h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Thank you so much for writing it. The way you built up the tension had me totally hooked! I had no idea that you are so used to tornadoes that you have specific 'shelter' areas. I could literally see you in your corner with your dogs. The threat in my childhood were storm floods.
But we lived behind the dyke, so it never felt too threatening.

Storm floods, tornados. Cor honestly.The wildchild soul of nature, and I would like to agree with this acknowledgement of this writing here. An awesome piece, Hyp, and thankyou. And good to see your writing back here on the Post, and hope this is just the start, like perhaps might lead to some more of your stories and poems and artwork. Pleeeeeze? Pleeeeeeeeeeze.

H

Hyp,

It's obviously still very vivid in your mind. It come across so painfully I had tears in my eyes reading it

lil x

And I was without the Internet for a few days again, so I couldn't reply. When the cable company restored service after the tornado, they did it the fastest way. Now they're having to go bck and do it properly.

Thanks to all of you for your kind comments. This is a situation I had hoped never to have to write about. Thankfully it missed my house, my mother's house and all of the bearded cousins. We're all north of the storm's path. Being without a telephone and Internet for a while is a minor inconvenience in comparison to what so many suffered.

With all the natural disasters recently, we have been so lucky not to have lost one of our friends. Those of us at a distance are made more aware by our association.

lil x

This year has been horrible so far weatherwise. I sure hope it improves. We have been fortunate indeed not to have lost anyone here to a natural catastrophe. Even though we're spread around the globe, we are a pretty tight community.

It really hurts doesn't it?

I've been to too many funerals lately, that's for sure. My circ supervisor lost a family member and still has her sister living with her because her house was destroyed. When the obituaries finally started hitting the newspaper it just broke your heart. Pages and pages of them. And I knew many of them. Some of the bodies were missing pieces, some so mangled that they had to use DNA to identify them. Everyone talks about the victims, but can you imagine having to be a rescue worker and uncover the bodies? Now they are treating some of thefirst reponders for PTSD. I can believe how that would be the case.

We are so fortunate here, we don't have the extremes of weather that others get.

Only last summer, VV was travelling home along the motorway/freeway, and noticed cars reacting oddly ahead of her and drivers on the opposite carriageway flashing their lights in warning.

Suddenly as she passed under a bridge her car lifted and moved slightly to the left. When she looked in her mirror she could see a funnel spout just above the bridge! We've never known anything like it here. She said it was only tiny, but the power was amazing.

We had a sandstorm here in April, totally unexpected. 10 people died.