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May 10, 2003
Destructive Weather
I don’t fear the wind or lightning anymore. It is the hot, humid stillness that I fear. The perfect setting for a tornado. Last Sunday night, however, this was NOT the case. Which is why it was all such a mystery to us.
It was a cool, drizzly, rainy day that we woke up to. I realized that we would probably NOT be in for any type of dangerous weather here in Missouri that day and breathed a sigh of relief. At around 5pm that evening, I realized how terribly wrong I was. The sky had cleared up and it was warming up. Much warmer than it was that morning. There was little wind. The news was reporting a storm on its way. We were all under severe thunderstorm warnings and tornado watches. Our family was getting ready for church and decided to go anyway, despite the warnings. On our way, I didn’t notice anything too unusual. As we were listening to the pastor’s sermon, I started hearing thunder. Andrew and I looked at each other and said, “It’s here.” The pastors announced that there was a thunderstorm warning and possibly a tornado warning. When we stepped outside the building, we noticed the HUGE thunderheads racing in our direction. The sky was turning a greenish color and the wind was whipping around us. The lightning was streaking through the thunderheads and we knew we had to get home quick.
I don’t know if it’s the attempt we made to outrun this storm to get home that I will remember most, or if it was the desperation in the voices of the live reporters on the radio station we tuned in to. The latest news was that 2 or 3 tornadoes had already ripped through the city and there were more on the way. One person was already confirmed dead who they had found laying in the ditch. The reporter was so shaken up by this that she sounded as if she would burst into tears at any moment. One reporter, who was positioned about 10 miles away from us, was yelling that debris was swirling around him and that it was becoming more and more dangerous by the minute.
The storm system, overcame us as we were driving home, but took a turn AWAY from our neighborhood. We stood on our balcony in amazement and watched the lightning coursing through the thunderheads. We still had NO idea what had bypassed us. Watching the news that night, we sat in terrible sadness as we heard story after story of homes destroyed and completely flattened only within a 60 mile radius of our home. If I remember correctly, at least 20 tornadoes touched down in our area alone. 80 tornadoes touched down that night within that storm system which stretched from Louisiana to Illinois. It was a wild night to say the least.
Until next time,
Heather
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