TORNADO!!!!!!

Last night I sat bolt, upright, at 2 AM to the sound of tornado sirens. I could hear two sirens going off, and there was a surprising amount of rain, wind, and thunder (even for Nebraska). I ran out to the T.V., and fumbled through the channels to find the weather report. I found that there were several possible tornado's very near by. When I heard there might be one in Boys Town (we could walk to Boys Town), I had heard enough and ran to the bedroom. "Wake up Zach!" I called. "There is a tornado in Boys Town!"

"Huh... whu...." Zach mumbled sleepily.

I threw on some pj's that were on the floor by the bed, and whisked up the baby. She was looking at me with the cutest little confused face as if she were saying "oooo... this is weird... what's going on?" I yelled for Zach to meet us down stairs.

I ran with Chloe down the three flights of stairs, and I was shocked to see how much water was pouring down the glass on the windows and doors in the apartment hallway. I was headed to the "storm shelter." We don't have a real storm shelter in our apartment complex. Our building holds 14 people, and 3-4 mangy dogs. The laundry room is located on the bottom floor, which is about a half floor 'pseudo under ground.' This room is big enough for a regular sized washer, dryer, and has a small extra closet sized room. Lucky for us, (I realized, with relief, and a lot of guilt....) that I was the first one down there. I sat there alone with Chloe in this muggy room, singing to her and telling her about our 'big storm middle-of-the-night adventure.' My heart was in my throat, but I managed to smile and sing. I was shaking a little. Chloe was still making the cutest little coo's and I imagined she was saying "hey...what's going on? ... is it morning... ooo this is strange!" She was very inquisitive and thoughtful looking, but calm and happy. I wondered if Zach was ever going to come join us down stairs.

It felt like an hour, but it was only 10-15 min later when Zach joined us in the inadequate shelter. He was shocked and pretty scared. I think he had been in a very deep sleep. Shortly after Zach came, our only other neighbor with children joined us in the cramped space. We were relatively crowded in the small room and there were only six of us. I can't imagine how crowded it would have been if everyone had showed up!

Our neighbor brought with him a small emergency radio. I was on the edge of my seat as I listened to the weather report. We heard that at least one house was destroyed, there were a lot of "felled tree's," and the Wal-Mart at 132nd and L (where I shop weekly) had suffered a direct hit from a tornado!

Slowly, we realized that the thunderous storm was passing. The rain was getting lighter. The sirens were shut off. The radio confirmed that we were no longer in a 'tornado warning.' I reluctantly (still afraid) stood up and followed everyone out into the hall way. We were clear to go back to bed. It was 3 AM.

Zach was holding Chloe, and as I was tromping up our 3 fights of stairs, my curiosity got the best of me. I peeked my head outside, and saw a huge river of water going down the ravine on the back side of our building. There were tree branches all over the ground. It was still pretty ominous out there. I wanted to take off and check out the Wal-Mart... but I needed to take care of the baby and go to bed. In spite of my good intentions, I tossed and turned the rest of the night, unable to get much sleep. The storms also continued through the night.

This morning, Zach awoke at 6:30AM. He ambitiously went to Ward Council Meeting at church, to represent both the Young Men's presidency, and the Activities Committee (for me). When Zach arrived at 7:30AM, he was met with an apocalyptic scene. The trees looked like they were ripped in half. The Bishopric was seated outside in a semi-circle of folding chairs. They were all busy with their cell phones calling everyone in the ward. There was no power in the building, and all meetings had been cancelled for the day. The bishop asked Zach to call several people and let them know about church being cancelled, and asked him to report back to him and let him know what he found. Here are some pictures of the church:

When Zach arrived back at home (at about 8:15AM) I had just finished getting the baby in her pretty little Sunday dress. I was also in a dress. Zach walked in and told me what had happened. He also told me that the bishop asked everyone "did anyone get back to sleep last night after all this." Our ward stretches clear across town, and there were several areas that were hit pretty badly by several different segments of the storm. The bishop must have been worried sick about all his little ward family.

We had intentions of going immediately to another building for church, but Chloe was tired so we put her down. After that we could not resist the temptation to take off our church clothes and crawl back into bed.

An hour later, we woke up the the happiest jumpy baby. We got back into our church clothes, and fed the baby. We attended church at a building in the neighboring stake. We saw some old friends! (Some of you may know Lauren Foutz from Hemet.... she is serving a mission in the trail center out here, and we finally ran into her).

After church Chloe was very tired and fell asleep in the car. We decided to keep her sleeping, and go across town to check out "The Wal-Mart." Apparently, most of Omaha had the same idea today. It was stop and go traffic all around Wal-Mart. The entry ways to the entire parking lot were blocked off with cars, and they had employee's standing there to tell people the store was closed. We didn't see much. The building looked pretty intact to us. Most of the damage must have been sustained on the inside. I wish I could have seen the scene of the disaster!

Then Zach took me to check out the church. I ran around taking a lot of pictures.

I am only now reading the official report. It looks like the tornado was classified as an EF-2. There were 6 houses destroyed, and only a few injuries, but no fatalities. It also seems that the sirens didn't go off (in the Millard area) until after the tornado was already on the ground. We probably would have heard the sirens just in time if the tornado had struck us (as we are about 4.5 miles north of Millard).

Click Here, Or Here to read more, or to see some local damage, Click Here.