Gratitude 27

I don't know how well you can see the rainbow in this pic but I took it from the front step of my house earlier this evening.  It was a nice sign that our crazy weather is finished.

Finding something to be grateful for was EASY today.  Pk had her swimming lesson at 5.  When we went into the pool (indoor), the weather was nice.  Just before her lesson was over, we happened to glance at the window and saw that it was pouring rain and there was quite a bit of lightning.  It was a very wet run to the car and we ended up waiting a while to go home since I wanted to let the worst of the storm to pass.  When we finally pulled out of the parking lot, it was still pouring but the lightning seemed a bit better.

We drive about 15 minutes east on our way home.  We went through several bouts of very heavy rain, although never so heavy that I thought I would have to pull the car off the road.  As we got closer to home, however, the sky looked more and more ominous.  Mom was in the car and about 7 minutes from home, I remarked that it was a good thing that the sky wasn't green because otherwise I would be worried about tornados.  We were looking at shapes in the clouds and there was one up ahead that looked decidedly funnel-like but it was far enough ahead that we couldn't see whether it was moving.  The cars in front of us were moving pretty slowly but we didn't think too much of it.  We came up to the riding academy, a huge complex of buildings.  I was saying to my mother that there must be a horse show this weekend since there were so many horse trailers in the yard when we noticed all the damage.  Fences were down, trees were down, several horse trailers were on their sides, the doors of the big barn were smashed in and people were running for buildings as fast as they could go.  We realised what we had seen.

When we got home and turned on the news, our suspicions were confirmed - reports of a tornado at the academy.  I spoke to someone who had just talked to someone who had gone by there about 15 minutes after we did and saw at least 15 trailers overturned and six or seven ambulances on site.  It must have literally just happened before we passed by.  

I am grateful for two things.  First of all, I am grateful that we weren't hurt.  Just as much, however, I am grateful that I didn't know what was happening until after the fact.  With Pk in the car, I don't know what I would have done seeing a tornado up ahead, trapped in traffic.  I still can't quite believe that it happened.  I haven't heard any reports of injuries - I hope all the humans and all the horses are fine.