Sunday, May 1st about 6:30 am, Aaron and I woke up to our phones beeping. The wind outside was blowing and it was causing the electricity in the house to go on and off, which was making our phones beep. We were about to go back to sleep when the wind started blowing really hard. . . harder than I've heard in my life, I think.
All of a sudden, the roof started popping. There was a loud bang against Evan's window and what I thought was the sound of it shattering. It sounded like the basketball goal had hit his window. Aaron told me to get the kids and get in the bathroom. I told him to get Evan first. He grabbed Evan out of bed and stood him up and pushed him into the bathroom.
Poor Evan was so disoriented. He ran to the bathroom and jumped in the bath tub. When he got in the bath tub, he turned and looked at me like "Why am I in the bath tub?" I told him that he didn't have to stay in there because we weren't all going to fit! :)
We got Payton and Jaxon, a few blankets, & some couch cushions and we all sat in the bathroom floor listening to a horrible wind noise and hoping that our roof didn't blow away. There was a brief pause in the middle where we thought it was over, but then it started blowing again.
It was over within a matter of minutes, which seemed more like an eternity. When we walked out the back door, this is what we saw:
Our tree in the backyard lost probably half of it's limbs:
But the treehouse stood! I laughed and told Aaron, "OK, fine! The kids can play in the treehouse now!"
Our basketball goal was blown over. The night before, Aaron had parked his truck outside, but right before he went to bed, he decided to put his truck in the garage -- good thing! That basketball would have fell on his truck.
Our roof was missing some shingles
Our fences were blown down
This plastic chair was from the neighbor's front porch. It was really smashed into the fence!
This was our neighbor's car port. After the storm, he walked out his front door and thought, "I wonder why I didn't put my car under the carport last night?" Then he realized that his carport wasn't there anymore! It was about 50 yards from his house in a crumpled mess.
But as scary as that morning was, great things happened. The fire trucks came around within about 30 minutes making sure everyone was ok.
We were sitting on the couch and Payton said, "I'm really hungry. I wonder if the doughnut shop is open." Our electricity was off, so I was kind of wondering what we were going to do to eat. Our doorbell rang and it was our neighbors inviting us over to have eggs, bacon, & pancakes. They have a gas stove, so they were able to cook. They were so hospitable to our kids and to us! It was great talking about our own experiences and feelings. The guy from down the street came in and had some pictures of the damage from around town.
There was a trailer house that had been completely destroyed. Another house was sitting on a cinder blocks and it was shifted enough so that it fell off it's foundation. There were several huge trees that had been knocked over and uprooted.
The National Weather Service said that it was only down winds from a strong thunderstorm with winds around 100 miles per hour. I'm not sure they were right. What I heard that morning was something eery and very strong. I'm not convinced that it wasn't a tornado. But, we made it with minimal damage compared to others in town.
Thank you, Jesus, for your protection!
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