Tornadoes! What A Way To Kick Start A Blog!

It’s crazy how fast it all went down beforehand. I had just walked up the stairs from the grocery store. Before I could even sit the bags of groceries down the tornado siren went off. In a split second I tried not to drop the groceries from too high off the ground (but thinking back that’s a mute point seeing my height limitation) and sprinted to the kid’s room to wake them up. The adrenaline kicked in and before Paul could even get out our bedroom I had all 3 kids scooped up and was getting them headed down the stairs. We were down there for a very long 20 minutes listening to the sirens and trying to listen through Emma’s screaming whether the sounds of rain had changed or if the many sounds of thunder were actually the “loud sound of a train coming”.(They, meaning survivors, always say it sounds like a train.) After the very long 20 minutes the sirens stopped and we sat there for another minute not sure whether to go up or wait to be on the safe side. We trudged back up the steps and sank onto the couch to try to catch what was going on the news but our comfortable couch didn’t last but less than 2 minutes as the sirens started up again. So back down the stairs into our cramped positions we went for the second time. By the THIRD time we had to go down the stairs because of the sirens PJ was crying less, Emma had given up all hope of her bed and was quiet and Elie had stopped asking if we were going to die every 2 minutes. She did mention something funny like flying cows but to be honest I can’t remember exactly what funny question she sincerely asked. After an hour of taking precautions we headed up stairs. It was 10something by this point. The kids were begging to go to bed but couldn’t sleep because not to far from our siren another siren went off. *sigh* Not wanting to die but seriously thinking about throwing caution to the wind I called my neighbor/friend and said, “Do I REALLY have to go back down?” She explained that because the tornado was still in the county the sirens would continue to go off even if it wasn’t a threat for our home anymore. So for 15 more minutes we sat on the couch listening to the tv and the shrill sirens until they finally stopped. YAY! At that point we said our final and I would estimate the 16th and final family prayer for the night thanking Heavenly Father for keeping us safe.

Here’s actual footage from a cops’ dashcam just 8 miles south of us where they believe the tornado started. You’ll see sparks fly across as the tornado hits a transformer. As the light in the center of the screen disappears is when the tornado passes by. (btw, there’s a dumb commercial for a local doctor at the beginning. Just ignore it.)
http://www.todaysthv.com/video/news/player.aspx?aid=63492&bw=

This morning everyone called everyone in our ward to assess the damage and all was well. Another ward in our stake had the worst of damage throughout the tornado’s path. It’s actually where their school is.

The kid’s school was cancelled today. I wasn’t sure whether it was because of lightening, flooding, tornado damage or power outage so we decided to drive by and make sure. On the way there at about 3.1 miles from the house you could immediately see on either side of the road exactly where the tornado plowed through the neighborhoods. It got as close as .5 miles to the west of the school and .2 miles just north of it. (And I’m happy to report my favorite local burger joint received no damage and narrowly escaped destruction’s path. J)

Here are pictures PJ took while driving around today. (Keep in mind they were taken by a 9 year old.)
http://picasaweb.google.com/paul.weinberg/2008April BTW Terry, after today he has decided he wants to be like Grandpa and take pictures.

Paul just got a call and all the men from our ward are headed over to help Little Rock 1st ward (the one I mentioned earlier that got hit the worst.)

So we are safe and fine. Well, fine except for some nightmares the kids had last night because of stress. PJ dreamed the school was damaged and they didn’t have to go back. Once he told me this dream his elation at the idea was shortly lived as I explained to him that just meant they’d have to be shipped to a different school or worse, make it up during the summer. (Can you imagine what a pain in the rear that would be? The thought of not having a break from taking the kids to a fro to school is a true nightmare for me. J) Elie’s dream was very different. She dreamed PJ accidentally stabbed Tinkerbell with a pair of scissors…twice. After a really loud “Ewww” on my part I tried to explain to her you can’t “accidentally” stab someone TWICE. She then became very defensive of her brother’s “dream actions” so we just quickly changed the subject to one of her favorite topics which happens to be her birthday. (Speaking of birthdays, if anyone wants to send her a letter or a simple card for her birthday she would LOVE it. Everyday she asks if she got anything in the mailbox.)

If you think about it please say a prayer during conference tomorrow for all these people working to reestablish these neighborhoods that they will be kept safe.