You think? This little ditty of a statement was spoken to Jet, by the retired town mayor, as we walked around our neighborhood. surveying the damage following the tornado.
Yep, a tornado. At least that's how my neighborhood would categorize it. Though we're still waiting for the National Weather Service to give the official say-so.
THE ILL-TIMED YARDSALE:
Suffice it to say, it wasn't the best one I've ever had. Though the most memorable. *Forgive me a slight roll of the eyes, would you?*
It rained from 5 to 10 AM. At which point, the sun came out and preformed beautifully. Giving me enough time to make a whooping profit (after the newspaper ad) of $57, all while masterfully singing the lyrics for the 60's hit "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to..." over and over again.
But in the spirit of Pollyanna, Jet and I optimistically smiled as he dropped off our first round of large boxes at the local DropOff. At 9 AM. Can you tell we were anxious? But hey, it's junk that we will never have to deal with again. What's not to love about that?!
By 1 AM, we were loading up the remaining contents of 7 yard sale tables and the 10-foot long clothes hanging device. All the while, sorting out the stuff that we wanted to keep for next year's yard sale.
I know, I know, I'm a glutton for punishment. But we figured we made diddly-squat at this sale and we just can't bring ourselves to throw away almost new name-brand clothes (donated by family members) just for the sake of reducing clutter in the attic. But anyway.
Jet had just left with a truckload of boxes to take to the drop off...1 mile down the road....while Mom and I were leisurely packing up the boxes. And then, the rain hit.
Slowly. Slowly. No big deal. It even looked like it was going around our little town. But regardless, we worked fast to avoid getting wet.
Then...from the distance you could tell something was brewing. Well, at least Mom said she could. I was blissfully clueless. ... so maybe blissfully wasn't the best descriptor of my attitude at the time. But clueless 'bout sums it up.
The last of the boxes were just set on the porch, when we turned our attention to the fold up tables. Suddenly Mom yelled, "Quick. Forget the tables! Get the stuff inside!"
And the wind came.
Mom, having the presence of mind to think beyond the task at hand, asked if I wanted to bring in our doberman. "Uh, Nooooo." The thought of having a half-wet dog running through the house did not appeal to me on top of everything else I was doing.
As it obviously takes a lot of energy to be dramatic and annoyed.
Meanwhile, Super Mom ran to the backyard to close the door of our shed (*thanks mom*). Something I felt was completely irrelevant at the time.
We had literally JUST thrown all of the yardsale boxes in the front door, when the BIG winds hit. With full force.
THE TORNADO:
After that, I began to realize that this was not a normal summer storm. For those readers that experienced it, yes...it did take me a while to shake my clueless stupor.
Though to my defense, it only took half of a large tree crashing down on our cars. and the horizontal hail beating on the windows. But hey, I'm quick that way.
Then all logical thinking left.
I wanted to go outside and get my dog. move the cars. anything where I'd feel like I had some semblance of control. Obviously, I wasn't thinking straight. But my Calm and Collected Mother wouldn't allow me and my pregnant body to go outside, so all I could do was pray in the spirit.
...and frantically run upstairs to get Raegan up from her nap, trying desperately not to think about the possibilities as we sat in a house filled with 5 ft. bay windows and no basement.
Trying to calm my children, I could only lead them in half-mumbled, half-controlled sobbed prayers for Daddy who was still out in it. Especially as Charis tearfully whispered, "Will Daddy die?"
Uh? This is when Hug Therapy works wonders. Because words fail you.
At that moment, being the emotionally sound mom, I did the only thing I could do. I left the girls with Grandma.
So I could pace. stare out the windows. and watch in horror as our porch swing repeatedly beat the top of the porch roof and the second half of the tree fell on our cars.
All the while, asking outloud "God, where is my husband?" begging God to return him safely.
And then I saw him. just pulling in. drenched and sitting in his truck on our front grass. My immediate thought, after complete relief at his being alive and in one piece, was "Don't just sit there...I can't handle watching you get hurt in front of my eyes!" Thankfully, he ran inside or I would have gone out to him.
It's amazing to me how he changes everything. Even though nothing in our immediate circumstances changed, I felt safer and more at peace just having him there. His presence just does that.
...Even after he confessed that he thought his truck would take flight out in the middle of the storm. with him in it. as he watched electrical wires spark and fall all around him.
THE PICTURES:
Mom telling Jet (who had just removed his dripping wet shirt) how the tree went down. trying to survey the damage to our cars. and generally just giving the recap from our point of view.
Note: the worst part of it was over by now or they would not have been near the windows.
The girl's hideout. A corner of our kitchen. The only place in the downstairs that is not directly surrounded by multiple windows.
A few minutes after things had quieted down, Jet's cell phone rang. It was our friends Nell-Marie and Gil, calling to make sure we were okay. (They were on their way to the mountains and, if I understand it correctly, saw our house as they passed. That's N.M. in the picture). While Jet was still talking to Nell-Marie, another friend (Aaron S) beeped in.
I can't tell you how blessed we were by those calls. Life from outside the storm. It was literally like tangible Hope to us.
If you look at the above picture carefully, you can see the tree's two different sections. The tree came down a half at a time. Amazingly it didn't come straight through our living room windows. Which are a few feet from where it fell. Where we were sitting when it first happened.
Mom's van took the brunt of the tree. But again, amazingly enough, it only knocked out her front light. Which was put back in and works/looks perfectly!!! HOW is that possible?!
Even as we got a closer look, we all agree it should have shattered her windows. Thankfully, we don't serve a God of "should'ves" by physic's standards.
Our car came away with minimal scratches. Nothing more.
And even Raegan's car was safe. Which is good since she opted not to insure it...
A section of our backyard:
Not too much damage, but enough to make a mess everywhere. Our neighbor, who was watching the storm from his back window, said that he knew to go to his basement when our tree limb's started coming off horizontally.
It wasn't long after the wind stopped that you could hear fire trucks and sirens all across the area. My guess by the unfamiliar look of this fire truck is that they had to recruit firemen from surrounding counties.
Some of the neighborhood...
Trees were down everywhere.
Chances were, if you had trees, your yard was effected.
As well as your car...
From the looks of it, this road (that runs right beside our neighbors house) got the brunt of the storm/tornado. And being that this felled tree took down a electric line, which was laying across the road, this last tree shot is as far as I got in my "friendly neighborhood tour".
The road was blocked off due to this "little guy". Here's the first 1/3...
And here's the remaining section of the 125 (ish) year old tree.
And just to give you true perspective, here's a man standing beside it.
It's HUGE (as is the house). Had it fallen the other direction... well, I don't even want to imagine.
But that's how it was ALL throughout the neighborhood. large trees were down. but no one was hurt. And the only place on the above house that was damaged? See the little 2nd story porch? The left corner of the roof was nicked. but only barely.
The funny thing. The man said that he had just signed a contract with a man to come and take care of that tree. Well...I guess that's a contract broken. huh? And our tree? We had just talked about how it was becoming too big for the house. We were planning on trimming it heavily. No need now, eh?
I'll miss it's shade and all, but leave-raking time will be easier. :) AND we even had a pleasant little neighborhood block party to boot. Where I actually got to talk with neighbors I hadn't met in the last 3+ years of living here. That's a bonus.
See how easily I pull off this Pollyanna thing?
and another amazing thing? Remember that tree that our neighbors took down last year? (click on the link to see a picture) Well...had it been there, it would have crushed our house. Literally. We are/were praising the Lord unabashedly for that miracle.
AND for the fact that Mom happened to show up to help at our yardsale. Had she not been there when the tornado hit... Again, I don't want to imagine. But I can assure you yardsale things would still be strewn all over the town. And I may very well be hospitalized for trauma during late pregnancy (I WAS contracting a lot following that event).
So there are miracles all throughout our little Tornado Experience. *thank you Jesus*
But one thing that may never recover? My respect for the validity of http://www.accuweather.com/ ... It suffered an irreversible blow. They had us forecasted for a 20% chance of light rain in the afternoon. I'm thinking they were a bit off.
But what do I know? :)
