No Sirens

This whole "no sirens" for a tornado thing is really scary. Yesterday morning was one of VERY FEW days I didn't turn on the TV before I left the house. Nolan and I headed to MOPS and I just thought it was a yucky, rainy day. Turns out, we were under a tornado watch and 3/4 of the way into our meeting, they said a tornado was heading our way. YIKES! We all headed to the Sanctuary, which has no windows (because nothing in FL has a basement) and they brought our kids to us. Then they said, the arrival time of the tornado was pushed back (like it's a flight I have to catch or something).Since we had about 1/2 hour until that time, most mom's decided to leave. I was so worried about the doggies, so Nolan and I RAN to the car and booked it home. Not a good idea. The rain was pouring so hard and the streets were so full of water I had to go way slower than I had intended, which meant the time that the tornado was supposed to hit was inching too close. Suddenly the rain just stopped, but the clouds were moving so fast. There were leaves blowing every which way in the street and the trees were blowing pretty hard. I thought we were done. I think I was literally having a panic attack, as the fear in my chest rose up, up, up. Brian called and calmed me (a little) with the fact that the supposed tornado was heading north of where I was. I made it home 3 minutes before the time it was supposed to hit, grabbed the dogs and all of us huddled in the laundry room. This weather is SCARY and the whole no warning thing really frightens me. This is the second time a tornado has hit this town in the last couple months, and the third time we've been under a WARNING, which I thought was something that was rather rare. Apparently tornados are not as common in the winter here, but they are stronger when they hit. And I heard one meteoroligst say that since we had a tame hurricane season, we are having a rough winter with tornados. Who knew? Thank God we're safe, but my heart literally breaks for the families of those who didn't fare as well.