Holiday to Tennessee in Mar 2024: Day 3 – Tornado Warnings!

Tornado - duck!
Tornado - duck!

After turning out the light at just before 9pm, we were very rudely awoken by Vick’s phone going bananas!

It was showing an Extreme Emergency Alert warning about the risk of a tornado heading our way!

The tornado warning that we both received on our mobiles
The tornado warning that we both received on our mobiles
The tornado warning that we both received on our mobiles
The tornado warning that we both received on our mobiles

I checked my phone and I had received it as well (my phone was on silent), so it wasn’t some sort of rogue notification.

I rang down to the Front Desk and they suggested we didn’t need to do anything, even though the warning specifically advised residents to take shelter in a basement or an interior room on the lowest floor of a sturdy building.

We were on the top floor (floor 5), so we wondered whether we should head downstairs.

What did we actually do?

We opened the curtains on the two sides of the hotel we had access to and watched for signs of a tornado coming!

The National Weather Service warning shared on X (formerly Twitter) - we were located in Clinton, so well and truly caught by this tornado warning
The National Weather Service warning shared on X (formerly Twitter) – we were located in Clinton, so well and truly caught by this tornado warning
The National Weather Service warning shared on X (formerly Twitter) - we were located in Clinton, so well and truly caught by this tornado warning
The National Weather Service warning shared on X (formerly Twitter) – we were located in Clinton, so well and truly caught by this tornado warning

Other than one police car driving down the middle of the highway with its lights flashing, we couldn’t really see any change in behaviour!

We could see vehicles continuing to drive along the highway and even queue up at the McDonalds drive-thru! Perhaps this is the norm for locals?

As it happens, we did get dressed just in case and we did have access to an internal bathroom, that we could get some protection from.

We waited and watched until we saw further updates that suggested the warning had moved further north-east.

It was certainly noisy and was raining cats and dogs at times, but it didn’t feel like we were in any significant danger.

It didn’t quite feel as clear as that at the time!


Follow the whole story here: Holiday to Tennessee in Mar 2024


Author Bio: About Nige

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Nige is one of the co-founders of The Billingham Blog and works as a freelance management consultant. He loves to fly in his spare time!

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Comments (2)

  • Avatar photo

    By Neil on April 5, 2024 at 9:33 pm Reply

    I was so disappointed to read that you didn't actually take the photo of the tornado!
    • Avatar photo

      By Nige on April 6, 2024 at 2:17 am Reply

      Ha! Me too!

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