Thankfully there was no tornado yesterday despite word from the National Weather Service that a tornado watch was in effect in the five boroughs. There was, however, plenty of anxiety about the idea of another tornado fresh on the heels of the tornado that left much damage to trees and buildings in Park Slope, Brooklyn on September 16th. Thankfully there weren’t more casualties on that day. Sadly, a Queens woman died when a tree fell on her car.

My sister was in Prospect Park during the September 16th tornado and is still reliving the details of that terrifying afternoon. Her daughter and her first grade classmates and parents were in the park for a class picnic when the storm started. They left the park during the worst of the storm and saw a tree fall not far from them.

Yesterday her daughter’s class was told of the tornado watch during school and when they came out, her babysitter reports, the kids looks terrified and many were crying because they were “scared of the tornado.”

Obviously the kids were traumatized by the experience of being in the park that day. No wonder they were crying when they came out of school.

Other adults I spoke to were nervous about the possibility of another tornado. Some wondered if the National Weather Service was being more cautious this time around — better safe than sorry.

The September 16th tornado definitely gave people a sense of reverence for the power of nature to spontaneously wreak havoc and destroy.

As Rabbi Andy Bachman of Congregation Beth Elohim said during his Yom Kippur sermon just days after the tornado: “We almost died yesterday.”

Indeed, it gave everyone new perspective on a lot of things.