My family is a family of three. Kent is my husband and Bo is six. Kent is the weather watcher here. He keeps a weather radio on at all times with a signal that goes off if there is bad weather in our area. He had a bad experience about 20 years ago. His hometown, Greensboro, Alabama, was hit by a tornado and over half of the town was destroyed. Kent's family home was spared but his school was destroyed about 20 min. after graduation. That has left an impression on him. He watches the weather. Because he is so watchful I do not have to be.

I have never seen a tornado, but I have experienced their aftermath. I came along a country road one afternoon about 10 min. after a tornado had cut a path through a rural area. Trees were down everywhere, cars were overturned, roofs were torn up, etc. I also work with a woman whose cousin was killed recently by a tornado. He was in church when a tornado hit his church. A wall fell in and he and several others were killed.

Believe me, we are always watchful and aware of bad weather. There is nothing you can do about it except be prepared. We have a plan for bad weather. We have never had to use our plan, but we all know where to go if a tornado is approaching. We have a certain area to go to and our relatives know where we will be located in the house should it be collapsed.

Another of my friends had a tornado experience two years ago. At about 2am she heard a roaring and was getting out of bed to see what the problem was when her home was shifted off of its foundation. All the windows were blown out, she was blown against a wall, her husband was in the front part of the house. He was cut all over his body, not deeply, but enough to bleed badly. You could see his body form against a wall where he was blown.

About three years ago near Greensboro a tornado hit at night in a rural area. It destroyed one house. It was the home of a former student of mine. She heard the tornado coming . Her husband went to their son's bedroom to get him. She went to the nursery to get the baby. She had the baby in her arms when the roof blew off. The baby was pulled from her arms. She said that she held the baby by one arm with it blowing up into the air when it was pulled away from her. They found the body of the baby about six miles away. The mother was hurt so badly that they thought that she might never walk again, but she is a fighter and is not only walking but has had twins since the accident.

My father has told me the story of a large house being hit by a tornado at noon one day in Chilton County. The entire family of 11 was home for lunch during the summer. All of them were killed except for one child.

These are all of the tornado occurances that I can think of. Hope you will do some reading about tornados this summer and learn all that you can. There are a lot of fantastic jobs in this area. We live near one of the National Weather Stations so we are very interested the weather.