Tornado Pictures

A few days prior to April 3rd Savannah wasn't feeling well.  On the morning of April 3rd, I finally called the doctor and the office said to bring her in.  We get there and Savannah has pink eye in both eyes and an ear infection.  The doctor wrote me a couple of prescriptions so I left and headed to CVS.  Toward the end of my major CVS drama, Jeremiah called me.  He said a tornado was headed my way and I need to go home.  When I got home, I took the girls and my things out of the van.  Jeremiah told me to crack the windows so that the pressure wouldn't build up and break the windows.  After I opened the windows, I took off to the closet with Scarlett and Savannah.  Within seconds the tornado hit our house.

   I was on the phone with Jeremiah the entire time.  I remember telling him that the tornado was here and I started screaming.  He was at work and I remember BEGGING him to stay with me and don't leave me and he said okay.  The tornado was so loud that I couldn't hear myself scream anymore.  It sounded like a freight train just the way people describe it.  It sounded like a locomotive far away coming closer.  I heard the woo woo woo sound.  The faster the woo's got, the louder the woo's got.  Suddenly, I heard this loud and violent ripple.  Jeremiah told me later that that was the sound of the roof being ripped off.  After a few moments, the tornado passed and the girls and I came out of the closet.  Savannah never made a sound and Scarlett remained pretty calm most of the time.  Elizabeth was still in school and fell to pieces when she got home.  Jeremiah picked her up from school and she was scared out of her mind when they entered the neighborhood.

After the tornado passed , I called the hospital to check on Lynette and she was fine.  In fact, they took her out of her incubator and she spent quite a bit of time in a bouncer!  I'm glad that she was having a great day because if she wasn't, I'm pretty sure that would have done me in.  Anyway, here are some pics of the tornado that hit our house on April 3, 2012.

My beautiful red oak tree.  It was HUGE.  It took up the entire yard when it fell.  I am still sick that it is gone :o(

The few branches that remained were hanging so low that vehicles couldn't get through.  Here's a big portion of it in the street.

Some people one street over came to assist the residents on our street.

Here's the city taking down the rest of our red oak to get it out of the street.

Here's what's left.  Sniff sniff.

First response team...Bro. Freeborn and Ryan.

The girls and I were hiding underneath the blue tarp.  The yards were a mess.  Trust me.  These pictures look like rainbows and butterflies compared to the damage seen in person.

 Jeremiah drove up to this when he got home.

This tree was completely uprooted out of the ground.  Oh, the mess.

My poor garage.  We just got a new roof and new gutters 2 years ago, too.  That branch on the garage penetrated about twelve inches into the roof.  The garage ceiling is a huge mess now because of water damage.

Bro. Jackson and his son working on the infamous red oak.

Finishing it off.  It made the loudest thud when it hit the ground.

The dirty porch.

Jeremiah putting the mailbox back.  Truth be told, I wanted a new one anyway.  The police has done a FANTASTIC job patrolling and keeping unwanted people out of our neighborhood.  Here's my big shout out to the city...until I get a speeding citation, ha!

R.I.P red oak tree.  Have I mentioned how much I loved this tree.

I'm still amazed how a tornado can last for a moment in time and cause so much destruction.

My dad and Jeremiah tarping the roof.

My poor backyard.  At least the maple trees survived.  I love the shade that they provide.

This house is two doors down from us.

All three sides of our fences were destroyed.

Here's another big shout out to the football teams at Martin H.S., Bowie H.S., and volunteers from a local church.  I spent all day Wednesday at my parents because I didn't want to be home in the craziness.  When we got home that night, our backyard was spotless!  My neighbor told me that all of these kids and volunteers had come in and cleaned up EVERYTHING!  Trees, fences, debris...everything!

The media circled for hours.  We saw our house on ABC and my neighbor told me that he saw our house on NBC.

Here's my daddy working hard as usual.

To put things into perspective, look how big this maple tree is compared to Jeremiah.  This is the tree that fell on the garage.

The porsche was Scarlett's babysitter for a while because she came up missing for a few moments.  She was outside and then she was gone.  I was frantically screaming for her and she came out of the house saying "yes, mom?" just as innocent as she can be.  Like it was no big deal at all.  She was in her room playing and I didn't know it.  I guess she took off to her room and I didn't see her go inside and she sure didn't tell me that she was going in.

My mother was walking down the street telling EVERYONE that Arlington had been declared a state of emergency!  She took it upon herself to notify MY neighbors of what was going on in OUR neighborhood.  I guess she thought that she was the first lady of Arlington, LOL!  My sister told me that she punked a few firemen to let her on the street because her "daughter and grandbabies live on this street and I GOT to get to them!"  My mama cracks me up!!!  In case you didn't know, my mama is the queen of all mama bears!  I love how my daddy isn't letting her stray too far.  In case I wasn't clear, the firemen eventually let her on the street, LOL!

Mr. Man still working on the tree that fell on the garage.  It blocked the entrance to the garage, too. I didn't get a picture of that.  I wish I had.

We loved our red oak so much that we planted another red oak this time last year.  As tiny as it is, can you believe that it is still standing?!

Liz was very upset to see her playhouse gone.

The back door is disgustingly dirty.

The insurance adjuster came out today and I felt like things went well.  He made me throw up a little when he told us that we have to move because we have structural damage.  Basically, the house is unstable and not safe enough to live in.  So, we have to find a rental property to reside in until the work is completed on our house.