A survivor’s story:
Mom’s Funny Feeling
Hi my name is Leia, I am 12 years old.
I live with my mom, dad and two younger brothers Luke and Ben.
All day at school the weather had been getting worse, lots of rain and wind. My mom almost didn’t send us to school because she had a ‘funny feeling’ about the day.
Little did we know at the time but her ‘funny feeling’ was that our town was going to be hit by a tornado.
In the afternoon, my teacher told us that a Tornado Watch had been issued. We all knew that meant that the weather was probably going to get a whole lot worse. We might even get to see a tornado! The good news was that we were let off school early. My mom came to pick us up. She seemed quite stressed, not her usual happy self.
The wind whipped up plenty on the journey home. Clouds of debris were swirling around everywhere.We could hear thunder and see lightning in the distance. Luke was crying. I started to worry about my dad. I asked Mom if he'd be home when we got there and she said he had left work but was going to Grandma’s house to pick her up. Of course, my grandma lived on her own and would be really scared.
As we pulled into our drive I looked up at the sky. It had turned a strange greenish color. That was weird, I had never seen that before. I hoped the boys wouldn’t look up. I was sure it would scare them even more. Suddenly I heard lots of crashing sounds like something metallic hitting the car again and again. Both my brothers were crying now and I was shouting…
What is that?
She was surprisingly calm and “Hailstones honey, they’re just hailstones”. But then I saw one roll down the windscreen. It was the size of a baseball! She saw my face and before I could say “How are we going to get out of the car?” she said “Right I’m going to get you guys out of the car”. She drove as near to the front door of the house as she could. There was a huge rubber sheet that I had never seen before in the back of the car. She grabbed hold of it and held it above her head whilst looking outside at the hail. I think she was waiting for it to stop. I didn’t think it ever would, it was so noisy! Suddenly she said “OK guys, I'm going to get out and hold this sheet above me”. I don’t think any of us realised that she was shouting over all the noise. “Then I’m going to open the back door and Luke and Ben you get out and stand as close to me as you can and grab on to me as hard as you can. Then we’ll go quickly to the front door. I’m going to open the door and let you in then I’ll come back for your sister”. I had been praying for the hail to stop and all of a sudden my prayers were answered as the crashing stopped. Mom did exactly as she said she would, she got my brothers out of the car and into the house. She shut the door on them and came back for me. As we opened the car door I heard a new sound, it sounded like thunder but it wasn’t stopping, it kept going, almost like a really long train coming towards us. I didn't know what was scarier the hail or the thundering noise!
Dad’s car wasn’t in the drive so I knew he wasn’t back yet. The boys were crying and asking for Daddy. Mom told us to get to the basement.
Something, it looked like a door but I couldn’t tell properly,had crashed into the windows. It must have been blowing around outside.
Mom pushed us towards the basement quickly. She opened the door and down we went. We couldn’t see the steps properly even though Mom was turning the lights on. The power was obviously out.
We got downstairs. Mom found a torch. She sat the boys down together, covered them in blankets and asked me to do the same. I cuddled up close to them. Mom was looking for something then came back with some cookies and drinks. Whilst the boys were busy eating their cookies I mouthed the word Dad to her. I was close to tears but I wasn’t going to cry in front of my little brothers. I had to be strong. She replied quietly…
“He’ll be fine honey, don’t worry”.There was a radio in the basement. I tried to get some information but there wasn’t any reception. The noise from above the house was deafening. I think we got used to it though. The boys were asking after Dad so my mom got her phone and said “Oh look, there’s a message from your father. He says he’s fine, he’s with Grandma and not to worry about him”. I knew that wasn’t true but I wasn’t going to say anything.
At some point the boys fell asleep so I chatted to Mom but then I fell asleep too. We were all cuddled up together. My brothers, like most brothers, were quite annoying at times but I felt nothing but love for them and was so grateful we were together.
Noises woke me. My mom was moving around. She said she could hear noises from upstairs. She started shouting…
We‘re in the basement”.
We heard more noises from above. Muffled voices of people talking. All of a sudden the door at the top of the stairs opened. I could hear a man’s voice shouting our names. It was my dad! “Daddy! Daddy!” we all shouted. He came running down the stairs and we had the best family reunion ever!
Finally when we all settled a bit he told us what had happened to him. He had gone to get Grandma but the weather had gotten a lot worse. Her neighbours had a storm shelter and they begged Dad and Grandma to go into it with them. They could actually see the twister! Dad thought that was the most sensible thing to do. As soon as it was safe he had driven home to find us.
We were still in the basement at this point. We were itching to get out and go back into the house. That’s when Dad told us that things would be very different at the top of the stairs. He told us not to worry and that the main thing was that we were all safe and together and to just keep remembering that.
I’ll never forget what we saw when we got out of the basement. I did not recognise it as my house. Some walls were still there but most weren’t. All our stuff seemed to have disappeared. The weirdest thing I saw was our car, upside down in what I guessed was our drive. It was a sea of debris now. That was when I started crying. I could not control myself any longer.
We found out afterwards that our lovely little town had been hit by an EF5 tornado. A lot of people had lost their homes and possessions. Some had lost their lives. I knew that life was going to be very different for a while.
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