Crazy Over His Fingers: Just The Two Of Us In A...

It was roughly 11:30 am as I got to the tree I realized my pink robe sporting neighbor had put his ladder up for me right where I needed it. So I primed and fired up the saw and went halfway up the ladder to get the heaviest part off the roof. The rain had picked up and I began cutting, my mind thinking about how to cover the roof. I had forgotten the weather. As I argued in my mind, almost in a trance, about the quickest and easiest way to get this done, it was like someone snapped their fingers in my face. It was like I woke up and realized it was deadly still. No rain, no breeze, just the saw rumbling and vibrating my hand.

Crazy Over His Fingers: Just the Two of Us in a...

I rounded the carport and flung open the door and just like I would any other day, kinda flung it behind my back to close it with three fingers, only to have it meet the wind and come back on me. I slammed it shut as the power went out. My living room looked eerie as I could see flashes of lightening as well as power flashes. I jumped into a 1/2 bath that was right inside the door and slammed the door and laid down and covered my head and prayed for forgiveness and for my family.

Back in 1998, I just got home from school and the sirens went off. My mom put me under a desk and put a table on top. The tornado jumped over our house and took a few shingles off with it. But it took out the northeast side of town.

I was out on the back lot, what we call the backing pad, when it began to storm. So I told everybody as usual to take shelter until the lightning stopped. Some people went to their cars; some went inside. It was just a light rain and the lightning was in a distance so I stayed in my pickup truck parked next to a fence with a large tree in front of me and a metal carport to the left of me. Directly behind me, sitting perpendicularly to my pickup truck, was a semi-truck. The rain was light. My truck was running and I had the windshield wipers on. I looked out the driver's side window and noticed it was getting a little windy; some of our camping chairs blew over.

I looked out my right windshield and noticed the vines growing along the fence were starting to blow around kind of funny. A moment later, just like that, all around me was wind and it got real dark. The wind was going in a way that I've never seen before. Then a section of a roof blew over me and just shredded apart mid-air. That's when the back windshield on my pickup truck shattered, throwing glass all over me.

The tree sitting directly in front of me, which was relatively large, blew over like it was nothing. Also part of the fence blew over top of the hood of my pickup. I crouched down real low in the driver's seat and just prayed. I held onto the steering wheel for dear life. I could feel the back of the truck lifting. I could still see out the front windshield and I could see power lines exploding out in front of me. The visibility was really poor at this point but I could still see the flashes. It lasted for about 45 seconds but it seemed like a lifetime.

Finally it was over and we stepped outside to survey the scene. Apparently the tornado was skipping thru town rather than taking a continuous path and jumped right over my street but destroyed houses and businesses just 2-3 blocks in either direction. Our street was littered with paper, siding, tree limbs, etc., but we sustained very minor damage over all. Two streets down though people were not so lucky.

I was living in Lancing TN on a farm in a mobile home. The weather channel was calling for some rough weather so my mum, dad, brother and I went to my aunt and uncle's house not far from us because they had a basement and phoned us asking us to come over just in case. I remember being in the living room with several family members, aunts and cousins. My cousin said her friend's house was just hit..I remember it getting very dark really quickly. My nana, who unfortunately would be in another massive tornado in Mossy Grove, TN, several years later, was terrified of storms. My dad and my uncles yelled from the front porch to get into the basement because the tornado was "coming over the mountain."

Fast forward to November 11 2002, Mossy Grove, TN. The skies were so blue all day but I had a pit in my stomach when I seen the black clouds off in the distance. Poor Nana was at church that night along with a bunch of other family and my cousin Linda got up with her newborn to get a drink from the water fountain near the entrance. She looked up and saw the huge tornado coming across the parking lot. She ran and dove into the pews while the tornado moved and twisted the church off its foundation. Most of the congregation dove to the corner. That corner of the church was still there after it was over. We lost lives that night and in such a small county we felt every single loss, especially the small baby who didn't even get to start her life. Her papa was trying to rush her to safety from the mobile home they were in. Ironically, their mobile home wasn't touched but their truck was and both of them perished together. That town still bares the scars and the fear. All of us do really. I was once told we couldn't be hit by tornadoes because of the mountains. What a foolish thing to say, especially since Mossy Grove almost got hit again later but the skies showed mercy that day and settled down almost as if it took pity on us and our non-Walmart or McDonalds town. Lightening can and it will strike twice, three, four times in the same spot. The sad thing is most of us still aren't really prepared for another one. I'm working on a plan. That is the best thing to have here in Dixie Alley because the storms are getting worse. The April outbreak was a nightmare and I got stuck in a Food City that was about to close while there was another tornado warning for where I was. I was so froze in fear so my father drove to me just to let me follow him home. His truck was struck by lightening on his way. Anyway, stay prepared people and most importantly stay informed. I listen to the Weather Channel and am grateful. My 6 year old son is a meteorologist in the making. He loves weather as I do and can tell you how any storm happens, hurricanes.. tornados..floods..smart little feller he is.

As my eyes grew accustomed to the dark I tried to see my baby's face clearly enough to look for injuries. None. I felt him all over for glass. There wasn't any. Then I realized he was crying- probably shrieking- and I couldn't hear him over the noise of the storm: roaring wind, pounding hail and constant, overlapping blasts and rumbles of lightning. I'd never heard so much lightning, nor so much noise from a storm. It was deafening. I tried to soothe him, but then the house took a direct hit of lightning and suddenly I was frightened, too. Afraid we might be burned alive if the house, above and beside us, burned. Together we huddled, terrified, and crying, and waiting. I didn't smell smoke. I told myself everything would be OK. Then just as suddenly as it had come, the noise was gone; except for a dull roar and the rumbling of lightning moving northeast, like the sound of a big truck with no muffler, driving away at two miles per hour. So I began to venture out from the root cellar. But as I stuck my head out the door to look into the basement, a fierce pounding began again, on the north wall of the house. So I held my son and soothed him there in the root cellar, as the pounding increased to a roar, coming from the entire house above us, and slowly diminished again.

In the spring of 1991, I lived in the country near Skiatook, OK. I was visiting my friends in town when I noticed that on TV it showed a tornado warning headed for Skiatook. I convinced my friends to take shelter inside of the end hall closet. The noises I heard during the tornado hit was indescribable. I do remember hearing nails squeak out of boards as they were being forced out by the fierce tornado. When it was all over, the tornado that hit our town was measured F-4. It leveled several of the brick homes in that neighborhood. The closet that we were in was OK and we were OK. Only the door frame remained of the room to the west of the closet, right next to the closet. My mom just about had a terrible accident racing to town in the pouring rain to find me. All she could do was yell out for me because all phone lines and electric was down and their was dangerous debris. I have rheumatoid arthritis so the intense low pressure temporarily disabled me. I couldn't walk. My friend carried me to my mother, who then carried me to the car parked about 1/2 mile or so away. I have to say that praying and getting into that closet most likely saved our lives that night. It was the absolute most frightening experience I have ever been through. People really need to pay attention to the forecast, especially in spring time. Tornadoes can do some awesome, yet scary things.

Schools had let out early and after school events were either postponed or canceled. At around 4:00 a tornado warning came over the television. This warning gave the precise location and direction of the sighted storm and it was barreling towards our neighborhood. I told my wife we would be heading toward the basement when I made the call. She told me I was overreacting, but I took a stern tone and repeated what I had just said.

Looking west, I could see the sky turning a greenish brown hue and all of a sudden the trees began to bend under the strain of the wind. I yelled and we all went into the basement. As we hit the cellar floor I heard a large thump that shook the house. Our next door neighbor had a double trunked maple tree split in two and fall into her home. It was over in just a few minutes, and when things had subsided I went out back and saw insulation on the ground and new that buildings must have been damaged. We were fortunate. Thanks to the early warnings given by the National Weather Service and the response of the officials. Very few injuries or fatalities occurred. If school had been in session students would have been walking the streets and the loss of many more lives would have been likely. 041b061a72