Tuesday, February 19, 2008

typical lazy sunday afternoon...or not...

What did you do Sunday afternoon?


Ours started out pretty typical. After church we went to lunch with friends. I had a bridal shower at the church at 2:00, but I didn't stay long & we headed home pretty soon after that. We were pulling into our neighborhood at about 2:30, and the sirens started going off. Now, if you live in the south, you know that tornado sirens are not an uncommon occurrence, so we are usually not alarmed by the sirens. But for some reason, I found myself starting to get a little scared. We got to the house & turned the TV to WSFA as we usually do. Rich Thomas was giving his typical "severe weather" spill about getting to your safe place, etc., but we ignored him as usual. After watching the weather for a couple of minutes, I started to become frightened. I turned to Baron & said "Would you make fun of me if I went to the closet?" He just laughed & said no.


So I got the radio & made my way to the closet. When I got there, I realized the radio was missing 2 batteries, so I went to get more, only to discover we had no more. "Forget it," I thought, and I started back to my safe place. When I got to our bedroom, Baron was walking in behind me & we heard stuff hitting the house. The next minute is kind of a blur to me, but I remember my ears popping, scrambling to get Toby, running to the closet in our bathroom, and stuffing ourselves into the closet. I kept saying "my ears are popping...I'm scared..." and then, after about 45 seconds of very loud noises & nothing that sounded like a freight train, it was over.


Baron opened the closet door. We heard a rattling noise, and I realized it was the bedroom door, which we had closed. I thought perhaps the wind had blown one of the doors open. Baron walked out into the house, and I heard him gasp & I'm pretty sure say "holy crap." At that point I was wondering if we even had a house. I walked out & saw what I definitely did not expect. In hindsight, it was not that bad. But at the time, when you think you will just walk back into your house & it will be the same, it was devastating for me. I just couldn't believe it happened. After surveying the damage, I just didn't know what we were supposed to do. So I did like I always do in a crisis & I called my dad. Only my mom answered the phone. I told her what just happened & she said she would wake up my dad. (What? He was sleeping??? How could he sleep when a tornado just hit my house?? Apparently Montgomery wasn't having the bad weather.) So my parents got to my house as soon as they could, followed by Helen & Anthony and Jim Clarke shortly thereafter. They helped us clean up, which was a tremendous blessing at the time. (Thank y'all so much!!!!!)


Anyway, this story is way too long so I'll stop rambling. The moral of this story is that God was truly watching over us & over our house. We are unharmed, our house only has minor damage, and in the entire community of Prattville, there were no fatalities. Thank you, God, for sparing so many lives!


So...here are some pics from the damage. You can see lots more on the Montgomery Advertiser's website.
{our chimney on the ground}

{mailbox turned around}

{broken window on Baron's car}

{what shingles + 140 mph wind will do to your car}

{the trashed living room...including broken glass everywhere}


{breakfast room w/ broken windows}


{more of the breakfast room}

{window screen, shingles, glass, dirt, etc...}


{apparently the plastic cup, bills, & checkbook could withstand the winds :-)}

{dining room}

{two houses around the corner from us. we were very blessed!}



8 comments:

  1. Laura, I called your parent about 3:30 Sunday, and Scott said that Helen back and said you guys were OK. He didn't tell me that you had that much damage! Yes, I saw Dean at the clinic on Monday (I didn't know Kenny lived in your neighborhood). How blessed you are - how is Toby?

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  2. OH MY GOSH those pics STRESS ME OUT! WOW. I can't imagine how you felt to have your house and cars messed up like that! you are blessed. Im glad you guys are ok.I'm also glad you have insurance. scary stuff. BTW, its like an Oprah I saw recently (of course) on a book called the Gift of Fear ...It's about how we as humans all have a gift and its our instincts we should trust. We are the only animal on the planet that second guesses our first instinct, and thats what we should listen to in times of danger. That's cool how you listened to your gut and went to the closet. If you hadn't...you might have been harmed in some way. Good for you for acting on your instincts! glad you guys are ok!

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  3. Kristi - Toby is fine! He is "vacationing" at my parents' house. We can't stay at the house right now because the gas is turned off. And Toby can't walk on the carpet because of the glass, so it could be awhile before he can come home. {Sorry Punkin :-)}

    Ashley - I totally agree with the fear thing - I've never really experienced that but I think that's what was happening!

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  4. What was scary to me was only hearing Mom's end of the conversation when you called!! :P I'm glad things are fine and "easily" repairable. And glad we were able to help some!!

    BTW, Punkin's cool with Toby staying... he's busy killing his new rabit and doesn't bother her so much!! :P

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  5. Wow. I can't imagine cleaning all that glass up. I break one glass and keep finding shreds months later...maybe there's a super duper vacuum cleaner somewhere.

    I'm glad that you all were safe, and selfishly that you weren't one of the two houses around the corner.

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  6. Soon EVERYTHING in your house will be new again--carpet, linens, pillows, and who would have thought that the flying glass would have scratched the TV screen, requiring a new flat-screen?!

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