Swirling Wind

Let me first say that we are all fine!! The devastation all around is unimaginable. I am so thankful we made it through. We are so blessed!! It all happened on Wednesday April 27. I think it will be one of those days we all talk about for a long time! One of those "where were you when stories." The entire day was a wild ride.

It started at around 5 am with the sirens going off. Great way to start the day. Schools were delayed because of the weather. I had a full morning of patients to see so I really needed to have the kids go to school. They were able to go at 9 am so I dropped them off as soon as I could. Ran to work and of course no patients came. Went to run some errands and the sirens started going off again. I also got a phone call that I needed to come get the kids because the school was closing early. When I got there the weather was getting really bad so the kids and I hung out until that round finished up. Here are the kids playing in the "safe area" at school. We headed home. As soon as we got home around 1 pm it really started storming. We got some pea sized hail and about 10 minutes of rain. For the entire day that was the worst in our neighborhood. The rest of the afternoon was spent watching the weather. It was crazy. I have never seen anything like it. I have grown up around lots of tornadoes. I have been around deadly tornadoes but this was just insane. It was just one tornado after another. You could see them on the radar. I do not get nervous in storms but there were a few moments that were scary. We got so lucky where we were. We never had to take cover. We just sat around and watched the coverage. There were tornadoes all around but for some reason our neighborhood did not have one come within 5 miles. We were so blessed. Matt was able to get home around 4 and then we just watched the craziness continue. I kept putting off cooking dinner because I was afraid me might loose power for a little bit. And we did around 5:30. So then we just had to listen on the radio. We were able to go outside and see the weather all around us. We went and visited with neighbors and let the kids play outside. Yes I know we are crazy!!
The power was still out after 2 hours so we went to my parents house to get some food that they had grilled out. Yes we drove in the craziness! My dad cracked all of us up with his rigged radio from 1978.

We started hearing that power was going to be off for 4-5 days. It was just insane. Finally around 9:30 things died down. That is when we started hearing about some major damage. That was the thing about not having power we really did not know what was going on. We went to bed really not knowing how bad things were. Power was still out on Thursday morning with promises that it was still going to be 4-5 days. Everything was shut down. There was no gas to be found. It was crazy. Unlike anything I have experienced. Almost like Marshall law or something. Matt headed to work early on Thursday and there was no power at the hospital so things were a little crazy. There were lots of injured there as well. The kids and I decided to get out of town. Matt's parents were heading to the beach condo so went along. We are at the beach with hot water and electricity. Feeling really guilty for all of those left behind including Matt. We hear things are pretty rough. Cell service is very spotty so we are depending on CNN for our news right now.

It has been a crazy 48 hours. It has been stressful and overwhelming at times but we have been carried through it by our Savior. We continue to pray for all of those affected more than us. Lack of electricity is nothing compared to the suffering all around us.