My Husband: Live From Branson During a Tornado

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A few months ago, my husband got a new job that involves a lot of travel in the state of Missouri. Last night, he pulled into his hotel on the Branson strip and texted me this picture.

This morning he called to say that during the night his hotel had been hit with a tornado, but it's okay, because he wasn't hurt even though the car, well, the car. If you know my husband, you'll understand why I told him that wasn't funny because I apparently forgot to set the coffee pot. But he wasn't lying. (Who can blame me for rushing to Twitter to see for sure?)

These were all in his Twitter stream while I was sleeping peacefully in my comfy bed. Isn't Twitter unbelievable? How did we exist without it?

It's a huge relief to me that most of the injuries were minor and this wasn't another Joplin. I'm also amused that my husband was so calm about flying debris and freight-train-like winds. We are, um, slightly different in that regard. Him: Live-action reporting in the wee hours of the night from a first-floor hotel bathroom. Me: Public freak-out at lunchtime from my cozy basement. Ha!

After spending the morning on the phone with AAA and the insurance company and Mr. Tornado, we figured out we needed to get our car towed roughly 250 miles. This happened to us once before before my daughter was born, when our car broke down on I-80 on the way back to Kansas City from Iowa. I think the tow bill will be about the same: $HolyShit. He called me a few minutes ago to say AAA was so backed up he taped up the blown-out windows and is driving it home. I could hear the plastic flapping in the background. I can only imagine what he looks like.

I'm so relieved he is okay. Sitting here waiting for him to get home reminds me of the time he was scheduled to fly on 9/11 and had to drive back to Kansas City from North Carolina after taking his rental car hostage. Disasters have a way of reprioritizing your day, reprioritizing your entire life. I woke up thinking I needed to do some laundry and write some BlogHer Book Club posts. An hour later I was figuring out how to tow a car with blown out windows several hundred miles without asking my sleepless-been-through-a-tornado husband to drive it and calling my daughter's school to ask them to tell her that no, we wouldn't be making an eight-hour round trip to pick up Daddy today.

My husband said he had about fifteen minutes from when the sirens went off around 1 a.m. until the tornado ripped the roof off the building next door. I'm thankful he's a night owl and was actually awake when the sirens went off. I'm thankful he was in the bathroom and not standing in that shattered lobby like he had been moments before. It looks like it's tornado season already in 2012 -- please take those sirens seriously. For every twenty times it's nothing and you totally could've kept unloading the dishwasher or sleeping, there's one time that looks like this. Let the games begin! Stay safe, Interwebs!

Here's more on tornadoes, from FEMA:

Look for the following danger signs:

• Dark, often greenish sky

• Large hail

• A large, dark, low-lying cloud (particularly if rotating)

• Loud roar, similar to a freight train.

If you see approaching storms or any of the danger signs, be prepared to take shelter immediately.

PS: He said he has some pieces of roof in the trunk. I'm clearing off a spot on the bookshelf.

Updated 3:25 CT

My husband ended up driving home in this.