Sunday, January 22/23, 2012

Sunday was a busy day for us-- church, lunch out, naps, birthday party, more church, bedtime routines... James Spann had been filling up my news feed on Facebook all day about expected severe weather that night. It was supposed to arrive sometime between midnight and 4:00 am. When I went to bed that night, Clay was already asleep. I thought that I might should wake him to tell him about the weather but decided not to. He's typically very diligent about the weather forecasts and I consider him to be my own little weather man.

Around 3:00 am, the sirens went off warning of a tornado. We have a routine when the sirens go off-- Clay gets up and checks the radar while the girls and I stay in bed. If the tornado is close, he gets us and we go to the basement. At the first siren, it wasn't anywhere close so Clay crawled back in bed. Around 3:45 or so, they went off again. This time when he checked, he said we should go get the girls and go to the basement.

I took my precious time. Why? Because I didn't want to be cold in the basement so I put my clothes on. Because I was worried about Shelby Claire's lovies. And Audrey's special blanket. I made sure to tell Clay to get Audrey's pink blanket while I went to get SC and her lovies. I also took my time picking out a blanket for her. Sweet little SC was snoring away when I picked her up. I cuddled her and wrapped her in her blanket and took her down to the den. Clay and Audrey were already headed down to the basement so I took SC-- still taking my precious time.

Once in the basement, I told Clay that Audrey would probably want the ipad and to go get it-- then when he came back down, to go get my cell phone. The entire time, never even imagining what could be coming our way. I just didn't know.

I got Audrey set up with the iPad, and SC woke up ready to play. About this time, Clay said we should get to our safe spot (he'd been monitoring the radar the whole time) so once again, I took my time walking through the basement to our little cubby.

Shelby Claire was babbling away and Audrey was asking a million questions. What's that, Mommy? Why we here, Mommy? I scared, Mommy. We began to pray for protection. I explained to Audrey that God would take care of us and to not be afraid. We would be safe in the basement.

The windows in the garage doors shattered and the house shook. The babies babbled and the momma freaked out inside. What was that, Mommy? I didn't know. I didn't know that as I huddled in the basement with my most prized possessions wrapped in their special blankets and enveloped by my husband's arms that our neighbors were being buried alive. That they were having their entire lives strewn across the neighborhood, the county. I didn't know that people just four doors down were having the sides of their homes ripped off and others were having theirs blown into their pools.

People who were taking showers and preparing for work, were having the walls crumble around them.

Mommas and Daddies were rushing reluctant teenagers down stairwells only to have the stairwell and house collapse on top of them.

A grandfather was throwing himself on top of his disabled granddaughter to protect her from the unimaginable.

Husbands were covering their wives and small children with their bodies to save them.

We lost power and it was pitch black dark inside and out. We live in a neighborhood that is never dark. Clay and I went upstairs and checked out our house. We didn't know about the chaos going on outside. We commented on how we'd lost the deck, and oh, look.. trees are down too!! Oh, the window in the kitchen is broken, wow- that was a close call!

We didn't know.

My daddy called about 10 minutes after the tornado. Then my mom. Then my sister started texting. My phone didn't stop ringing/alerting until Wednesday.

Our neighbor came to check on us and to get Clay to help pull people from their houses. What? "Their houses are gone", Clay whispered to me-- trying to protect an ever-observant three year old from hearing something we didn't know how to explain. He left in the pouring rain and neighbor's came from beneath their houses one by one. They all made it out alive. Sirens and ambulances lit up the night sky and I hunkered down with my babies.

I want to turn the lights on, Mommy. What's that noise, Mommy? Where's Daddy, Mommy?

Clay returned and brought more news of collapsed houses. He said that the police, fire and rescue personnel were there and that they were making the residents all go back into their homes-- the ones that could. We made a game plan as to what we would do when the sun came up. I was to pack our stuff and get out as soon as possible. We didn't know how long we would be without power and we wanted to protect Audrey and Shelby Claire from what they may see.

The neighborhood was on "lock-down" and my brother-in-law had to go through multiple security check points to get to us. He did though. He had to park at the entrance of Pilgrim's Rest and walk into our house. It's only about a half mile. He brought a chainsaw and ice chest for our freezer items. Then he got to work cutting the trees off our house and air conditioning units.

At noon, I left with my girls and went to home to my Momma. The cops told me as I left that to be prepared not to come back. At that time, I didn't want to ever go back.

There were 22 houses on our street and at this time, 7 remain livable.

  

To be continued...