Locked in at Target

On Friday I brought D home from the hospital with a prescription for Tylenol with codine. When Tony got home I took off for Target to get a break from the kids and pick up the medicine. By this time D was cranky and I was feeling very badly that I hadn't just taken him with to get it sooner...

I dropped off the prescription, thinking to myself that never again would I be at the pharmacy at 5pm on a Friday... it was so busy! I was wandering through Target, killing time while waiting for the prescription to be ready when the overhead speaker came on.

"Attention Target shoppers, the national weather center has issued a Tornado warning for this area. Please move away from all doors and windows and take shelter in the back of the store in the domestics department." I looked around and everyone continued to shop, though a few whipped out their cell phones as I was doing. I texted T, who told me where the tornado had touched down, which was a ways away. I didn't want to leave without the pain meds. Since it was time, I went to the pharmacy where there was now a LONG line. The front cashiers were still working, as was the pharmacy. People were checking out and leaving, so I waited for my prescription. The announcement was made a few times over the next 10 minutes. I got a phone call from Tony and we discussed if I should stay put or drive home. At that point it seemed safe to go home. A couple minutes later a Target manager caleld over the employee's walkie talkies and told them to shut down and procede to domestics. I was next in line, and I was surprised, but they actually checked out my prescription as they locked down the pharmacy and we all went to the back of the store. I decided if Target was going to shut down I wasn't leaving. Actually, I'm not sure if I would have been allowed to leave.

It was so wierd! No one was panicky. Almost everyone was on a cell phone. I sat on the floor in a carpeted section. It was just surreal. One Target employee had a weather radio. About 15 minutes later an informal announcement came over the employees' walkie talkies. The person just stated where the tornados were and that our area was considered ok and they could go back to work. The funny thing was, there were so many employees all together that the announcement was louder than the overhead would have been. Such a wierd time! A funnel cloud had touched down not too far from the store; I didn't hear of any significant damage. I guess there were several small, short tornados across the area, with no loss of life or huge damage done (easy for me to say). Just a very wierd experience! It was nice to get back home and get hugs from the kids, venturing up from the basement with T.