Mes·mer·iz·ing - The state of being spellbound
Like many of us, Friday evening we finished supper and went downstairs to see if there was anything good on the tube. This is always tough in the summer time as the "barren wasteland" of television even is worse than normal. As the television came on, I thought at first they were showing reruns last week's terrible storm that just about wiped out Moore, Oklahoma. No, it was something looked even worse - a mesocyclone producing at least one multiple-vortex tornado, bearing down on the metroplex of Oklahoma City.
As my wife and I watched, we were mesmerized - spellbound. It was a disaster in the making. As I was watching this behemoth approach a population area of over one million people, I questioned what was wrong with me. I was the same way the week before when the tornado hit Moore - glued to the live feed coming over the television. I am not an adrenaline junkie, I am not a modern day Fiorello LaGuardia. However, there is something about seeing events unfold which are terrifying and terrible at the same time. It is live action with no script. It is real life, life and death unfolding in high definition on our large plasma televisions.
We watched in horror as the most prepared city in the country, the home of the National Weather Service, came unglued when the monster system approached. Many of the locals did exactly what they were not suppose to do - they went out, got in their cars, and tried to escape using the freeway system. In no time flat, both major freeways in town became parking lots from the panicked population. In fact, I think the scariest part of the entire episode was when many of the folks could not see the rain wrapped tornado and drove west on I-40 - directly in the path of the approaching twisters.
As bad as this storm was, and it was bad, it could have been so much worse. If a twister the strength of the Moore storm traveled up the traffic jam on either I-40 or I-35, the scene would have been horrific. The death toll would have been one for the history books. Fortunately, that did not happen. Hopefully, we can do a "lessons learned" from this close call to ensure if there is a next time, more people do the right thing.
Last night after dinner, the television was again turned on. Summer reruns galore - however, no live feed on killer storms like the night before. Truthfully, I could not have handled another night like Friday - my heart was is my throat for over two hours. On the summer nights this year when we are not on the road or enjoying our back yard, I think Netflix will be the tool of choice. If things turn out badly in a show, I know it is just make believe and nobody was hurt or killed. At my age, that is all the mesmerizing I can handle.
We watched in horror as the most prepared city in the country, the home of the National Weather Service, came unglued when the monster system approached. Many of the locals did exactly what they were not suppose to do - they went out, got in their cars, and tried to escape using the freeway system. In no time flat, both major freeways in town became parking lots from the panicked population. In fact, I think the scariest part of the entire episode was when many of the folks could not see the rain wrapped tornado and drove west on I-40 - directly in the path of the approaching twisters.
As bad as this storm was, and it was bad, it could have been so much worse. If a twister the strength of the Moore storm traveled up the traffic jam on either I-40 or I-35, the scene would have been horrific. The death toll would have been one for the history books. Fortunately, that did not happen. Hopefully, we can do a "lessons learned" from this close call to ensure if there is a next time, more people do the right thing.
Last night after dinner, the television was again turned on. Summer reruns galore - however, no live feed on killer storms like the night before. Truthfully, I could not have handled another night like Friday - my heart was is my throat for over two hours. On the summer nights this year when we are not on the road or enjoying our back yard, I think Netflix will be the tool of choice. If things turn out badly in a show, I know it is just make believe and nobody was hurt or killed. At my age, that is all the mesmerizing I can handle.
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