Oklahoma is no stranger to severe storms. We’ve had devastating tornados and paralyzing ice storms. The most significant storms I can remember were the ice storm circa 83, tornados through Moore 99, the Ice Storm of 07, the Deep Freeze of 21, and now the 100mph Father’s Day. Our a/c stopped working earlier in the day. I knew a storm was rolling in with lower temperatures, so I went to bed with open windows. I was awakened just hours later by my dog, unusually barking and running down the hallway. Clearly, he sensed something was coming. Husband was still up watching TV. I looked out my window and saw a series of strobe flashes in the sky off to the west, having a second to realize it was a storm unlike any others I had seen. Then the sirens sounded. I briskly made my way to the TV and put on the news. It was an extensive squall line spanning all of Tulsa. The storm was about a half hour away, with high straight winds reported. Nothing was twirling, just a wall of high 80-100 mile-an-hour winds advancing towards us. There were reports of power outages to come.
After understanding what I was up against, I began to take action. I close the windows, shut all the bedroom doors, grab a radio, and post up in the centermost hallway bathroom of my house. Luckily, we’ve been using our battery-powered radio during the master bath renovation, so I knew where it was and that it was all powered up and working. I could hear the storm getting closer with each report; towns west of me reported trees falling on houses. As the storm approached me, the doors began rattling. They were slowly getting sucked in and blown back out by the force of the wind. I could hear the giant swaying of our oak trees. Several minutes passed, and the rain poured down; the next thing I knew, the activity moved out, and it was quiet again. Yet this time, it was an eerie silence with no power, no street lights beaming in, no electrical hum from the appliances, and no fan to keep us cool. We open up windows again and head back to bed, unaware of the damage to our city.

Week 24 recap:

• Set up the stock-tank pool.
• Planted succession two of the farm row.
• Repotted cosmos and amaranth.

Week 25 plans:

• Debris clean-up

Week 24 in bloom:

• Zinnias ‘Oklahoma White’
• Dahlia seeds
• Marigold
• Petunias
• Chocolate lace flower 'Dara’
• Gomphrena 'Sunset Mix'
• Echinacea 'Wildberries’