When I was growing up, every Tuesday at 11 a.m., the tornado sirens would sounds, giving us peace of mind that they worked.
4 years ago, we moved from a busy suburb to a rural area. Not long after, on an ordinary spring day, the phone rang and it was my oldest son with a heavy presence of concern in his voice. "Where are you?" was the first thing I heard. The next was, "Get in the basement. There is a tornado."
As I recall the eerie calmness in his voice, I remember the rest as if in slow motion. I turned my head to look out of the huge wall of windows behind where I sat on the couch and what I saw made my jaw drop. I didn't know it then but the clouds I saw being sucked to the east was the outer edge of the mile wide tornado that was passing through the next town over....where my daughter was in middle school. I asked my son if he was okay and he assured me that they were all in lock down in the halls, at the high school 3 miles north of me, being kept safe.
I stood up, confused by the blueness of one side of my world and the total destruction roaring through the the sky on the other. I knew I was okay where I was but I needed to get my kids who were at the elementary school, literally, right behind me. I gathered the babies that were with me and drove around the block to the school where I joined the throng of parents who were whisking their children into their waiting cars. The scheduled Field Day activities had been cancelled and their school was also going into lockdown. As I got back into the car with my confused brood, my cell phone rang. It was my oldest daughter, barely able to speak as she sobbed, "Are you okay??" She was in the gymnasium with the rest of her school and no power. She had called home to check on me and when I didn't answer there, she panicked, thinking the worst. Thankfully, a neighbor was there to pick up her daughter and brought my girl home as well.
I came home and turned on the TV. I called the husband and heard him say, "I heard there was a tornado but it wasn't too bad."
He wasn't looking at what I was seeing.
Later that night, we all sat, dumbfounded, as we watched the tales of destruction unfold before us on the news. Neighborhoods had been destroyed, completely flattened. It was surreal.
Had my son not thought to call and check on me, I never would have turned my head and saw what I did. By the grace of God, I only saw the edge of it all, and my children were all spared its wrath.
Last week, in the the field, no more than 300 yards from my house, a tornado siren was erected.
It is something that I am able to look out of my window, while seeing only the very edge of it, and be thankful that it is there.
Goodness! How terrifying!
We see the pictures on the news, but it is still it is hard to imagine the energy and destruction.
['] for protection & peace.
May 6th, 2011
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We see the pictures on the news, but it is still it is hard to imagine the energy and destruction.
['] for protection & peace.