I’m currently hiding out in the bathroom.
We are under our hundredth tornado warning for the month (I exaggerate, but only a little). And it has been raining for at least a week. I suppose this is a good time for some blogging.
Eric loves extreme weather. I think this was fueled by his stay in Houston during Hurricane Ike a few years ago. He had a blast watching the storm while I was here in Kentucky thinking of all the ways a person can get injured from a hurricane. As I write this, Eric and his coworkers are hiding out in the stairwell of one of the tallest buildings downtown. I got a text message from him, saying, “This is all rather exciting.”
I think one of the most terrifying aspects of tornado warnings are the sirens and that creepy announcer voice. One night last spring, I was asleep in my bed with the window open, when I heard that horrifying announcer voice warning the entire city of a tornado. I think I spent the next hour shaking and hiding in the bathroom. That thing is scary.
Anyway, we live within a 20 minute drive of a river, both in Lexington and at home. When we were in Oldham County this weekend, we took a drive down to the Ohio River (during the 4-hour rain break) to see the flood damage. I’ve never seen the river so high in my whole life (although that’s not saying much because I don’t seem to remember extreme weather events. My family kept bringing up the flood of ’97, but I have no recollection of this.). The water was crazy high and had taken over roads and parking lots, and was making some serious headway on some houses.
Yesterday, Eric and I took a drive down to the Kentucky River to see how far the water had risen. We were blessed with a little break in the rain, so we hopped in the car, picked up some cupcakes, and had a little dessert picnic on the beach. I read about this place, BabyCakes Cupcakes, in Southern Living. I’m kind of a believer that everything Southern Living does is awesome, so I had really high expectations. Plus, they have happy hour starting at 5:30 Tuesdays through Thursdays, where all the cupcakes are $1. Unfortunately, the flavors we were super excited about were all sold out, so we had to get less exciting ones. The cupcakes weren’t my favorite, but the beach was fun. Although I would probably never ever swim in that muddy water, it was fun to pretend we were at a real beach. We didn’t see much in the way of flooding, but Eric suspects the Kentucky River changes levels pretty quickly.
I’m sure there will be much more storm excitement to come over the next 24 hours. We’re all getting a little taste of how Noah must have felt…
-Ally
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