Sunday, May 10, 2009

A "STRAIGHT LINE" STORM???? --AKA- INLAND HURRICANE!

Leaves stuck to the house!
Our neighbors fence
Ford Dealership Sign (this is also behind our house.)
A car in our town that was smashed by a tree.
My favorite part of the day! The neighbors gathering to see if anyone can use help!
Our Table knocked over (thats minor)
An oil tank in the trees just two house's behind us.
A tree uprooted just 4 houses up from us
Our neighbors flag pole.
This is BEFORE, I'm sad that I didn't get the TOWANDA TOWER in this pic. it was in front of the biggest barn.
This is AFTER
Ever heard of it. Not me, Until this Friday when SIRENS blew throughout the town. We didn't hear the sirens either to the force of the winds carrying the sound??? I thought I slept through anything but at 5:00 am I awoke, Clark and I were throwing on our clothes and shoes to evacuate to the basement when Sister Albaugh knocked on our door and said, " I think we need to head to the basement"
We heard what we could have distinguished as a train sound, knocking debrey against the house. Water seeping in through the front door, and for the next 30 minutes we wondered what the out come would be.
WOW, they called this a "straight line storm" also known as an "Inland Hurricane"with wind gust from 80mph to 115mph. The devastation met others fiercely. One story came in from Rosalia, just out of our city limits. A young family, a mom and dad a two year old a a baby inside the trailer rolled three times. Leaving the mother with broken ribs, the father with a gash to the head and two little ones unharmed. Everything in the trailer broken except the babies crib, it went without a scratch. ANGELS carried those little ones.
In another town next to us "TOWANDA" looked like a war zone. Metal wrapped around trees. Roofs gone from houses. An awning at a gas station collapsed and several horse trailers laying on their sides or blown across the highway and wrapped around poles. Main Street had windows blown out and the street was covered in glass. Sadly a famous landmark was destroyed. I didn't have a picture of the "TOWANDA TOWER" but in the barn scene was a tower with the letters T-O-W-A-N-D-A down it. The W was crooked in memorial of the man who was painting it. He fell to his death at the W. It is now rubble. The pictures I have only say that we were blessed in our neighborhood to escape some shingles off the roof and a few fences down. In comparison to the rest of the town. My friend coming in from Emporia was surprised when driving into town and went around to each member of our Church's homes to find no damage. We were fortunate to have our generator going. The second time since January. In the 13 hours of no power we didn't go without any conveniences.
What a STORM!

4 comments:

Terrence and Laura said...

That is insane! I can't imagine being so close to such destruction. It just misses us, but you seem to attract it! ha ha. Glad you are all okay!

Hawaii Heather said...

Glad you are all safe!!! Take care of yourselves!

The Sanderson Fam said...

WOW! Glad everyone is safe. Really enforces the "Be Prepared"!

Anonymous said...

GEEZE ALREADY GIRL! COME BACK TO CLEVELAND...
MISS U
JULE'S