Brooklyn Tornado

In addition to the total stress of returning to work at a school with a new principal and a new job title for myself, there was a freakin' tornado the first week of work. Yes, you read that correctly--a TORNADO here in Brooklyn. Yep.

It was Thursday, September 9th. I decided to pick the kids up early b/c I had finished at work and was missing them big time. I walked to Alexandra's daycare, got her, and we noticed that the sky was getting stormy looking, but just gray, moving clouds and a breeze. We walked the 12 blocks to Nico's daycare, got a snack along the way, picked up Nico, and headed up our street. We stopped and chatted with Miss Gertrude, the old lady who lives on our block who loves Alexandra and Nico. After catching up for a bit, it started to thunder and lighting right on top of us. Thunder, then lightening, one after the other really fast. I said to Alexandra, "Let's run home so we don't get wet!" and we ran up the street. Me wearing Nico and my backpack, Alexandra and her backpack.

We made it into our apartment just as the rain started. I took Nico out of the Ergo carrier, got our shoes off and we were in the apartment when it really started looking strange out. Thing is, our windows were closed b/c our landlords were having work done on their deck and there had been a lot of dirt/dust blowing into our apt, so I couldn't hear the raging storm outside. But when I looked out the kitchen window upon entering our apartment from the hallway it was pitch black. I said to Alexandra, "Wow, it's really dark out there, let's go see!" (I love a good thunderstorm and so does she) and I picked Nico back up, we ran to her window which faces our backyard, she climbed her radiator to see outside better, and I stood there in shock by what I saw.

Outside was now a pea green color. I couldn't see the apartment building behind us (it's only 60 feet away). Everything was going SIDEWAYS and there were branches, leaves, and dirt just twisting around so fast you couldn't tell what was what. After looking at it transfixed for about half a second, my brain registered a huge "What the f*ck is that?!" and I grabbed Alexandra off the radiator, told her to go to the hallway, grabbed our transistor radio, and shut us out of our apartment into our windowless hallway. Alexandra said, "Mommy, I'm a little scary...."

I tuned the radio to 1010 Wins (the local news radio)--nothing. I tuned to NPR--nothing. WTH? I was pretty sure there was a tornado raging outside my window but nobody was saying anything. I felt like a crazy person. I kept waiting for someone to say something--nothing. After about 5 minutes the doors to the hallway stopped rattling and we ventured back into the apartment. Only then did the radio announce a tornado warning for Brooklyn and Queens. Duh. Thanks for the heads up.

I called my next door neighbor and coworker Jess and she confirmed that she thought it was a tornado. It wasn't until a day later that official weather folks declared, based on their data, that there had been two separate tornados--one in Brooklyn, one in Queens. Brooklyn winds around 95 mph, Queens around 115.

We went for a walk after dinner to see the destroyed neighborhood. Huge beautiful trees (why I love Park Slope) laid all over like corpses. Branches had been ripped off and thrown 30 feet from the tree. Cars smashed. Store windows blown out. One block from our house a Saab was left in the middle of the road after a tree fell both behind it and in front of it--abandoned by the terrified driver. It was like a movie set here.

But the strange thing is that the tornado didn't really touch the ground. Heavy pots still stood on stoops, our yard toys got pushed around by the wind but weren't hanging from the trees. The tornado seemed to dance over the rooftops and treetops, ripping trees and roofs off, but thankfully leaving the ground fairly unscathed all things considered.

While I have a more than shaky relationship with my belief in God, I'm so thankful that for some unknown reason I decided to grab my kids early that day. We walked in the door less than 5 minutes before the tornado hit. Stuff like that just gets you thinking...