Tornado

We survived three years in Florida without a single Hurricane. Imagine our surprise when after only living in our house about a month we have experienced our first Tornado! It was quite a night and I don't think we will soon forget it.

Don't worry we are all safe and we experienced little damage to our belongings, but the story is still worth telling.

About 8 pm last night I went out to do some child free grocery shopping with my friend Mellyn. As Nato studied at home he heard the sirens on base going. He decided to quickly gather the outside toys and place them in the small play house we had in the back yard to keep them dry. Almost as soon as he returned to his computer and school work he saw and heard the little play house being lifted and carried off to who knows where. It happened so fast he almost missed the sight. About 15 minutes later the power went out and so after checking with me on the cell phone that we were soon on our way home he decided to go to bed.

Meanwhile Mellyn and I had planned on stopping at two different stores to purchase the things we needed for Easter Dinner. As we checked out of the first store the young checker was voicing her concern about getting home before the "storm" came. This is the first we had heard of the "storm" and we weren't what kind she was referring to. She was nervous about driving in her first rain storm and we decided that was probably the extent it. So we headed to our next stop which was actually in the opposite direction of our homes.

After being in the next store approximately 5 to 10 minutes, Mellyn received a call from her husband. Her nursing baby, who had been sleeping through the night lately, was awake and crying. She assured him that we would come as quickly as we could. So quickly we headed to the checkout. In the meantime I received the call from Nato that the power was out and I let him know we were headed back. Little did we know we would not make it so quickly.

As we headed to the base we were redirected twice because roads were closed off by several policemen. Finally we asked one of them how we could get to the gate of the Air Force Base so we could get home. At this point we were informed that two of the bases gates were closed for sure and the third one MIGHT be open.

Where is the third one? I still know little of the town and Mellyn has only lived here 8 months herself so her knowledge was limited, PLUS all the street lights and traffic lights were OUT. The kind policeman gave us quick directions and we set out to find our way. At MIDNIGHT we finally found the third gate (after several phone calls to Mellyn's husband). At this point we were relieved, but not for long. They would not let us on the base! They instructed us to try again in two hours.

Well, where do two women go at midnight for two hours? I'll tell you. We went to IHOP. We sat and drank hot cocoa and prayed we would get on base before anymore nursing babies work(Mellyn's had gone back to bed she had just been startled by the storm).

Finally at 2:30 am we pulled up and were let on the base. As we drove home we were just amazed by all the trees that were down and the roads that were blocked by the debris.

This morning we ventured out to find our play house and we learned a little more. Basically the storm hit and went right down our street. If we would have come home after the first store we would have been IN the storm. I am grateful the Lord sent us the other way.

Here is a picture of the tree behind Mellyn's house that was uprooted, they lived just five doors down from us, her house is the one on the left behind the tree.

When we found the playhouse it was actually five houses down on the street across from us, but the base was still together. The roof was found in a completely different direction.

We have survived the first tornado, I think we will try to be aware of the next one a little earlier.