I awoke early Friday morning to tornado warnings. Kind of an ominous way to start the day especially considering the fact that violent storms usually occur in the afternoon, evening, and nighttime hours. It promised to be an interesting day.
Well, the weather did not disappoint. About 2:30 that afternoon, the sky took on an eerie cast and lightning began dancing through the heavens. It was a regular light show, although as fascinating as it was it was also a little frightening.
I decided I’d run down to the school (nearly 20 miles) and grab my kids, so they wouldn’t be on the bus during what was shaping up to be some serious weather. I thought they’d feel safer with me, and I also knew I could get them home quicker, hopefully before the weather got any worse.
As I was tying my shoes, the Weather Channel indicated a tornado warning for our county and the surrounding counties, including the location of my kids’ schools. I didn’t know what to do. The weather guy was saying, “Take cover now!” but the only thing on my mind was our kids.
I called the schools to make sure they were aware of the warnings. They said they were holding the kids over. Thank God!
My husband and I jumped in the car and headed that way. About half way down our road, we got the feeling that we had made a really bad decision. We looked up and the tops of the highest trees were swirling. Then it looked as if they were being pulled upward, like objects are pulled toward the suction of a vacuum cleaner. We stopped cold, and my husband threw it in reverse. Despite not having a basement, we decided we’d be safer at home than in the car.
About 3:10 my oldest daughter called and said the sky was clearing near the schools and that the buses were being loaded. My oldest was going home with her cheerleading coach to baby sit for her little boys. I told her to wait awhile because it was still rough by the teacher’s house.
It was still looking pretty rough on our end too, and we weren’t real happy about the kids being on the bus. We went to meet the kids at the bus stop. There were downed branches and debris all along the end of the road, from the spot where we had stopped and turned around. On the highway, there was a semi trailer flipped over and smashed into a tree. We had apparently been driving right below a funnel cloud!
*See next page for continuation.