So, what have we been up to for the last week or so , here in Vicksburg. Well, except for Easter Sunday, which I will talk abut below, the weather here has been fine, high 70’s and clear. We have done a lot of walking at the dog park, and finally at the Vicksburg National Military park, which I will post about later. We have also been renting movies from the Redbox, to watch most nights. We have also a few times ordered take out again from the Gumbo pot restaurant. Gas here is $1.39 lowest i have seen it anywhere in a few years. Also we have made a few reservations and started planning our trip back down to Florida this fall, and then out of Florida in the start of 2021 to Arizona. Maps are out all over the place and sometimes I get a little confused as to what i’m doing. Other than that we are just laying low like most other people.

Getting back to the weather, yep, Easter Sunday was interesting to say the least. We knew from watching the reports during the week, we were in for a alert day as they call it here. After we had our Sunday breakfast of eggs, home fries, bacon, and toast, I went out and hitched up the truck to the 5er, so that a lot of weight would be on it. Then we got a bag together of our wallets, medication and keys and put that in Melissa’s purse. Then we put, her purse, rain jackets, bike helmets and Cooper’s leash by the door. If the siren blew we were ready to scoot out the door and run to the bathhouse which is a tornado safe building, about 200 yards away. After that we turned on the TV to the weather channel, and had that on all day. The weather channel showed that all of Mississippi was in a Tornado watch, which means conditions are very likely to produce Tornado’s. If you get a Tornado warning you need to get somewhere safe fast.

The map below shows where we are, the big black circle. Just above is a curved oval, that’s where the first tornado’s came down from left to right. Started in Louisiana toward Vicksburg but turned north up to Yazoo city, which it hit pretty bad. This was about 2 o’clock or so. The weather channel at first had it coming toward Vicksburg which concerned us a lot, but then the tornado was pushed north of us. This tornado came within 30 miles of us or so. I do not believe any one was killed by this one, although more than 400 homes and businesses were destroyed. The big oval below is where two tornado’s came through, from left to right,about 4:30 or so,one right after the other, almost in the same path they said. These two were on the ground for over an hour each, traveling a couple hundred miles. These apparently were tornado’s in rain storms which they say you cannot see coming, and little warning. These were south of us 80 miles or so. I believe they killed 11 people. Mamma’s Café and Restaurant, had 4 people hiding in it. It was completely destroyed. A rescuer found two people dead, one man crawling out of the debris, saying there were 4 of us here. He later died. They found the 4th person 200 yards away hanging from a tree. Just like that gone.

Where we were ,we had some heavy rain, thunder and lightning and some wind, that was it and that was enough. After five or so, all the storms and tornado’s seemed to be moving north east, but until eight o’clock we were still in the tornado watch. A few days have passed  and we hear all the stories, coming out. Both of us are humbled at the power of nature, these tornado’s could have easily came our way.

This is the first time we have ever been in a tornado watch area. So, were we scared, no I don’t think so, I think we both were nervous and on edge. We ate a lot of junk food, and I had a few more drinks than I normally have. It was nice to crawl into bed that night, with Missy, we both prayed that we were safe and prayed for the lives lost.

The bad weather up north.

After the storms

Nice sunset view of the sky clearing.