This was something I randomly wrote recently based on one of the most terrifying events I’ve lived through so far, simply titled “A Random Recollection of December 10-11, 2021”:
Imagine this: it’s only weeks before Christmas, and suddenly, there’s a destructive and deadly out-of-season tornado outbreak happening near or even right in the area you live in. Coming home from school on December 10th, 2021, I didn’t think I’d end up staying up until nearly 4 or 5 in the morning from sheer terror caused exactly by that. It was late at night, roughly around 8, when a tornado watch was issued. Anything tornado-related has always made me panic because the worst we usually get where I live is severe thunderstorm watches and warnings. Alabama, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Illinois had already been hit, but some of the worst was saved for the state I live in, Kentucky.
The portion of the tornado outbreak that happened on the 10th brought the most catastrophic of it all to Kentucky. There was an EF4 tornado that spawned in Tennessee, but eventually carved a giant path through and did a large majority of its damage to several places in Kentucky. Of the 89 total people who died in the tornado outbreak, that single tornado caused 57 of those deaths, as well as injured over 500 people. I was lucky to not be anywhere near the areas it hit, but I did have multiple extremely close calls.
It was early in the morning, probably around 2 or 3, when the tornado watch turned into an active tornado warning. The scariest part for me was not knowing where to go, because my house doesn’t have any actual tornado shelter, and the centermost part of it is a closet in my parents’ bedroom. It was about 3:20 when an EF3 tornado spawned in another county, in a city 22 minutes away from where I live, and it was 3:36 when it dissipated in a city 13 minutes away in the county I live in. The other, which was an EF1, spawned at 3:41 right in the county I live in, in a city 14 minutes away from the one I live in, and dissipated at 3:43. There were various other tornadoes that struck cities in neighboring counties, some of which were also within half an hour from where I live.
I got lucky, but many others didn’t. If you look up Mayfield, Kentucky, which was probably the best-known of the cities hit by the EF4 tornado that happened on December 10th, and go to the images section, you’ll see pictures like this. It really goes to show how starkly different the two sides of weather are: one is beautiful, while the other can wreak havoc and cause absolute destruction beyond comprehension. It also definitely makes a point that nature really isn’t something to be underestimated.
