On Callie's 6th. birthday, we had a terrible storm blow through our city. Here's an excerpt from an e-mail I sent a friend hours after it happened.....
"I write this from the bed of my dark and powerless house. I'm listening to the roar of the generator in the back yard that duane is running to 'hopefully' save the food in our fridge and freezer from melting/thawing/spoiling. It was a sad day for our city as a ferocious storm blew through. My afternoon....
2:40--family left from callies birthday lunch party.
3:30---we leave for family video to get the kiddos free movies for their report card a's. I dash back inside to print out the forms for the flirt with dirt 5K that I HAVE to get sent in. Today was the deadline and the mail has already ran. To save a trip to the post office, I hurriedly fill out the forms and go to the medical office that is collecting them and have Seth run them inside. Finally, go get movies. Super excited about two of the movies that will be family movies for the next two nights. As we are checking out, I notice the dark storm clouds roll in and excitedly exclaim their must be a storm coming! (little did I know). We head home....
I don't know exactly WHAT TIME we got home, but I chased everyone inside and told Seth we were going to get some cross training in because it was becoming cooler with the storm rolling in. We biked hard and fast. I was aiming for 20 minutes, but at 15 minutes I looked at the sky that was turning green and told Seth we'd better head home. We had no sooner walked inside when the tornado sirens went off! That terrified me!!!!! WHERE do we go!!!!! We have no inner bathroom. No basement! I couldn't get through to duane. Couldn't eat through to dad. Phones were already down!!!!!! Power was flickering off and on and off and on again. First, we all sat in the hallway huddled in fear and trembling. Next, I herded everyone in the bathroom. I sat on the toilet. Seat DOWN, course. (the very, teeny, tiny corner that our toilet is in is all inside walls so i was trying to cram EVERYONE into that one small place) Clutched Callie tightly in my lap. Seth wedged in on the floor in front of the toilet. Samuel and Simon tucked close on the other side of the toilet. We were a sight!! We were all scared. Callie was crying. My boys were trying to be tough. I was trying not to lose it as I prayed out loud. I was trying to calm both myself AND the kids down. I finally decided Samuel and Simon weren't safe enough where they were at. I told them to jump in the bathtub and put some towels over their heads!!!!! I figured grabbing a mattress off the bed was going to take too much time....Just as soon as they 'jumped in', I decided the new hall closet duane is in the processing of building might be safer. I sent them off to that. We were hearing all kinds of terrifying sounds outside the house. The wind was howling. The rain was pouring. It sounded like hail was beating down all over. I just knew Duane's car was going to get totaled AGAIN!!!! (it didn't....no hail). I finally started singing to calm down Callie and myself. She didn't want me to stop. She got cold and wanted a towel wrapped around her!!!! I thought it was rather HOT crowded together around that toilet, but I think she wanted the comfort. I get seth play a game on my iPad and she got interested in that. Meanwhile, Simon hears the game going and calls out from the hall closet, "Mom, do you think it's safe enough to be playing a game?". When I ventured outside, I was shocked at the debris everywhere! We were very fortunate that we had no damage! All around us, trees down, shingles off roofs, siding ripped off houses, HUGE trees literally UPROOTED!!!! It was surreal walking down main street with Callie seeing the destruction to house after house! People were everywhere. Walking. Biking. Looking. Standing. Staring. Traffic lights out. Trees blocking entire roads. Power lines down. I'm so very thankful God kept us safe and spared us from any damage. He does hear and answer the prayers from 4 terrified kids and a 'trying to be brave' mommy huddled together around the 'throne' of our home! :)"
Just a few short moments after typing this email God answered prayer and our power was restored. We were VERY blessed!!! The rest of our neighbors didn't get power restored until YESTERDAY!!!!
I took Callie outside after the storm and took a few pictures for her to remember what happened on her birthday. This is one she will NEVER forget!!!
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The road at the top of our street had a tree blocking all but one lane.....
the view from the north......
We had to carefully step around fallen trees and even electrical lines to walk down the sidewalk!!!
I will be updating this post with more pictures later. Duane has a bunch on his camera that I need to upload.
