Tornado night

I finished this quilt not long before I got the crap scared out of me.  I'll tell you about that in a minute.  This quilt barely fit on the machine.  I get a lot of these. 

I did a leaf and curl design on the outside border and a swag on the inside border.

Circle lord fan on the center pieced area.

I wrapped the backing over the front for the binding.

Ok, about getting the crap scared out of me.  The grass was cut yesterday which made the weeds in my flower box look even worse.  After finishing this quilt I went outside to pull weeds from my front flower box so it would look nicer.  The Morning Glory vines are coming up nicely but were competing for space with the weeds. 

When I finished that chore, I heard the emergency warning sirens start to sound.  What's going on?  The skys are clear with just a bit of clouding.  I'm thinking it must be another factory explosion or something.  I turn on the tv and there was the weather guy saying a tornado is on the ground headed for Shively.....not a potential tornado but actual "on the ground" tornado..... headed right toward my daughter's house.  She lives in Shively.  PANIC!! 

I get on the phone to call my daughter because I know she doesn't have the tv on until later and she can barely hear the sirens.  Answering machine picks up.  Call again.  Answering machine picks up.  Call again.  Answering machine picks up.  I'm really getting frantic when she answers the phone. I tell her to get to the basement..... RIGHT NOW!  She turns off the stove and runs to the basement where Ladybug is already.  It's her play area when Mommie is cooking supper.

I keep my daughter on the phone while I listen to the news.  Then my tv goes blank.  It has the EAS (Emergency Alert System) light on but there is no sound and no words flashing across the screen.  Nothing but blank.  Now what good is an EAS system that doesn't do anything? 

I continue to talk to my daughter who tells me she doesn't hear anything and there's sunshine coming through the basement windows.  For several minutes neither of us know what is going on.  The sirens stop sounding and the tv comes back on.  The weather guy says the tornado is right near the street where my daughter lives and it's on the ground.  Then it starts to grow dark at her house with lots of rain.  After about half an hour of on again, off again, news and blank tv it's finally safe for them to leave the basement.

A few minutes after telling my daughter to get to the basement this is what I got at my house.  She  had the same thing there.  The is right around 7:30 in the evening.  It usually doesn't get fully dark here until about 9:30 at this time of year.

It is not a problem with the camera.  It really was that dark outside.

We had that stuff off and on until about midnight.  My daughter and Ladybug went to bed but I stayed awake to watch weather reports and would call her if she needed to get into the basement again.  Luckily we were ok the rest of the night. 

What I really want to know is why the EAS didn't work on the tv?  I do know the city has had problems with the system for a couple of months.  I'm going to call the city hot line to complain.  Or at least let them know I had problems here. 

Whew!  It scared me to write about it.  I heard we are expecting storms again later today.  With a possibility of the same thing we had yesterday.  You think I should go buy some depends.... just in case?