It's all relative

You would think that a severe thunderstorm with 100-mile-per-hour winds would be considered a “bad storm” by just about everybody. Well, not in Des Moines.

Lori was awakened last night about 4 a.m. local time as a wind storm rocked her truck and trailer while she was parked at a truck stop near West Des Moines. She looked out the front window and figured she’d better turn on the TV and radio to find out what was going on. Not that she’s a “weather expert” but she was seeing two of three “indicators” she has figured out usually accompany a tornado; frequent, high energy lighting, and wind and rain going in different directions. The only thing she didn’t see was hail (at least not right where she was).

She knew it must be bad when she found out all of the local TV stations were off the air. The radio announcer was giving a constant rundown of active weather warnings and listing the towns where damaged had been reported. Reports at that time said that a number of buildings had been damaged, numerous trees were blown down, and about 45,000 people were without power. (Read today's coverage here.) That’s when she called Mike so he could go on-line and look at the weather radar to tell her if she was in the path of any big storms.

Fortunately, the worst of the storm was north and east of her location but she decided she was going to stay right there until daylight. Once the sun was up, she sent a message to Cheryl, her dispatcher, to tell her what was going on and to find out if the Coke facility was open and accepting deliveries. The word came back that they were open and to go on ahead.

Once she got there, Lori started talking to the guys on the dock (workers and other truck drivers) and mentioned something about the “rough night.” They looked at her and asked what she was talking about. When she said the thunderstorm, they said “Oh, that…” like it was no big deal. What they couldn’t understand was why anyone would want to live in California with all those earthquakes and wildfires.

Seems like it just depends on what you’re used to…