A Stormy Night

For some, last nights storms have changed their lives as they knew it. Headlines that we woke up this morning read "Tornadoes tear through the South" or "Rescue crews look door-to-door for tornadoe victims" and reports are saying that 50 people were killed last night when this major storm system passed through Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama. Thankfully there was no major damage in Nashville although I will admit that it was a bit scary.


I had been watching them track these storms on tv since 8 o'clock when they interupted the tv show I was watching and never went back to the program. (I was not a happy camper) So out of my frustration, I flipped to some cable channels only to realize that there is not much on so I kept going back to the local NBC station...not really interested in the weather as much I was hoping to find my show back on. Nevertheless, the clock kept ticking and I soon realized that this one particular super-cell storm was heading our direction and because I live on the west end of Nashville, they were telling us we could see the worst of it. One word...tornado. I casually went upstairs to grab a flashlight and my cell phone, just in case and hunkered back down on the couch. It was a little after 9 when i started to see and hear the lightning/thunder and the pinging of the rain and hail as it was blowing into the windows. The weather man said that if you live in Bellevue (that's me) and West Meade you should head to your "safe spot" and as soon as he said one large crash of thunder & the power was out. I think I made record time in moving from the couch to our downstairs bathroom which is were I sat for about 10 minutes or so. Once the power came back on, I ventured back to my spot on the couch and continued to watch the storm move North East across town. I thought that wasn't so bad but what concerned me while watching the news and hearing early reports of the damage come in, was a huge system right behind these smaller ones.


I texted my sister in IN to make sure that the family was safe up there. It was just a couple years ago that they had a horrific tornado tear through Henderson, KY, Evansville, IN and on up through Newburgh and Boonville. I will never forget getting that phone call from my mother as I was out in Colorado at the time visiting friends. I knew by the sound in her voice something terrible had happened. When she said they had a tornado I could hardly believe it, especially because it was in November. But regardless of the time of year, it came in the wee hours of a Sunday morning and many were caught without any warning. Thankfully none of my immediate family was affected by this storm. What's scary is that my parents never even woke up and yet this monster of a twister was not even more than 25 miles from where they slept. Elaysha woke Holly up because of the storm so she turned on the tv to see it unfold. She had just enough time to call one of her friends who lived in the path of the storm to warn them...thankfully they were safe! One young family of four in my parents church were killed and close friends of my aunt and uncle nearly had their entire home blown to pieces. The devastation of these storms can leave you in awe and speechless.

Just another incident that makes me thankful for what I have and in times like these, I feel inspired to truly live each day to the fullest because you have no guarantee of a tomorrow.