Our family had a first-time experience on Saturday that I hope we never have again.
We knew a line of severe storms would impact our area at some point during the afternoon. As the afternoon wore on, the sky got blacker, the wind got stronger, and the local channels switched from sports coverage to weather coverage.
I watched intently as it seemed we were in for a bumpy afternoon. Little did I know just how bumpy it would be. At about 5:15 pm, Lara Beth and the girls moved to the hallway and we closed all the interior doors - all the rooms in our house have windows, so our only option is the hallway. My eyes went back and forth between the latest weather reports and the front windows in our house.
At about 5:30 pm, the weather man was tracking a possible tornado heading for our area that according to his computer model, would arrive in 12 minutes. As soon as he said that, he said, "But keep in mind, this storm is moving very quickly and it takes a few minutes to update our radar reports." I heard the end of his sentence as I looked outside to see something I have never seen...and now I know, it was a tornado.
"Here it comes," is all that could come out of my mouth. I ripped the mattress off our three year-old's bed, got her under me, Lara Beth covered our 20 month old, and we pulled the mattress over us. The power went out, hail or flying debris busted out a front window, we heard the eery freight train sound everyone associates with a tornado, hail pelted our house like paintballs, and our house shook.
In that moment, there was no time to think, pray, or have a meeting about what to do. It was time to act. The urgency of the situation demanded it. But, in a matter of seconds, we went from tracking this storm's every move to not having a clue what was about to happen.
Obviously, our girls were scared to death...Lara Beth and I were, too. And you want to say, "It's going to be okay...we're alright..." but you can't. You have no idea what's going to happen. You've done all you can do...now you just surrender.
We prayed and all I could pray was, "God, help us to trust you." Not trying to be spiritual, that's all that could come out of my mouth. When you're hunkered down underneath a twin mattress with your entire family while who knows what is going on outside, there's not much else to pray.
After about 10 minutes, things began to die down and I scoped everything out. We were okay...the tornado went behind our house. A building that I could hit with a rock from our front yard was completely destroyed...and that was just the beginning of the damage we'd find in very close proximity to our house.
Amazingly, no one that we know of in our little, sleepy, one-stoplight town on the outskirts of Metro Columbia was seriously injured or killed. But there are a lot of people trying to figure out what to do next while they look at their houses or businesses that have been severely damaged or destroyed. We are just overwhelmed with gratitude for the grace of God over our family and our little town.
There's so much to learn from this whole experience. It will take weeks to process it all. I do ask that you pray for our town and the people who lost everything. Pray for our girls...obviously, this was traumatic for them. Pray for us to leverage opportunities God will give us to serve people around us. Pray for us to continue to trust God with everything...it was our only hope on Saturday and it's our only hope everyday.
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