"Mom! I think I just saw our shed move!" Justis nervously exclaimed as he looked out our dining room window into the down pouring rain today.
Today we are experiencing our first tropical storm ever, Hurricane Humberto, which made landfall last night as a category 1 hurricane near Galveston, TX. Humberto was downgraded to a tropical storm early this morning as it slowly passed through southwestern and central Louisiana. The eye of Humberto isn't really near us, but we are experiencing periods of very heavy rainfall and an occasional breeze.
Justis is our cautious child, and storms are something he doesn't completely understand yet, so he's very leery about them. He sat wide eyed when we watched "Hurricane on the Bayou" at the IMAX theatre as he saw film of Hurricane Katrina making landfall and the destruction it left behind.
Questions about what a hurricane is poured out of his mouth after he watched "Hurricane on the Bayou." One of our conversations went something like this:
"Mom, umm, is a hurricane the same as a twisty (his word for tornado)?"
Contemplating my response carefully, I replied, "Well, Justis, a hurricane kind looks like a huge twisty, except it lasts longer than a twisty and the winds are sometimes stronger."
"Oh. Will a hurricane come to our house?"
"It's possible, but a hurricane probably wouldn't be as strong when it gets as far as our house. Hurricane Katrina passed by our house when we didn't live here, but at our house it only rained a lot, the wind was strong for a while, some trees fell down and the power was out for about a week. The damage at our house wasn't like the damage the hurricane caused in New Orleans like the stuff you saw on the movie."
Justis and I repeat the hurricane discussion almost every time he hears thunder or the mention of a hurricane on the weather channel. I reassure him that God is watching over us and that Travis and I will make sure our family is safe if a hurricane is coming our way.
The Weather Channel's tropical update is something I make sure to watch at least once a day to make sure I know if there's a tropical wave, storm or hurricane I need to keep my eye on. The first words Justis heard when I turned on the Weather Channel this morning were "hurricane," and "Louisiana."
"Mom!!!!??? The guy said there's a hurricane in Louisiana!"
"Justis, there's nothing to worry about. The only thing that is going to happen here is we're going to get lots of rain."
Our conversation about the "Louisiana hurricane" apparently didn't pacify him. Before getting out of the van this morning at story time at the library, Justis cautiously peeked his head out of the sliding door and peered up into the raining sky to make sure the coast was clear. Rain started pouring down when we got home and he nervously walked from room to room looking up at the sky through the windows. Justis isn't even sure what a hurricane looks like, but one thing is crystal clear to him. He doesn't want to be caught in one!
He has categorized tornadoes and hurricanes into two categories that make sense to him. He calls a tornado a twisty and a hurricane a REALLY big twisty. I have officially dubbed Justis the family "twisty" hunter. I think I'll leave the Weather Channel off today!
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