By: Beth (and Becca)
Wow, did we have an exciting Friday! We came home just in time from our little road trip to get hit by a tornado. Well, it didn't go through our town, but it came very close, and it was such a blessing how things turned out.
Usually, these trips to meet our mom's friend take all day, but yesterday I had to be back by 4 o'clock for work. That was the first blessing. 30 miles from home, we got a call from our dad telling us our county was in a tornado warning. Now this always confuses me, but a warning is when the conditions are right, and a watch is when one has been officially spotted. So we hurried home, me getting dropped off at the library where I work, and Mom and Becca rushing home to make sure things were put away outside and the rabbit hutches were storm proofed (some tarps and a couple of cinder blocks to hold them down). If I didn't have to go to work, we wouldn't have gotten home to do those things.
All the while, the sky was getting darker and the wind was picking up. I turned on the radio in the library, and it was reporting that nearby towns had been hit by the storm, funnel clouds had been spotted, and it was headed our way.
Minutes later, the sky turned a shade of green, rain started coming down in torrents, and the emergency siren started going off. At home, Mom and Becca headed for the basement.
(Becca's turn! Actually Dad had called us before the siren had sounded and told us to go in the basement. So we grabbed the dog, a comfy chair, a game of Othello, both the iPads, the rest of the cookies, a giant afghan, a card table and I grabbed my new nail polish. It took a few trips but finally we made it. We sat on the couch ( which was all ready down there) and prayed. Then I tried to finish painting my nails, but it became rather difficult when the lights went out. Mom went upstairs to get some giant emergency glow sticks, while the storm was at full force ( at least it sounded that way) .As we played Othello in the light of the glow stick, we wondered about each scary sound we heard, frequently looked at the one tiny window we had ( It looked weirdly green outside) and discussed what a tornado would sound like ( Mom said it would sound like a train. After worrying about whether or not the back door was open, Mom went to check and came back saying " The hackberry tree is down!")
It is a miracle that it didn't hit our house (or the neighbor's either) The tree split in two, one fell between our house and garage the other fell harmlessly in the yard. Praise God for His protection!
The funny thing is that we had been wanting to get rid of that tree for a few years because it had been looking poorly. Someone suggested to water it more and we had redirected our sub-pump hose to the tree's base.
We discovered that the tree did not need more water, as it was rotten to the core. : )
Back at the library, I (Beth) went to a center room with no windows. Thankfully, no one came in to return books or check out movies, so it was just me and a lady who worked in the same building.
About half an hour later, we heard the all clear siren, and poked our heads out of hiding. The sky had lightened, (If the creepy orange color it turned would be considered lighter then its previous sickly green), but it was still raining. I was able to close the library for the night and make my way home, along with my dad.
Everyone was fine. A tornado had touched down outside of our town, but thankfully the only damage most people had was downed trees and a few broken power lines.
We spent the rest of the evening walking around town, visiting friends and church family, and then playing games since our power didn't come back on until midnight or so.
So, all this long post to say: "We survived a tornado!", and God really protected us. We hope your first day of summer wasn't as frightening as ours!
