It started off completely normal. I got to go to the Lady's Christmas Brunch at church that morning and had a great time as always. Then we took the boy to a birthday party at the bowling alley, where they had a blast bowling with friends.
I had been watching the weather because I knew we were supposed to get rain and I was really hoping the parade wouldn't get rained out since that was the first activity in our Advent calendar. Around 2 a Tornado Watch alert came up on my phone. Living in the Midwest all my life has trained me to take watches with a grain of salt.
Around 4:30 the sun went away and the radar was showing rain coming. A few minutes later a post came up saying the parade was off until next weekend. I was bummed. Not long after that the sirens sounded. I looked at where the storm was and decided it was still 40 miles off. 10 minutes later our phones go off with a warning. Again, I ignored it. I decided a little before 5 to feed the boys, "just in case we have to go downstairs." They finished supper and were just finishing dessert and I saw they were saying it was serious, but again the meteorologists are almost never right. Out of nowhere this feeling hit me. I didn't rinse my glass. I didn't wander around. I just said, "I think we need to get to the basement." Jacob didn't want to come down so I said I was taking the boys down.
I got out blankets and spread them on the cement floor. I made it feel like a fun adventure. We were playing Chutes and Ladders when Jacob came down to update us that it was just raining and that was all. He went back up and the boys and I kept playing, but James kept stopping to ask me questions about the storm, so we praying for God's protection.
I could hear the winds picking up. At some point the sirens sounded again. Next thing I hear is Jacob running down the stairs. Seconds later the power went out and I heard that, "freight train" coming at us. It felt like an eternity. It was probably only 30 seconds, but I don't know. The house was shaking and all you could hear was a deafening roar. I shouted for everyone to get down and I was laying over the top of James. I. Was. Terrified. I thought, "Am I going to die? Are we all going to die?" I was trying to pray. All that came out was, "God protect us. Please keep us safe." over and over again until it was over. And once it was quiet all you could hear was a car alarm and a bit of rain. I said, "We just had a tornado, didn't we?" I knew we did, but I needed the confirmation.
The boys were crying. I was shaking. We all were in shock. My anxiety got the best of me and I started to hyperventilate. Once I controlled my breathing more, I messaged my mom. It took forever to type because I was shaking so badly. Jacob's mom texted because her mom saw that we had a tornado. Jacob went upstairs to get the gist of what happened. He came down and said it wasn't what he expected. My first question was, "Do we still have a house?" Once that was confirmed I asked if we had windows and a roof. He assured me we did, but that there was a tree on my van, and lots of tree branches and other debris in our yard.
I came up to survey the damage before calling my very worried mom and Jacob called his mom.
We spent the rest of the evening as a family. We all laid in the bedroom and talked on the bed. My body just kept shaking. It was so bad that I was shivering. I kept hearing a creaking sound and convinced myself our roof was going to collapse. Jacob and I went out to check and make sure the roof was clear. It was. We did find the creaking noise though. It was a awning outside my window that came loose. By that point it had been an hour and a half, and once I knew the house wasn't going to fall on me, I stopped shaking.
Friends and loved ones were texting and messaging to make sure we were okay.
Those next several hours all that you could hear were sirens. Injured people. People trapped in basements. City crews clearing debris from roadways to make them passable for emergency vehicles.
I had already decided the boys and I would sleep together. I knew they would be scared because of what we had just been through and also because there was no power. Daniel got a great night of sleep. James woke up a lot and I just didn't sleep well. It was too quiet. Around midnight the sirens were dying down. It was eerily dark.
After the boys were settled I went out in the living room with Jacob and we just sat there trying to wrap our brains around the events of the evening.
There's not a doubt in my mind that God kept us safe in that storm. Hopefully I will never experience anything like it again.
Stay tuned for my next blog about the good in humanity. I love my little town of Taylorville. #TaylorvilleStrong
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| The EF-3 that literally blew right over us. |
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