Today marks the end of a hard, devastating, crazy week. Our little town of Cleburne was hit with an F3 size tornado on Wednesday and many people lost their homes, including three families that we are very close to.
It started about 8pm on Wednesday night while we were at church for AWANA. A tornado warning was issued for our county so I quickly grabbed Parker and Eden and headed home to join Lily and Cory. By the time we got home, the rain, wind, and lightening had strengthened. A huge tornado had already been reported in the neighboring town of Granbury, so Cory thought it would be wise to go ahead and take cover in the bathroom. We woke Lily up and grabbed some pillows, the kids blankets, and lots of books. The kids thought it was very cool to be reading in the bathtub!
To make a long story short... the mile wide tornado barely missed us and after a long hour and a half, we were able to finally put the kids in bed. Parker, Eden and Lily all did a great job staying calm during the entire ordeal. They never cried or acted scared, even when we lost our electricity. Eden also said the sweetest prayer while we were waiting for the worst. Needless to say, it was a very scary hour and a half.
After a restless night of sleep, we awoke to helicopters flying overhead to survey the damage. After checking the Internet on our phones (we still didn't have any power), it became quite apparent that there was some pretty significant damage very close to our neighborhood.
My parents lost some of their fence, their swingset, a huge tree in their front yard and had a cracked window. Just blocks away from them, Parker's buddy from school lost his entire house. In another section of town by the lake, many houses were also destroyed. Two of my family's closest friends lost their houses in this hardest hit part of the city. Also suffering a lot of damage was the school that I teach at.
Cory had an infusion yesterday morning so the kids and I tried to go to my mom's house to check out their damage, but the destruction made it too hard to get close, so we turned around and came back home. Through Facebook and watching the news on our phones, we were able to stay updated on the relief efforts around town. Because we had no power, we drove to Burleson and had lunch with Cory. Last night, we went out to Heath's for dinner and swimming and a little air conditioning! Thankfully, our power came back on in the middle of the night and brought with it some much needed cool air.
This morning, I had the opportunity to go over to Parker's friend's house and help them a little with their clean up and recovery. Words can't describe what I saw and I left there feeling both grateful that we had been spared and helpless that there wasn't more I could do to help them. They have lost almost everything they own and are now in the process of rebuilding not only their house but their lives. I just can't imagine what they are going through.
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| Cole's kitchen |
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| Master bedroom-the tornado took the sheet off the completely made bed and they found it stuck in the ceiling |
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| The Harrison's house was completely destroyed. |
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| The living room at the Harrison house |
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| Our friends, the Wrights, used to live in this house many years ago. |
Amazingly, no lives were lost in this horrible tornado. The community has pulled together to help all of those in need and crews are working around the clock to both restore power and clean up our hardest hit neighborhoods. They've even brought in disaster recovery teams to clean up my school in hopes that we can resume school on Monday morning.
Those who lost their homes have a long road ahead of them. It definitely puts life into perspective and makes you realize how quickly your life can be turned upside down. Thanks to everyone who has called or texted to check on our family. We truly are blessed!
