We had been at a friend's house Saturday night and the kids had gotten to bed late. Sunday morning Grant woke at his usual hour (6 am!) but Elizabeth was still sleeping. The plan was for Grant and I to sneak out of the house and go to early church and then Brandon would bring Elizabeth for Sunday School. As we were trying to leave she woke up and was upset that she couldn't come. In five minutes I had her hair in pig tails and church clothes on her. Brandon can't get ready quite that fast so he stayed home. I took the kids to church. We made it through the whole service with no exits. I usually don't brave a church service by myself but they did good. Afterwards we headed to Sunday School. My friend Jessica had texted me that morning that bad weather was coming and there could be hail and suggested I drive Brandon's car. I told her if I didn't have to teach I wouldn't even be going to church because I knew the weather was supposed to be bad. God had other plans and so the three of us were at church. As we were loading up into the car, one of my friend's pulling in for church shouted "Hey Alison you know there is a tornado warning?" I continued loading the kids and then looked at my phone, sure enough I had a text alert with a tornado warning. Then another text from Jessica "Come to our house." Then Brandon calls and tells me about the warning and I tell him that I know and that I am headed to Jessica's. As I am leaving the church I see Mike and Pam (who live across the street from the church) heading home. Pam is running, Mike is casually walking behind her. I rolled my window to comment on their differences in urgencies and before I could speak Pam says "Do you have the kids with you? Come to our house!" I pulled into their drive and as I was unbuckling the kids the sirens start going off. We got into the basement and then waited. Mike was going up periodically to check the conditions. We all went out on the porch at one point to look around. We never heard sirens again but another warning was issued so we again took cover. As we were going up and down I started getting text messages as reception would allow. I was getting a lot of "are you ok?" which initially I didn't think much of because I wasn't with my family and I wasn't at home. Then my friend from DC texted me. I went out on the porch and we saw neighboring emergency vehicles whizzing by. My gut told me something was wrong. Then Jessica texted me again "Oh my God we are Ok but heard it come over our house. Lots of damage in our neighborhood. I think our house is ok. Matt and Becky lost their house. Houses in Bishops Ct are gone." My heart sank. Our little town had been hit. For the next hour and a half I tried to get home. I couldn't place calls on my cell phone but could receive them. I could also text back and worth, but not easy to do while driving. As I tried 4 different routes to get out of town I got glimpses of the damage. I tried hard to hold it together for the kids but I didn't always hide my tears. They were such troopers. They made up games and played in the backseat and got along so well the entire time. I was so proud of them. The whole time we were in the basement they cooperated. Pam and I were so chatty I don't think they ever thought there was anything to worry about. Honestly, I didn't either. Ms.Pam does the music during Sunday School so my kids are very comfortable with her which was a blessing as well.
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| This is the farm house we drove by on our way home. This is basically what the kids have seen, plus debris in the fields. |
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| Exactly what the news shows...debris as far as the eye can see |
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| Aerial view. The light color is wood and the path that the tornado took. |
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| A wedding ring was found in there! |
Anyone who has grown up in the midwest becomes accustomed to taking cover and it amounting to nothing - almost as if they are just drills, but it will never be the same from this point forward. As I am stuck in traffic the winds pick up again. The rain comes hard. I am frantically texting Jessica for a weather update because I am worried another tornado is coming. Her husband is a weather spotter and expert radar reader. I probably texted her four different times looking for reassurance that we were safe in our car. She assured me over and over that it was just rain, no tornado. When I got home I fell into Brandon's arms and as soon as the kids were out of the area I began to really cry.
A few hours later Brandon and I attempted to get back into town to help. It proved to be difficult but we took back roads and parked as close as we could and then began walking. As we walked down curvy Kingsbury I was on the outside and I started to whimper. Then he saw what I saw. Complete destruction. Splintered neighborhoods. Houses with missing parts. Foundations with piles of rubble on top of them. The scenes that we witnessed over the next few days are really indescribable. We got to Jessica's house and they luckily had virtually no damage. We walked a block over and roofs were gone, 2nd floors were gone, windows were blown out, cars were totaled, people were helping. As hard as it was to see, the families that we knew who had just lost their homes were upbeat. "How are you guys doing?" the response... "We've had better days, but we will be OK."
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| This is the house my brother lived in 7 years ago. |
The next day Brandon went to work and we started to learn of the families that we knew that were hit. We started figuring out how we could help. I learned that Elizabeth's friend from school and dance had had their home leveled. Their two story home is now just a foundation. I starting gathering stuff of Elizabeth's for her and Elizabeth noticed. She had a major melt down. She didn't want to share her things. I explained over and over that they had nothing and we showed her pictures but she still didn't have a giving heart. I went to a friend's house to pick up some items for another family and she shared that her son wouldn't share his things either. We concluded that they are still processing this event and trying to hold on to everything they could. I know these are giving kids. I say this to myself over and over again "I don't know what or how they are processing" so I trust and just love and hug them tighter and hope that we are doing the right thing. We still gave her a few of Elizabeth's things but we also went shopping for new ones as well and she was more than willing to help with that task. We will keep working on the giving spirit! They have had questions and we answer them all honestly. Did you know that most kids can't say tornado...it was a really bad "tomato." Kind of makes you smile.
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| This is Elizabeth's friend's dad...holding a sign "The Best Place to be is Together" |
Tuesday Brandon and I went into ground zero to help our friends. The first house was a co-worker and we basically packed their house. They have structural damage and there was glass everywhere, but we were able to save a lot. The next block over four of my friends live in one cluster. One house they don't think will be able to be saved. The other three have some roof and exterior damage but the broken windows and glass on the floors/carpets, followed by the rain which created water damage is quite a mess too. Then we went to a house that was leveled. They had to show me the way to the basement. If it wasn't for her totaled vehicle out front I wouldn't have even been able to find her. We dug through rubble and saved what we could. All day I felt like I was guessing what other people's treasures were. The old saying "one man's trash is another's treasure" is kind of true. No one really knows what is special to someone else. I truly hope I didn't pass over anything near and dear to their hearts. Here is some irony for you...as I am sifting I glance up and see a book titled "Simplify - How to live with less" I told my friend and she yelled up "keep it!" The husband's wedding ring was found, but we never found his wallet. Her kitchen table was in perfect condition and I whispered to Brandon "I wish we could keep it for them" and he said "Alison, the bathroom wall is on top of it." I told her what a quality table she had to withstand all of this and she laughed..it was from Ikea!! We searched for keepsakes until curfew was imposed on us and the sun was setting. When we reached a check point the cop asked where we were going and I said, "The library, my friend some books that she wanted me to return for her" His reply with a chuckle was "OK, sure, I guess life goes on!" We took the long way home and saw the damage on the other side of town. I honestly do not know how there was only one fatality. The damage is so far spread and so wide and from a little bit higher ground it goes on and on as far as the eye can see.
But from all of this devastation comes the opportunities for heroes to rise and a community to come together. We have the chance to teach our children about the giving spirit and to lend a hand to those in need. The out pouring of love and support to our community has been immense. So much that they have actually had to start turning donations away. Volunteers were walking around passing out lunch and water and later candy bars. A flat bed from Lowe's passed us by with plastic totes, water and work gloves. Duracell brought up a truck load of batteries. I love seeing all of the american flags that people have hung in the middle of the disaster. Our high school football team advanced in the playoffs just the day before the tornado hit. The team they beat has let them practice at their facility and feed them meals. The team we are playing on Saturday has charted buses to bring our fans to the game. I seriously can't think of all of this good without getting choked up. Your faith is restored in humanity when you go through these life changing events. There is a reason I don't want to leave Washington. Everyone has their story from this event. This is our family's story. For the record it was rated as an EF-4 with wind speeds of 190 mph. We can only pray that this is a once in a lifetime event. It has certainly made us think about where and how we keep our valuables. And we all have a whole new respect for weather warnings and sirens. We said a lot of extra prayers this past Sunday and hugged our kids really, really tight (and each other!)
