were doing all right
when found.
 Two years ago a baby was found crying but all right in a tree 1/4 mile from
the house. In both cases the houses were never found
Tonights storms had worsened but the twisters were not fully developed.The
sound you listen for is the the contious rumbling like a run away freight
train heading your direction... ever on coming in your direction...never stop
rumbling and always louder yet  hardly ever exceeding 45 mph or a 1/4 mile in
width..
In our part of the country you can not mistake this for the real train.... as
after the Yankees tore up the tracks.... they never put them back..
 So if you hear the freight train coming its bad news.
 If the big one comes there is no protection.
These register as a #4 or #5 on the doppler scale.With the #5 being refered
to as "the finger of God".
These can measure up to a half mile in width and are the result of a
combination of twisters joining as one.
To my knowledge no one has ever survived one.
.In Tupelo Mississippi in the early 30's a tornado super cell of a #5 hit
with all the intensity of a nuclear explosion.
The unusual thing was  it only took half the town away like it was never
there.
Houses and masonry buildings were ripped cleanly in half leaving  half rooms
with paintings on the walls and the beds made....1200 people were
killed...;most were never found.
The force of these twisters is so intense that blades of straw have been
found impaled deeply into telephone poles.
In the case with Tupelo disaster the foundations and the septic systems were
were sucked from the ground.
Tonights storm has quieted somewhat and I rejoin my family in the secure room
uttering assurances that I had seen the worse pass.
The hail has stopped and its now  just a lot of rain and some distant
lightning.
The baby has quited and .
after an hour of loosing at  chineese checkers we end the vigil and all head
back to the comfort of bed and the sound of a steady rain. .
 Best Michael  .