Something new

Growing up in the Midwest, I have been aware of thunderstorms and the possibility of tornados all my life.  I’ve even gone to the basement a few times when a tornado was spotted nearby.  But I’ve never thought much about hurricanes.  We live too far from the ocean to have the damage that they get – yes, we get the rain sometimes if it comes up the golf and rides the Mississippi River up toward St. Louis but by the time it gets here, it’s just another storm but usually just rain.

This morning I was perusing the news and saw that the east coast is under a watch for Hurricane Irene.  Now usually I would note this and move on but today I have a son stationed at Ft. Lee Virginia so I checked the possible path of the storm.  Yep – it could get that far north.  I’m sure the base is prepared for such things and he may even get to use some of that training if the storm is bad enough in helping the local community but I’m hoping it doesn’t come to that.

I sent him a text (which he will probably not get until tonight) about it.  I’m sure by now the base is watching the weather too.  I’m just glad he’s not still in South Carolina at basic – they will get hit much harder than Virginia according to the projected path.  I guess I’ll be watching the Atlantic storms this fall just like a do the storms in the middle of the country in the spring.