The marina

If you'd like to see video of the marina and the boats destroyed, check out this video.  The sad part isn't about the boats, but it's about the number of people who actually live on those boats....or did.

Tornado damage

We are so very thankful that our house was protected through the tornadoes that came through two weeks ago.  The kids and I were actually at the farm freaking out over the weather that was headed through there when my brother called me (from the big city in the middle of the state) to see if our house was okay and if Daddy T's parents were okay because he had read that it had been damaged.  I was actually live-streaming the news over the mountains and then watching the farm news weather.  I hadn't heard exactly where the tornado touched down in the valley until I finally heard it hit our road.  Needless to say, I had a lot of people calling and texting me to make sure we were okay.  It was so very thoughtful of them and I appreciated it. 

I got in touch with my father-in-law and he told me about the damage that it had done on the road where we are planning to buy a house.  He did tell me that his neighborhood was okay but it hit the subdivision next to theirs.  My niece called to check on us and volunteered to run over to our house to check on it for us and to move our trashcan before the next round of storms.  (So very nice of her!)  She called with a good report saying that it didn't touch our neighborhood.  Less than a mile away wasn't so lucky.  Trees were uprooted, houses destroyed, marina gone, and boats sunk.  When we drove home the next day, my heart sunk to see the end of our road and how it did not resemble anything like it used to.  Then my next revelation was that if the tornado had stayed straight and not turned when it did, it would have come up and down our ridges and taken out our house from behind.  (Not going to lie...that kinda really freaked me out!)  The road where the worst of the devastation happened is still closed and not free for traffic.  I think we are going with the youth at some point to help in the cleanup.  Many trees need to come off of houses and away from buildings.  It apparently went clear through our little town and straight into the county on the mountains.  All in all, I think it destroyed about 80 homes.  Thankfully, no one died despite the number of people who were home and took shelter with the EF-3 tornado hit.  I saw somewhere that it had about 165 mph winds with it.  Here's a few pictures of devastation.

We've been told you could hear the horrible sound from our neighborhood so I'm very thankful I wasn't home or I really would have been a lot more nervous, especially with my kids!



This is pretty much what the entrance to our road looks like:















This would be the subdivision next to where we want to move:

Safe!

Since so many of my family read this, I figured that this would be the best way to let them all know that we are okay.  I'll start by saying that I stayed up praying much of the night because I had a bad feeling about these storms.  Daddy T wasn't as worried, but I come from an area that has tornadoes and not only have I seen them form by the house (my Dad and I are fascinated by them), but my aunt and uncle have experienced the devastation of a tornado destroying their home when Shannon was in the hospital.  I was in elementary school then and remember cleaning up Shannon's precious moments doll because not much was left.  All of that to say that I know the destruction it can cause, but also the blessings when the community comes together to help out the families with donations.  My aunt and uncle were blessed with those.  So now that I have kids, I packed a bag of water and food, put the dogs on leashes and stayed downstairs as we had round after round of tornado warnings.  I lost count of the rounds, but I know it was at least 5!

Early yesterday morning when the first storm came through, there were trees in our subdivision that were knocked on houses and that story was repeated throughout the roads in our area.  That was round 1.  It blew off a table and chair set from our neighbor's deck and countless trash.

I hurried and fed the kiddos lunch a bit early so they could take an early nap because I knew I would have to wake them up to take them back downstairs in about 2 hours.  Baby M slept but B refused and my head hurt from watching the weather so I decided it wasn't worth the fight today.  It was more important to me that I kept all of us safe than for them to have their nap.  Thankfully, he was really good despite no nap.

Daddy T came home early between round 2 and round 3.  I was so glad because you could hear things hitting the house and B kept saying "I scared."  I told him I was scared, too!  I kept waiting for these 2 dead trees in our backyard to fall, but thankfully, they never did.

Once Daddy T came home, he humored me by staying downstairs and transporting the kiddos back downstairs when the storms started getting worse.  Apparently it was the system that produced the tornadoes in the northern part of a neighboring county and in several areas all around us.  Destruction is everywhere and many roads are closed.  There are still people trapped in one community and in another, the area is leveled.  But God watched over us (as He would have even if we were hit) and protected us and we were unharmed.  Daddy T is doing double duty at work since 2 plants were hit by a tornado.  (I should clarify that it was the transmission lines and power lost that is the problem.  Thanks LA!  Daddy T leaves out words when communicating.  Goes back to his limited words allotted for a day!)  He worked some last night and had to go in early to do whatever he had to do to help. 

Here's some raw video from the local news channel here.  I couldn't help but tear up when I saw the kids getting in the ambulance.  They won't let the media in yet because they are still searching and recovering.  Daddy T's aunt and cousins live about 2 miles from where it hit and I'm so thankful they were okay.  They said it's all destroyed all around them and buildings are completely flattened.