The storms hitting our area Monday and Tuesday brought back some memories of my family’s time in the more eastern areas of the Deep South’s own tornado corridor, “Dixie Alley.”

Growing up in Baton Rouge, the threat of tornados was never that great, although they did occur from time-to-time. In elementary and junior high school, such weather warnings meant a partial day off from school as the Catholic school I attended would shut down and send the kids home.

I can only remember experiences with two major storms: one which occurred my senior year in college and managed to damage trees at my parents’ home, and another when I was editor of a weekly newspaper in Baker, La. I remember that storm because I had just finished mowing my lawn on a Saturday morning and was stepping out of the shower when the lights went off and then back on, and the scanner in my bedroom crackled to life with multiple calls.

But what I remember most is how the twister went from the local golf course, jumped a house and demolished a 100-year-old oak not 20 feet from the house, and skipped over the city’s 100-year-old Presbyterian church only to hit a subdivision about a mile away.

Then I moved to Cullman, Ala., a place where they had warning sirens, the children regularly practiced tornado drills by going into the halls to duck and cover. While none ever hit the city while we lived there, I covered several twisters that hit in the county. Several years ago, long after we left, a strong tornado hit the city, causing extensive damage.

Our next stop in Dixie Alley was Meridian, which also had warning sirens and several occasions where storm cells with rotation passed through the city and Lauderdale County.

It’s a funny thing about tornado preparedness. We are taught to be prepared, but in the end, when a storm is sighted or the alert comes out, it’s usually 8 to 10 seconds and go hide. My brother, who lives in Norcross, Ga., told me about the panic he went through during one storm, when he had to move his family from their upstairs bedrooms to an alcove on the ground floor hall of their home.

We had very few problems with tornados on the coast. We did, however, have a lot of straight-line winds accompanying squalls coming in off the Gulf of Mexico, which can be just as bad as tornados. We dealt more with hurricanes, which, while they can be just as destructive, allow you most of the time to watch the storm and decide if you want to stay or go. That was one thing I discussed when I told my editor in Meridian I was leaving for the coast. “They have hurricanes there,” he said.

“Yes, and I have time to watch them and decide if I want to leave, not 8 seconds to hide,” I said.

And you know, I prefer having time on my side.

John Surratt is a staff writer at The Vicksburg Post. You may reach him at john.surratt@vicksburgpost.com.