I had planned to upload pics from graduation and tell you a little bit more about the night in a blog. That will teach me to procrastinate! Saturday the weather was gorgeous, albeit windy. We boated up the lake to watch a wakeboard tournament. Had a lovely day but then came Sunday... the day that really shook me up, the tornado day. We had gone up the lake to eat dinner and stopped on our way to put gas in the boat. While we were sitting there there were a few raindrops that started to fall. I looked at my 3 radars on my phone (seriously) and decided that the cell was coming towards us but we could skirt by it. So on we went! Then we get almost to the restaurant and we get calls from friends that we need to take cover. There was a tornado hitting Grand Lake. We hustled on it to the cove where the restaurant is and tied up quickly and went up the hill to the restaurant. When we get up there the owner was trying to get us inside quickly but we really weren't all that concerned because we could clearly see the worst of the storm was south of us. We had missed it. But it was clearly storming where we had just come from. So we sat there and went ahead and ordered dinner. We were hearing reports of a tornado that had hit joplin. And began to see still shots of some tornado damage. I can still see the first one that got my attention. It was the cars stacked up outside of the hospital. I knew it wasn't going to be good. Of course news began to come in steadily and we just sat there stunned. Our son, Evan, was at work in Grove at Lowe's and he was calling us saying that he was watching a tornado from the store. And apparently there were numerous funnel clouds that would drop down and then go back up. We also got a call that some of Amy's classmates were in Joplin and heard that Amber was in the Wal-mart in Joplin and that the roof had collapsed. That part still did not hit me. I had no clue how bad it was.
We could see that storms were continuing to pop up right over our area and we decided we'd better head towards home. We figured the storm in Grove would be gone by the time we get there. We get down the lake a little bit and the lake is completely empty but suddenly we notice boats floating everywhere in Sweetwater Bay. Then a dock that is loose.
and another...
And then I realize that there's been not only wind but a tornado that has struck and the neighborhood that it hit is where my friends Laura and Mike live. Then we get closer and I realize with fear that their house has been hit.
I called Laura's cell phone and she picked up! She said that they were safe and in fact they were not home when it hit. But she had gotten calls from neighbors detailing the damage. Windows blown out, a deck ripped off, etc..
We could see a boat up between 2 houses, docks flipped upside down on dry land. A catwalk laying up against a house. We could see fire trucks and ambulances pulling into (or trying to ) the neighborhood. People were coming out of their homes to survey the damage. I took pictures and realized it was getting dark and we were hearing thunder again. So we idled out and had to go through a large debris field to get home and the smell of gasoline was in the air. I looked at my radar again and realized we weren't going to make it home before the next storm. So we decided on a marina that we could go to and pull in one of their boat slips. We got to that point and decided we could make it to the next one. Then when we got close to there we decided we could just book it on home so we could get to the safe room.
As we rounded the corner at Shangri-la and were heading towards Patricia Island I looked back and I could see a large funnel cloud. So scary. It appeared to be touching the ground.
We got home and got the boat tied up and went up to the house and even though the sirens weren't going off we went ahead and headed into the safe room because I did just see with my very own eyes a tornado.
I read a couple of days ago that there were 58 homes in our county that were destroyed. That might have made headlines on a normal day but it was completely overshadowed by the complete and utter devastation of the Joplin tornado.
That storm knocked out two cell towers in our area so we had no power that night, no cell reception, and no internet. We were relying on texts that came in sporadically for updates.
To make a long story short.. we ended up using our safe room 3 nights in a row. And I finally realized the last night that I could turn on my car radio and listen to the weather band radio. It was right there in the garage next to the safe room.
The strange thing is.. all I have to do is walk to the garage and safe room and the dogs and the cat follow me!!!
I'm assuming by now unless you live under a rock that you've seen the pictures of the Wal-mart in Joplin. Amy's friend Amber was pinned under a steel beam that fell when the ceiling and walls collapsed. The beam hit a lady next to Amber and killed her. Amber has said that the only thing that kept her from being sucked up was the fact that she was pinned down. She was in there for an hour until she was rescued. She is hurt but so grateful to be alive. She said that she really wants to write Wal-mart and tell them how wonderful their employees in Joplin were. They worked so hard to take care of the customers that were in the store.
Next to the Wal-mart was a store called Macadoodles. It's a liquor store. When I saw pictures of that place it was nothing but a concrete slab. I really feared that none of the employees survived. There wasn't even a pile of rubble!!! Nothing! I am happy to report that I decided to stop at the Macadoodles location in Arkansas and ask. They said that all of the employees were safe. They went down to the wine cellar and got in a corner and held on as everything around them was ripped away. It is nothing short of a miracle that they are alive. The wine cellar isn't particularly big and is mostly open. The lady in Arkansas thanked me for asking about them.
Our cell service and internet coverage is still sketchy. But we are good. We are thankful that our loved ones are safe and we pray for those who've been affected by the storms. Those who lost all of their belongings and especially those who've lost loved ones. The families looking for missing relatives is just the saddest part for me. Some people have nothing. No home, no place to work, and no family. They need so much.
I'm also thankful that on our 3rd round of storms my friends in the Oklahoma City area were spared. It was another devastating day for Oklahoma. We seriously need a reprieve!!!
So, that's what we've been doing... how about you?
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