Tornado!

Today I realized yet again how pathetic I am in emergencies. (You think I would have learned that when Isaac's friend broke his arm in our backyard and I immediately burst into tears...)

I stayed home from church today because I wasn't feeling well. Lincoln was upstairs asleep and I was laying on the couch, reading and relishing the quiet. I noticed that the skies began to get darker, but I love thunderstorms so that just made me excited. I moved my flowers out to get the most of the rain and didn't think much more about it. Until I heard the tornado sirens. I still wasn't concerned, because they put those sirens on a lot for drills. I glanced out the back window and noticed some neighbors across the street pointing up. I looked at the sky and saw that the clouds were swirling rapidly and I saw what I thought might be the beginning of a funnel cloud. At that point I was a little concerned, but I'm always afraid that I am overreacting (since I have a tendency to do that) so I checked on weather.com to see what was up. It said, "Tornado Warning in effect, seek shelter immediately." I still wasn't sure exactly what I should do because I really didn't want to wake Lincoln up without a VERY good reason. I went back to the back door to check the sky as I called my mom to ask her advice (I didn't want to call Ryan at church). Right as she picked up the phone I saw the tornado and it was literally RIGHT BEHIND my house. So she couldn't even understand what I said as I burst into tears and started rambling, "Tornado...I see it!...Scared!...Home alone!" She told me to go get Lincoln and get to the basement. I grabbed him and ran down there as fast as I could. Then I literally thought it was ripping the roof off my house. (It really didn't help that my only real "experience" with tornadoes is the movie Twister!) It was SO loud! I could hear metal things crashing and things falling over. I was beyond terrified. That went on for quite a few minutes and then the hail started--golf ball sized hail! My mom stayed on the line with me the whole time and attempted to calm me down. Finally I was able to venture back out and survey the damage which was...non-existent. At least at our house! I guess we weren't hit after all, although it really sounded bad at the time.

However, the mall where I work (not five minutes from our house) is a different story. It sustained MAJOR damage--some stores lost entire walls. There were cars flipped over and benches through cars. I called into work to make sure they were okay and she said it was a war zone over there and there were mannequins in the street. So far there have been no reports of injuries or deaths, so that is certainly a blessing! Last I heard there were all kinds of gas leaks over at the mall so they were evacuating the whole area.

From what Ryan has said, it was a much lower-key event at church. They just all got to go hang out in the gym for a while. He did try to call me, but I didn't answer as I was trembling with fear on the floor of the basement at the time (and not about to go upstairs to answer the phone.) They got to get out of church early though (a nice birthday present for Ryan.) When he came home I dissolved into tears again. I was really scared! But not without good reason. From what they have been saying on the news I wasn't the only one! One man was driving with his family in their Suburban when it started just sliding off the road--pushed by the force of the winds! What a crazy day!! Here are a few pictures...

No, I didn't have the wherewithal to actually take a picture of the tornado out of my window--but my friend did! This looks pretty much like what I saw.
Our trampoline with accumulated hail a few hours after the excitement had ended.

One of the hailstones from our backyard. (Once I calmed down, I realized that Ryan had taken our small, older car to church instead of the new one and I was so glad--these things could have done some serious damage!)