Tornados 2016

I hate bad storms.  I am a wimp when it comes to storms.  Nate can tell you...if I wake up in the middle of the night and a storm is brewing outside, I'm in the living room, checking out the weather.  A couple of weeks ago, there was a tornado warning in Lindale.  I was at home with the kids, Nate was still at work.  They were saying a possible tornado on the ground on FM 16 (I live on FM 16, fyi...).  I had the closet completely cleaned out, all the stuff piled on our bed, ready for us to crowd in together if needed.  I had Nate on the phone, me almost in tears, saying "There's a tornado on 16!"  He told me, "It's near Lindale on 16, don't worry."  I yelled back, "I live on 16!"  (like he didn't know that).  Then Tristan comes to me and says, "The warning is off."  Poor kid...he's learning too much about tornados at such a young age.  So, nothing actually happened there.  Just a warning...and a scared momma. 

So, fast forward to two days ago, Friday.  Nate was actually supposed to go camping at the family farm in Hawkins with the boys and I was supposed to go (with Malachi) to a ladies retreat on Saturday.  We saw that there was a risk of storm, so the camping was off, but they still planned on going to his parents' house to eat while the babe and I stayed home and prepared for the next day.  About 5:00, we saw the warnings on the TV, and Nate asked if I wanted him to stay home after all, knowing how scared I am of storms.  We decided it was best if we all just stayed put.  We kept the news on, and the tornado warnings continued to get closer and closer to us...but then it looked like it would might pass us.  A few minutes later, it becomes really dark outside, and I see Nate grabbing the flashlights and lantern and checking out the closets...which when Nate is concerned, that means it's time to get concerned.  The wind starts picking up hard outside but the weather on the TV still says we are in the clear...so I'm not freaking out yet.  Then the lights go out, but thankfully the wind stops and it begins to slowly brighten up outside.  The storm has passed, but we are clueless on any of the damage in Lindale (which is 10 minutes from us)...thinking that nothing really got too close to us.  Our lights, thankfully, come back on about 8:00 (then off again from 11:00-1:30), so we were able to check out the weather on the news to find out a little more of what happened, but there weren't too many details at that point.  All we knew was that the Dollar Tree and Hibbett Store in town was destroyed. 

Saturday morning, after talking with my mom, we find out, through Dad's cousin who lives on 16 as well, that FM 16 was actually hit pretty hard by an actual tornado.  Nate took the boys to town to run to the store, and when he returned, he said that starting about 2 miles from our house, there is damage everywhere.  Trees down, power lines down, several houses destroyed.  One large tree fell across the road at about that 2 mile mark from our house (it had been cleared by that point).  Later that day, we went to Hawkins to Nate's parents house, and about two miles north of them, same thing.  Trees down, houses damaged...you could see the tornado path.  We found out later that the same thing at Lake Hawkins and Holly Lake Ranch.  Lots of damage because a tornado dropped in those areas as well. 

This morning, we headed out to church, although we had to drive slowly for all the work crews out trying to fix some of the power lines.  On the way home, we were stopped and was told that a gas line had been hit and they were worried about an eruption from that, so they were advising everyone to turn back around.  We ended up taking another route home, 2710, which, to our surprise, was hit just as hard. 

Saturday morning, when we got up, we went outside to survey any damage, and we had one semi-large limb to fall, barely missing our fence.  That was it.  One limb.  An easy fix, while 5 minutes away, friends and fellow church members were faced with uprooted trees, trampolines wrapped around trees, fences down, trees blocking their driveways, holes in roofs, barns destroyed, lack of power, etc...  We found out today that they are estimating that it might take up to a month to get the power lines all working again on our road. 

The news has stated that 10 tornados touched down last night in our county.  The two in Lindale were both F-2. 

Several things have happened in the past couple of weeks that makes me realize how blessed I am regarding our house, our health, our finances, our children, etc... It's just a pity that sometimes it takes events like this to remind ourselves of our blessings.