Reflections: Tornadoes in Texas part 1, a teen’s point of view

On Tuesday, April 3rd tornadoes ripped through the Dallas, Texas area.  Here, teen book lover and blogger Aneedqah talks about her experience at school on the day that tornadoes hit.

So, as many of you know, we had some tornadoes in the DFW area.  Before I moved to Texas, I’d been in plenty of tornado warnings and watches.  Nobody where I used to live really took it seriously.  I’ve never actually been in a real tornado {I’ve had some close calls, though}.

So when my school told the whole school to get into their assigned duck-and-cover rooms, I admit, I didn’t think anything was wrong.  Looking outside the windows, I saw the sky was getting increasingly darker, but I didn’t think anything of it.  I just thought it was going to be a regular thunderstorm.  My class went into our designated rooms and chatted, and waited for the school to stop being so scared for what we thought was going to be a tiny little thunderstorm.

But, after about 20 minutes in our safe room, my Spanish 1 teacher put on a weather radio.  Our class got quiet as we started to listen to what was happening outside.  When I heard that there were indeed tornadoes, and one might be headed our way, I got kind of freaked out.  Not exactly for me, but my family.  I knew one of my younger sisters was afraid of storms, and I had no idea what she was experiencing right now.

After about 20 more minutes, the principal came on to the intercom and told us to get into our actual duck-and-cover safety positions.  This was the point where everything got really serious in our classroom.  People were starting to freak out.

Finally, after an hour of sitting in the room, we were told we could come out.  This was the point where I began to freak out, because I knew my mom was driving to Arlington to pick up on of my other younger sisters {I have 3!}. This was also the point where the rain started to come down. Hard. Also at the point, I had no idea how badly Arlington had gotten hit {as of right now, the city is in a state of disaster}.  So I was extremely worried.

I ran home from school, hoping that my mom had made it home safely.  I held my breath as I walked in, but my mom and sisters were all home safe, with news on. I was extremely surprised to see all the damage.  I didn’t think the tornadoes were going to be that bad.  I just sat in front of the TV with my mouth hanging open.

Aneeqah is a teen reader and book blogger.  You can visit her blog My Not So Real Life and read her reviews.  I am a big advocate for following teen book bloggers to get teen opinions on books and libraries.  Plus, Aneeqah is pretty awesome.

Filed under: Texas, Tornadoes