Day 84

Last night was one of the worst nights of sleep I've had in a while.

I was exhausted and headed to bed at 10pm. I started falling asleep 5 minutes after reading so I turned out the lights and curled up with Kelly, our bulldog. It was a super humid night so I had windows open all over the house and a fan going in my room. Forty minutes later, I wake up to this insane howling sound. Kelly is growling and the sky is lighting up like nothing I've ever seen. It was like there were flashbulbs going off outside my window. The next thing I hear is my patio furniture (on the upstairs deck) start flying across the patio. I have a recycling trash can outside so I open the door to bring it in. It was already tipped over and as I was picking up the pieces, the rain started. The lightening was pretty intense, so I quickly grabbed the trash can pieces and started to rush back in the house only to be blown forward by a huge gust of wind.

I was freaked out. I didn't think Germany ever got tornadoes, but it sure felt like one was coming. Suddenly the wind was whipping all around me so fast it hurt (in a matter of milliseconds) and I rushed into the house. It was at that time I heard my car alarm going off. I rushed to find my keys and hoped that nothing landed on the car causing it to go off (its really not that sensitive). I tried opening the front door to go out and turn off the alarm, but then I heard banging on the door. Not like someone was trying to get in, but more like someone was shooting rocks at it. I peeked out the kitchen window and saw the street and my lawn were covered in hail. It was pelting the door so hard I was afraid I would get hurt if I opened it. I managed to get the car alarm off from inside the house and rushed downstairs.

Kelly was panicking along with me, but more because she was scared I think. She followed me around the house and ran downstairs before I did. Lucy was still sleeping when the thunder started. It seriously sounded like it was in my house. Everything was shaking with every pounding. I had to close the rolladens (metal/plastic covers for the windows/doors) in the basement just in case my downstairs lawn furniture was flying around. As I was closing it two things happened. One, I realized 2 of my outdoor chairs were missing. Two, the wind was so forceful it was trying to blow open the door to my outside patio. I had to hold it closed with one hand and my foot while I rolled down the rolladen. It was scary. I couldn't even see 4 feet in front of me the wind, rain and hail were so bad.

We lost power just minutes after that and I sat downstairs with a candle waiting for the storm to be over. Lucy, of course, was still sleeping despite the amount of noise in the house.

Ten minutes later the wind calmed down, five minutes after that the hail stopped. It was still raining quite a bit and there was still lots of lightening, but it appeared safe. I opened the rolladens and looked outside to see my yard looked like it was covered in snow. The lawn furniture was still missing, but it was too dark to really look for it.

I headed upstairs and hoped that car was ok. I could see the lights flashing from the alarm on the car again and opened the door to turn it off. The front yard was the same as the back, only it was flooded with water all the way across the street. The power came back on and I was able to go out and examine the car. I couldn't see if anything significant fell on it, but I didn't see any damage. I went back inside and tried to fall asleep. I was woken up 3 more times by storms. At least the house cooled off! It was finally nice enough to sleep at night!

The storm really had me missing Jon. I know it sounds silly, but I was terrified. All I kept thinking about was what if the windows break? What if something falls on the house? What if something happens to Lucy, Kelly and I? How will Jon find out?

It does turn out that Germany gets tornadoes. In fact, there are studies that Europe has more tornadoes then the US, they just aren't nearly as powerful. Because of the European landscape, tornadoes don't have a lot of area to build up strength. But they do exist here. There was even one in Kaiserslautern in the last 5 years. The reason you don't hear about them is because they aren't very powerful (no one has seen one over an F3 in all of Europe) so the damage isn't as bad and sometimes they only touch down for seconds and people don't see them. I also learned that Europe doesn't have a Dopplar system. In the US, they use this to predict and warn people of the coming weather and possible tornadoes. Its a little scary to think about, but at least I know the chances of it being "bad" are slim.

It sounds like not everyone in the KMC (Kaiserslautern Military Community) had it as bad as I did, but there are plenty that did. Thank goodness we're all ok and no one seems to have suffered any significant damage other then flooding. I was able to find all of our lawn furniture. The two missing chairs were in the yard, one all the way down at the bottom of our hill. I lost a few bubble toys of Lucys, but nothing that isn't easily replaced. Now can Mother Nature please stop with the storms? I think I've had my fill for the summer.