Our late night Wal-Mart Tornado warning experience

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH 807 REMAINS VALID UNTIL 3 AM EDT /2 AM CDT/ TUESDAY FOR THE FOLLOWING AREAS: IN INDIANA THIS WATCH INCLUDES 24 COUNTIES

IN NORTHERN INDIANA:
ADAMS ALLEN IN BLACKFORD CASS IN DE KALB ELKHART FULTON IN GRANT HUNTINGTON JAY KOSCIUSKO LA PORTE LAGRANGE MARSHALL MIAMI NOBLE PULASKI ST. JOSEPH IN STARKE STEUBEN WABASH WELLS WHITE WHITLEY

That’s us in bold. And Courtney and I just got to experience this warning first hand when the Tornado alarm went off at 11 pm tonight while we happily were browsing the isles at the Warsaw Wal-Mart Supercenter, open 24/7. I was carrying around a Darth Vader Transformers doll and a handwriting pad when the store suddenly turned dark, and all shoppers were hurried to the Safe Area, which in fact was the glasses shop by the Customer service center. In this dark little area we waited, along with a quite large amount of other shoppers, for the warning to be over. Outside we could hear the thunder bellowing and rain beating down on the building and the ground. The lights went out frequently. A lady struck up a conversation with us, and told us about a tornado a few years ago that passed through the county and totally turned her daughter’s neighbors’ – a newlywed couple – house over. Her daughter’s house however, had new state of the art double-triple walls, and although the tornado took the entire roof off the house, it had left everything in it intact, including the crystal glasses that sat on a high shelf, only inches away from what used to be the ceiling.

After about 30 minutes the warning was over and we were able to check out. When we came outside it was still raining and thundering, and we could see huge steaks of lightning hit the ground around us. We hurried home because we were worried that the boys were freaking out. They haven’t experienced much rain or thunder over this past year, let alone tornado warnings, and even Courtney and I were a bit anxious. They were asleep, however, soundly in their bed together, and grandpa told us he had laid down with them a bit but that they hadn’t been too upset.