Redstate

By itrytobenice Posted in Miscellanea — Comments (11) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

I thought you guys just might want to know that the big tornado that went through Missouri and part of Oklahoma last Saturday went pretty darn close to my house. We live about three fourths of a mile North of the north edge of the tornado and about three or four miles from its first touch down.

It was an EF4 and a full mile wide in places. It was on the ground for 91 miles, making it one of the longest running tornados recorded.

What a deal! My brother in law heard the warnings while he was in town and went flying for home because his three boys were home alone and they don't have a basement. While he was coming down the highway close to our road, he saw the forming of it on the horizon and called us to go for cover. I was outside messing with my baby chicks and didn't even know it was looming.

We went to my parents (next door) because they have a basement and were only there for a few minutes before we heard the freight train and headed for the basement.

My brother in law got past it before it hit the highway (where Lant's Feed was located), but he was close enough that it was pulling his truck when he turned onto his road. Fortunately, his house was about a mile south of the south edge of the storm.

Many of our neighbors lost everything. Over 100 houses were completely destroyed. Ours only got damaged shingles, siding and our barn and vehicles got dinged up. The hail was huge. I mean HUGE. Three of my mom's plate glass windows got hail balls thrown through them, throwing glass and busted ice all over the house.

I believe the final death number was 15, with several hundred injured. At least 10 of the deaths were within two miles of the house because we were so close to the beginning and there wasn't as much warning as a few miles later, though it was an extremely fast moving tornado.

One of our neighbors was in his truck trying to outrun it and he said he thought it was running about 70 miles an hour because he really had it wound up before he was able to get far enough in front of it to turn off.

But you can't believe all the miraculous survivals. One of our neighbors had a new brick home that is completely demolished. She was home at the time of the storm, and missing for a time, but came walking out of the woods later that evening having no idea of how she got there.

We have some neighbors who were fleeing a house trailer and made the mistake of going south rather than north and went right into the storm. It picked up their car and flew it a half mile in the air. The mom's legs were flying out of the car window (breaking one of them pretty bad) and she was only holding onto dad's shirt for safety. They and all three of their children survived with relatively minor injuries.

Our church is about 50 yards from the north edge of the tornado and we didn't lose one single member to the storm.

Another family from our homeschool group had 11 of their family and neighbors in their interior walk in closet and it hit their house dead on. They lost every tree they had, but the roof held and they all survived.

Another friend had left for town with her kids, but hubby was home alone. He hid in the bathtub and the bathroom and garage was the only part that survived.

Another neighbor had installed a concrete safe room two months ago and got into it about 30 seconds before the storm took the entire rest of their home.

Anyway, there are just hundreds and hundreds of near misses and extremely grateful people here. It truly could have been so much worse.

We are grateful for God's protection and for all the wonderful people that have been here to help. The Red Cross and Salvation Army were here right away with food, water and shelters. There are churches that have been sending around teams of people with chain saws and tractors and other individuals coming and helping however they can.

The people of this wonderful country are the reason this country is so wonderful. I am very grateful for all their assistance for our friends and neighbors and grateful for the nation's prayers.

Anita