More Than Lucky

Yesterday, I faced one of my biggest fears.  A tornado hit our neighborhood.

I'll back up by explaining my fear (as well as a fear can be explained).  Growing up my parents raised me with a healthy respect of tornadoes.  My grandmother was from Oklahoma, and she knew how to tell when a tornado was coming.  I was quickly taught what to do in such an emergency.  However, when I was in kindergarten my teacher tried to teach us about tornadoes.  She read a book to us that explained what a tornado was and how it worked and what one should do in an emergency.  I vaguely recall the book.  What I really remember is the cover of the book.  It was dark green with this monstrous-looking black funnel on it.  If I were to see it today I probably wouldn't think anything of it, but at that time it gave me nightmares.  Thus began my fear.

When I met Hans, one of the things I loved about him was that he was scared of tornadoes too.  His is slightly more understandable considering a tornado destroyed his town, but he wouldn't hesitate to run to the basement, and he certainly wouldn't leave it till last minute.  In fact, when searching for a home, we focused on and eventually chose a house with a basement simply so we'd have a safe spot in case of a tornado.  That's where I was trying to go yesterday.

I was on my way home after running a few errands north of town.  I realized I had left my keys in the house when Hans was home for lunch, but I figured he'd be home in less than 10 minutes so I'd just wait.  I was just pulling up to the house.  It was Hans.  He asked me where I was, and I told him I was by the house and that weather was really bad.  I wanted him to hurry home so we could get downstairs.  I didn't have a chance to get that far, though, because that's when the leaves started swirling.  I couldn't see anything due to all the leaves and I had to stop my car in the middle of the road.  Hans heard something to the effect of, "Geeze, weather is really bad.  Oh gosh, winds are picking up.  Oh S***!  Hans!  There's something...S***....dead silence..." I had accidentally cut the connection. 

When everything cleared there was a tree in the street in front of me and a tree in the street behind me.  I was a little shaken up, and couldn't figure out how to use the phone, but I did push "answer" and reconnected with Hans.  I'm pretty sure I was screaming in his ear (although I can't be certain) and then I broke down crying.  He was home moments later, and he climbed over the tree to get to me (my hero). 

We're all fine.  We didn't even lose power.  The house, on the other hand, is going to need multiple repairs to the roof and porch.  Our fence is down, and yard clean up may take a little while.  Still, though, we're ok.  The dogs and cats are ok.  We're all fine.  That said, I never want to go through that again.

The roof over our porch is a little damage.

There are tiles missing off the side of the dormer

There used to be trellis work here.  We have no idea what happened to it, but we're assuming it's a few blocks away.

Our fence blew down.

You can see daylight through the roof of the attic.

The tree in front of me.

The tree behind me.