Last week’s awful tornadoes across the country got me thinking … not that I’ve ever been through a tornado but I did experience the effects of the worst storm ever in the Portland area. It was way back in 1962 but still etched in my memory. At the time I worked in the office of a classy furniture store with huge windows all around, and just at 5:30 closing time the power went out as we were ready to go home. However, a visitor from the Sheriff’s dept. said to stay put. So the owners turned on a shortwave radio and we watched as metal billboards came down in big strips and wrapped around parking meters and then when windows of a small store down the street blew out, little pillows and ribbons came flying past. With just a lot of creaking, our windows held.

Finally at 9:30 Sheriff’s folks told us it was ok to go home. So we all trooped out the back door, dodging a live power line hanging above us. And I walked to my car – omg, it was covered with branches as trees were down next to it and in fact the whole length of the block. So one of the owners said take his car, he’d double-up with his brother. My route home went through an area of open land where there were huge fir trees totally toppled over and power lines down and sparking ominously along the side of the road. I’ve never been so scared in my life!

I did arrive home in one piece to find that power and phones were out and my then husband had installed plywood in the one window that had blown out. If I remember, power was out for several days. But the amazing end of the story is that when we went the next day to check on my car, we found that the fallen trees exactly paralleled the sidewalk and parking strip – doing no damage whatsoever to my car!