Waking up to a tornado~Oct. 6, 2010

I wanted to blog about the tornado for a while so we would always remember how protected and watched over we were that day... It had been really stormy and windy all night, right as the tornado was hitting us I tried to wake Dean up and told him to go get the kids and have them sleep on our floor, the storm had gotten so loud I thought it could break something. He didn't have time to register what I was telling him, we would hear a loud crash and debris was flying in our eyes ( we had no idea it was the wall behind us). Then, all the lights in the kitchen flashed as the power was being cut off, next came the dead black silence you always hear about. Then most of the windows started bursting.

Our living room and kitchen were hit the least hard, although we did get new couches and all of our tables refinished. There were glass nicks everywhere. If you look in the back corner of this picture you can see where the wall is seperating from the staircase.

The computer room. That is pretty much solid glass on the floor. Of course the kids computer is the one that survived. Ours had alot of internal damage. (I was not sad at all to replace our huge computer screens)

Still not the best picture but it is a close up of the wall seperating from the stairs you can actually see the space through it.

Where the wall started separating from the roof in the Living Room.

The upstairs wall that leads to all the kids bedrooms, it was nailed with all the glass shards from the playroom window, Our kids were so blessed that none of them ran straight out of their rooms and passed this wall as all of the glass burst .

Kylies room, her room was the exit window for the upstairs. Her blind and her curtains were literally hanging out the window completely twisted up in each other. As the windows burst she jumped up to run but she felt the pull of the wind and saw something coming toward her head so instead she dove back under her covers and held onto the mattress. She doesn"t remember anything hitting her but her arm was swollen, out of place and she had a couple of cuts. The playroom was across from her room so she ended up with a large part of the playroom in her room and out her window. She carries alot of guilt because she could not run to check on the kids, she could hear the boys but she was so scared for Brook because she couldn't hear her.

Brooklyn's room, we don't like letting Brook sleep with us she is one of those kids that kicks your head or back all night long but the storm was so loud that night we let her get in bed with us to get her to sleep. Around midnight she was kicking me so I asked Dean to take her to bed, he said in just a minute and I all of the sudden had a peaceful feeling sweep over me and I thought she will be okay with us tonight. I told Dean "don't take her up she will be okay here tonight". The storm entered through Brooks and the playroom windows. Anything that was in Brooks room ended up in the playroom or stairwell. Her bed and dresser were still in there, her closet doors were blown off their track and into her clost and her door and frame were blown completely off and they were bent in front of the boys doorway. I walked into her room the day after as the restoration crew was packing up and I just sat and cried, it was so overwhelming, all the what if's start going through my mind.

The boys room, I have to admit was my favorite room in this house. It was a loft bedroom with two walk in closets, the boys loved it. Nolan said he woke up to rain and wind hitting him, he wasn't sure what was going on so he checked James bed and could not find him so he made his way to check the lights and then as he got to the door James called him so he went back to to get him(he had crawled into a ball on the foot of his bed) and he brought him to the door, Nolan said the house was shaking so hard he had a hard time getting to the door in the first place. He thought the house might fall. Brooks door was blocking their doorway so he had to feel his way under her door, Dean had gotten up to them about now and helped them get out. Later that night at the Residence Inn, we would thank Heavenly Father for keeping us safe and I asked all the kids to tell me what they experienced that morning, James would tell me~he just felt water and he didn't know why he was getting wet so he called Nolan, I asked him if he was scared? He said "No, Nolan had my hand so I knew I was safe". I just love how much these boys love each other, they truly are best friends.

Things had already been moved around but this is the kids hall, the playroom was to the right over a half wall.

Our bedroom wall, when we came back through with a flashlight it took our breath away to see our wall. It was the first thing hit and we had no idea, I would have told you it had been the roof. You can put your hand straight through the insulation to the outside. The window that you can see did not break and all of our photobooks and pictures were right by that window. As the glass started blowing, Dean jumped and ran for the kids upstairs, I tucked Brooklyn under me and ran for the laundry room (no windows) and dug for a flashlight, the only time you could see was during a lightning flash, it was so dark. Of course out of 7 flashlights, the last one had a weak battery. As I was looking I could hear the kids yelling, as a mother you know your kids and as I listened I knew they were scared and not hurt. I am so thankful they were yelling so I could know they were okay. I wondered what was taking Dean so long to get to them, I wondered if something had hit him and maybe he was hurt. But, the staircase turned and at the turn it was full of blinds, toys and the kids table and chairs that were destroyed. In the pitch black he had to try to move things to get up them. He also said the noise was deafening.

A view of the two homes that lost their roofs.

The side of our house where the tornado had been pulling at our wall. It is completely bowed away from the house.

Front view, the top window was Kylies, I had already pulled her curtains back in hoping to salvage them. They were to torn to save.

Another view of the house, the large garage door was gone as were alot of others.

Dean's car was a total loss, we had reduced our ins to liability only 3 mo before. We donated it to the kidney foundation and they auctioned it for $600.

My van inside the garage had $10,000 worth of body damage and that didn't include the windows that were replaced before it even went to the body shop.

I had just meticulously organized the garage 3 days before so I could park in it. I finally had felt caught up amd the thought had crossed my mind to clean the garage so I did. If I hadn't we would have lost the van also. I am so thankful for that still small voice.

We had borrowed a friends grill to have a BBQ right after we had moved in just 5 weeks before. You almost can't tell it was ever a grill. We ended up with three different trampoline parts in our yard and we don't even own one.

The back view of our house, a little bit after the tornado it just hailed, it looks like snow here and the neighborhood pond was backing up over the whole field.

All boarded up and cleaned up. T hings that will touch my heart forever, **seeing the firetruck coming down the streets about 15 min after with fireman jumping off in all directions to check on everyone, once they knew you were all accounted for they tied a yellow ribbon around your doorknob. **Our ward would show up with wood to cover all of our windows and holes in the walls, it was freezing, no one had jackets and they worked even through the hail, it brings tears to my eyes every time I think about it. **So many people would feed us over the next few days, **the YW would make our children blankets knowing everything in our homes had to be specially cleaned before we could have it back. Our kids love those blankets, I really think they feel a sense of security with them. **So many people would help us in so many ways, in those first few cleanup days we would borrow computers, cellphones, washing machines, people would watch our kids, Doney Park ward would clean up our yard, **Kylies seminary class would tell her they prayed for our family the morning it happened.

The sign you get on your door when your home is deemed unlivable

A close up of the outside wall. I have wanted to post this for a while but it has taken me a while to feel caught up, we had just moved into this house 5 wks before the tornado, it was our first rental since our first little apt in San Antonio. We were sad to have to move again so soon, it was a beautiful house. But, we feel so blessed to have found another home. Now when I think about it, it is not the fear of not knowing what was going on or the insecurity of losing a home but the thought that angels were among us and watching over us that day. As our Bishop said in a testimony meeting right after "there are events in your life that become a part of you". This is one of them for us. We are so Thankful for our safety and the safety of our whole neighborhood. We are Thankful for a ward that has treated us like family, We are Thankful for all of our family and friends who were willing to do anything to help us. For family who did come to help us at a time I was feeling so overwhelmed. For everyone that just simpy called to check on us or ask How we were doing. We are thankful for that still small voice that guided each one of us that morning and for the angles that were surely among us. We are Truly Blessed.