May 10, 2010 Tornado (I'm playing catch-up, and since we're talking about severe weather...)

I figured I'd write about the tornado since my last couple of posts have been about the blizzard. 


We had heard there was going to be severe weather, so after we kissed Daddy good-bye (he left for meetings in Dallas and would not be home until the next night) I started to clean out the storm shelter. It took a long time because I had a 3 month old baby to care for. The storm shelter was gross. There was dirt and feathers that had been blown in, and spiders and crickets that had crawled in there. I made sure to update the supplies in there (like diapers and formula for Buttercup).

Every once in a while I went in the house to check on the weather. I could see that the heart of the storm was getting closer, but we had been through this many times so I wasn't too worried. We have only been in our shelter a few times, so I have cleaned it out more than we have been in there.

It was getting VERY windy so Ned decided to pull the trash back by the house. It had been at the curb, but not picked up yet. Our neighbor came out to put hers away also. Not 2 minutes later the garbage truck came around the corner so Ned and I scrambled to get both trash cans back out.

I don't remember exactly what happened next, but I think our other neighbor came out with his family and said that the news had said to get in our shelters... I think. So I threw everything back in (I was still cleaning it) and grabbed the kids. They were pretty nervous, but I was very calm, so that helped. Although Ned did say as we climbed in, "Well, at least Daddy is lucky. He gets to live the rest of his life." El Guapo was in Texas, remember? Haha! Poor Ned. :)

I tried to close the garage but it wouldn't shut, and I am glad because a few minutes later our neighbor knocked at the shelter to ask if we had room for her and her friend (this was the first time that our Oklahoma native neighbor, Kyla had asked to get in, I knew at that point it must be serious). Of course they got in and we chatted, trying to keep the kids calm. Buttercup needed a bottle and I didn't have a clean one. I used water from a water bottle to rinse it and dumped the dirty water into a clean diaper.

At one point the sound outside changed. It wasn't louder, almost quieter. I don't really know how to describe it, just different.

A few minutes later (we were probably in there for 30 minutes total) Kyla's husband, Jon came in to ask if Kyla was in the shelter. He said he saw the tornado and that it was over. Apparently he had gone to return a movie and got caught in the middle of it all. Kyla said she would not get out until Jon saw if 'Gary said it was okay to get out'. He came back and said, "Gary says you can get out. It is northeast of us now." I thought they were talking about a friend of theirs, it turns out he is a meteorologist that has been around forever. Obviously a good one if Kyla trusted him that much.

So, we got out and we saw fences down and roofs that had lost shingles and tar paper. All of the neighbors were out talking. I tried to call El Guapo, but the cell phone lines were all either down or tied up. My friend, Mrs. Morty was able to call me and called someone to come and help me tarp my roof, because this was what we found:

That is a trampoline pole embedded in our roof. Crazy!

In the hours after the tornado I had several people from church come to check on us. We felt very lucky. We have friends that had much worse happen to their homes.

Here are some pictures I took in the next few days of our shelter (just to remember what it looks like when we eventually move from this house):

 The bags have pillows, blankets, snacks, diapers, etc.

 It is actually pretty roomy. I have plenty of head room while seated.

 Our wind up radio's antenna is broken, so we have to told it up to the steel roof of the shelter to hear it.

 That is the chain that loops through the hole to lock the shelter shut.

That is how much light comes in. It's even less when it is cloudy outside or the garage is shut. Thank goodness we have a very bright flashlight/lantern.

These are pictures of the surrounding neighborhoods:

 I didn't know they made tarps that big (except for a baseball field or something).

If you look closely you can see the black all over the garage door and above it. That is from tar from pieces of roof flying around.

That house is the home of one of Ned's friend. Their front window was blown out. Glass everywhere. They were out of their house for a very long time. So sad.

That is after a morning of cleanup. Ned's friend's mom said that the pond (which is right behind their house) had above ground swimming pools, fences and sheds in it.

There are still people with fences down and tarps on their roofs. I can only imagine how long it takes to recover from a larger tornado. It really puts other horrible disasters into perspective.