I should have listened to the Larry Lesson!!!

My Dad had a poetry reading in southern Indiana on Saturday, and He and my sister drove to STL to see me afterwards. Today, we decided to go to the zoo. It was sunny and 74 degrees. Great zoo day. We saw a whole bunch of lazy, sunbathing, animals. About 4:30, it started cooling off a little as the sun went behind the clouds. At this point, my dad was getting tired. We decided that we would hit the Bird House and then leave. It took us about ten minutes to get to the bird house. My sister had to use the restroom when we got there, so Dad and I waited another 10 minutes for her to walk their and back. Finally we got to go into the bird house. We were in there for about 10 minutes when the lady started yealling that the zoo was closing. As we left, She said we should hurry because a thunderstorm was commin' in.

We step outside, it's a lot darker and looks like it might rain. The temperature drops about 15 degrees in 10 minutes. Every minute we walk, the lightning bolts exponentialy increased. In the three minutes it takes to get to the front gate, we see 70-80 lightning bolts. We get through the gate and we're moving with this great mass of people.(It's like the "war of the worlds" and shit!) I see this stupid man as tall as Kato, with a kid on his shoulders. I make a joke to my dad that if we stay approximately 40 feet away from him, they would attract any bolt, but we would be out of the "range of effect." I feel one drop of rain and the wind suddenly picking up. I fear a possible trampling, so quickly lead my family across the road to the sidewalk were no is walking. This happens in the first minute, outside of the gates.

Once across the road, we power-walk up the hill, without anyone slowing us down. Within 10 seconds of being across the street, the wind immediatly started blowing even more. Dad is moving pretty quickly now. As the wind picks up further, Dad starts to jog. I smile and shake my head. Then, I looked up and notice that, right above us, there was a cloud expanding in all directions. I am intreaged for a moment. THEN I realize, we are walking into a pretty feirce wind, and THIS CLOUD IS ADVANCING BEYOND US, AGAINST THE WIND! This happens a minute and a half, outside the gates.

I take to Dad's cue and start to jog. I yell, "Come on Tasha, we got to go!" She stands there, just staring. Humor never escaping me in any situation, I yell as I run past her, "One of us has to survive! I'll give Mother your love!" That gets her attention. She follows. We run no more than 50 feet and this Great Wind rushes in; Tree brances are flying through the air; Marble sized hail starts peltin us. Widd-eyed, Dad turns around; I see his mouth move, but all I hear is wind; He is asking where my car is. I point it out, I unlock the doors, and jump in. Tasha and Dad are pounding on the doors, shaking the car back and forth. Stupid Hyundai's automatic door locks arn't working. I unlock the doors; They jump in. I realize that it wasn't them shaking the car!
This is two minutes outside the gates.

"DRIVE! DRIVE! DRIVE!" Tasha and Dad are yelling. "I SAW IT ROTATING AND IT WAS COMMING DOWN! I floor it and wip out of my tight parking spot. The hail is now D-20 sized! I can literally see individual white gusts of wind 4 feet long. I wip a right, over the overpass and get almost to the other side. Someone is trying to cross the street and Traffic is backed up. I honk and my dad and sister are yelling at the drivers in front of us. I yell back to them. "KEEP YOUR EYES BEHIND US! WE MIGHT NEED TO GET OUT OF THE CAR AND GO UNDER THE OVERPASS!" This is 20 seconds since being in the car.

Finally the stupid lady moves. I drive like a mad man. The excitement is unbearable. I enjoy it emencelly. There is no time for fear, just action. I doge branches and trash cans blowing across the road. I notice that I had slipped into a mantra, wispering' Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me." Dad and Tasha follow suit. I yell out orders, "LOOK TO THE RIGHT. LET ME KNOW IF IT IS COMMING!" Barely able to see, I zigzag through horibly laid out intersections. I get stuck trying to make a left at Clayton. Traffic is pretty tight. I fly out and quickly merge, then duck down the street to the sem. My dad asks where we are going. I say the chapel basement.
This takes three minutes.

As I park the car, Dad yells, "DON"T WORRY ABOUT LOCKING THE DOORS, JUST RUN!"
He gets out and books over the muddy hill. Knowing my bad back, I run along side of the hill and cut over at the last second. Dad is in the church. I look back and Tasha is a ways back, covered in mud. I yell for her to come. She runs past me and into the chapel. My dad looks around and sees all the glass windows and yells, "WHERE ARE THE STAIRS! WHERE ARE THE STAIRS!" I point and he and tasha run down.

My buddy Andy had just come up from the stairs. I cleaned my glasses and filled him in. He was about to go outside and see what was happening. He told me the tv had said that there had been tornados all over town, but the storm was quickly moving to the north east, away from the sem. We looked outside, and it had greatly calmed down in the 10 seconds I had been inside.

We ended up okay. A tornado had formed above us, but it never touched ground.
My sister, covered in mud, and my dad, had burt into the basement where the symphony members were gathered after their Bach Concert. They told them the story, and everyone stayed in the basement for another 25 minutes. If I would have been covered in mud, and with dad and tasha when they ran downstairs, I would have yelled, "DID WE MISS IT? DID WE MISS THE CONCERT?"