I kept watching the weather after Chickentown was clear because I wondered about Paula! Hubs and I went to the USAO campus to shelter in Chickasha. Little tornado hit Ninnekah (about oh, 8 miles south of us?) so that's a bummer. Was very, very worried about the possibility of very large hail but we mostly got a ton of rain and some tiny hail.

We've seen photos and video of the damage near or at Ninnekah. At least one mobile home was totally destroyed and they showed various other damaged things like barns, flipped-over trailers, etc. on both KFOR and NEWS9.

A lot of thunder & rain here, but I think we were luckily squeezed between two potentially dangerous eastward heading storm fronts. (For now, anyway.) Flash flood warnings, but we hunker down at home in this kind of weather if at all possible. Hope everyone else here fares as well. I feel so bad for those who lose homes but am very thankful when no lives are lost.

Dawn, thank you for the mental image I get when you say, "It was a dark and stormy night." I can never remember the original author, but Snoopy always makes me smile and lightens the tension during this kind of weather.

Another long afternoon sitting by the cellar. Should we go or should we stay??? I hope this is over for a few days, weeks maybe. Everything missed us here in SW OKC just a light rain. It is really cool this evening feels more like March than last of April.

i think that maybe I am so over prepared for storms that maybe I scare them off? Sounds good, right?? Ha ha

Sandplum, Oh, I'm busted! I did steal that line from Snoopy, and yes, the comment is meant to lighten the mood a little bit on days when the weather keeps us on edge. See there, from now on any time I start something with "it was a dark and stormy night...." everyone who sees this conversation and remembers it will think of Snoopy and smile. We all need a little Snoopy in our daily lives. He was a great philosopher.

Here's its origin, per Wiki:

"It was a dark and stormy night....."

In journalism when I was in college, the phrase was mocked as an overused, trite opening to badly written novels and that is why it has stuck in my mind, though Snoopy's influence is important too.

Stockergal, It is just crazy. If it is April or May, it must be our day or night to run for the storm shelter. I'll be glad when June rolls around. Things quiet down a lot in June as the rain stops.

Now I have that hotel commercial's advertising jingle in my head and it won't go away "it won't be the same without you bro, should I stay or should I go?" In the case of tornado warnings, we always go, go, go!

I'd be overprepared if I had been through what you've been through with a tornado. It never hurts to be prepared. Hopefully, having been through a tornado already, you'll be spared from future ones. It is bad enough to go through that once. I cannot imagine going through it a second time.

Dawn

Guess the wife and I won't be attending the get together tomorrow.

We got hit pretty hard. Garden is toast and I guess I'll be building a new home.

Minor cuts and abrasions, but we made it through in one piece!

Lots of emotions going on right now, so it's tough to even think.

Oh dear I am so sorry. Is there anything we can do. Please let us know

Thank goodness you guys are ok. We lost everything on May 20th 2013, so I know first hand what you are going thru. Just have faith and hang in there it will turn out ok. My prayers are with you.

Okoutdoorsman, I'm so sad for your home. I'm glad you are okay.

So sorry about your house, RV, and garden. Praying for things to get better. It seems that every Spring we are reminded that you have to be tough to live in Oklahoma. So happy that you were not badly hurt.

Bruce - since we got power back not too long ago - I just saw. I'm so, so, so sorry. I'm so glad you and the Mrs weren't hurt. I vow to keep a few plants aside just so you have something to tinker with...while you rebuild. And if/when there's ANYTHING Ken and I can do to help - we'll be there. It's not fair...but that's the way life rolls. I would trade with you if I could. Please keep up posted on things? Hugs and prayers.....

Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers!

The greenhouse with all the backups and extra plants came through like a champ. Gotta love gardening in Oklahoma!

Tons of help coming in the morning to salvage what we can and then we'll decide what's next.

Soooo sorry, Bruce! There are no words. Praying for you.

So sorry. We all thought of you today! Take care.

Bruce, I am so sorry to hear the distressing news of the damage to your home and possessions, but the important thing is that y'all are okay. Everything else is not nearly as important as your lives.

If there is anything we can do in any way to help you, we will. Just say the word.

Your ears should have been burning today as news of your misfortune spread and everyone offered their sympathy and best wishes for a speedy return to normal. It is regretful that you weren't there to hear all the nice things folks were saying about you. We know you will rebound from this! I know that building/rebuilding a home was not in your retirement plants, but sometimes life throws us curveballs, and in Oklahoma those weather curveballs come far too often.

Please keep us posted on your progress.

Dawn

So sorry to hear of your loss, Bruce.

It was another nonevent for us. 1.6 inches of rain, no hail and no wind damage. We didn't cover anything up this time.

Janet and I greatly appreciate all the thoughts and prayers! The offers of support have been overwhelming.

As tiring and stressful as yesterday was, I couldn't help checking the time and thinking about how much fun I was missing by not being able to attend the get-together.

We managed to remove over half of the debris, mostly by hand and a few tools. Many, many offers of equipment, trucks and trailers poured out, but with the saturated ground, we felt we would do more damage than good.

Reclamation crews are scheduled for Monday to clean and store furniture and textiles, thanks to a gracious donation.

Bruce, Will you have time to plant a garden while you wait for all of the slow things to happen, like appraisors and contractors? Can we send you more seeds? Several of us have way too many. LOL

Bruce, Thanks for letting us know how you and Janet are doing. We missed y'all at the Spring Fling, but we knew you were busy dealing with the aftermath of Mother Nature's weather temper tantrum.

I am so pleased to hear how much recovery progress you've already made, and doubly pleased you have reclamation crews coming in so quickly. I believe your hard work and quick action will save some items you otherwise might have lost. It is impressive what y'all have managed to do so quickly, and it is inspiring for the rest of us who someday might face similar issues---y'all will be the shining example of what we need to do if we're ever hit by the same type of weather destruction. You know, here in OK in the springtime, anything can happen and it usually does happen to someone. I still cannot believe it happened to y'all.

Hang in there and keep smiling and keep growing. I know you need your garden more than ever this year because it is such a great stress reliever and y'all certainly have had a lot of stress these last few days.

Dawn

I'm hoping to do an assessment on garden in a few days after the plants have a chance to decide how bad they want to survive! At that point it should be dry enough I can go ahead and replant squash, cukes and okra.

My seeds and backup plants survived very nicely, so I'm in good shape, in that respect.

I've always believed that everything happens for a reason and in this case, it just serves to give us a little nudge to accelerate our house building effort.

Bruce, I put some squash seed into your goodie box.

Bruce, Are you able to stay in your RV or did it have too much damage as well? It is amazing about your greenhouse, but I understand how it can happen because we had an EF1 here a few years ago which took off our neighbors roof, took down a large tree in our yard (which had his insulation hit it first), and several more huge trees in the neighborhood. I had light weight row cover over a garden bed about 4 feet wide and maybe 20 feet long and it didn't move. It got one small hole in it where a tomato cage fell over on it.

When we lived in southern Oklahoma and Plainview got hit so hard, there was a neighborhood where one house had zero damage and houses on every side of it had large amounts of damage. They just hit where they hit, and sometimes it is hard to explain.

We have a 5th wheel RV up near Copan and I took a deep breath when I heard the storm chases say they just logged 81 mile an hour winds in that area, but we didn't get hit at all.