You never know what spring in Texas is going to bring. We have had a heavy snow in April before (granted it was back in the 70’s or 80’s), we’ve had hot spring temperatures. We had a spring last year with very little rain and this spring we have had a record breaking amount of rain. The one constant we count on in Texas are the storms. And, its the one thing that makes me want to move out of this state! I am scared to death of tornadoes!! I keep telling Jonathan that if he wants to keep me in this house until we die, he needs to have an underground storm shelter put in the backyard. I”M NOT KIDDING…if I had a spare $5,000-$10,000 I would have a company out here tomorrow digging a giant hole in my backyard, that’s how terrified of storms I am. I hate being at home alone (especially at home alone with the boys) during a storm…even without a tornado threat. But when there is a chance of tornadic (is that a word?) activity, I am petrified and better NEVER be alone!
Last week we had a horrible tornado outbreak in the DFW area. There were several cities hit and hundreds of homes destroyed. I believe the total is up to about 17 confirmed tornadoes that day and by the grace of God, not one fatality. There were so many stories from people during the storms but the one that struck me the most was the story of the grandmother who was in the bathtub with her grandson and two other children she was watching. She was in the neighborhood not too far from our house that was hit and her house was destroyed (the only thing standing was just one portion of a wall). She had her grandson in her lap and during the tornado she could feel him being pulled into the air and she was holding onto him by his ankles. The most intriguing part of this story was that when her neighbors came out of their house to help her after the tornado, there was no bathtub in sight. She and the kids were in the bathtub but it was no where to be found. They don’t know if they flipped or if they were flung from the tub or what – it was gone! We will never know the mystery of the bathtub, but they were all alive and only had bumps and bruises. Truly a miracle!
This story hit me so hard because the day of these tornadoes, my mom was at my house watching our boys, only a few miles from where this happened. Both Jonathan and I were at work and she was by herself with our boys keeping them safe. She did a great job and she is truly a stronger person than I would have been – I would have been balling like a baby if I was in the middle of all that!
The boys did remarkably well. They are still so young that they had no clue what was going on. They just thought that grammy may be a little crazy for making them play in the bathroom with their toys and wouldn’t let them out. Needless to say they didn’t get a nap that afternoon and were pretty cranky that evening. They were both up for a while around 1100 PM that night, from what I can only guess would be over tiredness and maybe they felt some of the stress from the day.
Luckily we didn’t get hit with the tornado or get any wind damage, but we did get quite the hail storm. We had hail almost the size of a softball, but not quite that big. We have a lot of roof damage, including a hole that went through the roof and into the decking. So wel need a new roof and possibly new gutters, but other than that we are all okay. Thankfully my mom had parked her car in our garage or she may have had some massive hail damage.
The thing I keep thinking about is that this is just the beginning of spring – we have a whole tornado season to get through! My stress level is going to go through the roof. Since the storm, I have had several dreams nightmares of hiding from tornadoes and watching houses being destroyed – I don’t sleep soundly anymore. I can honestly say it is enough to make me move – but then you see how colorado and ohio are having tornadoes too – you aren’t safe anywhere. I hear Scotland doesn’t have tornadoes, maybe we’ll move there. Make room Thomas and Olly, we’re coming to Scotland!
This is the hail we had that hit our house:
And, here is some of the roof damage we had:
At this point, since apparently Jonathan isn’t going to get me my storm shelter (I’m going to have to talk him into it!) all we can do is pray that we get through this season with no more tornadoes and I don’t get anymore gray hairs than I already have from stress! Amen
