10 Years Later

I thought I would do a post yesterday about the May 3rd tornado since it was the 10 year anniversary but I was too busy getting ready for my mother-in-law's surprise party and taking pics of pieces of saran wrap hanging under my cabinet!!

So it had to wait until 10 years and 1 day later!

This post is more a memory-keeper for me than anything else. Roman was only 8 months old and Josh was just turning 3 so they don't really remember it. The big boys remember more. I wish I had written down everything I saw, heard, and felt those few days and weeks after that monster tornado changed our lives forever.

So here are the most memorable parts:

It was a Monday afternoon/early evening. Cutest Boy was working on his MBA and had a class on Monday nights. He was having back pain issues and decided not to go to class that night - the only class he missed in that program! He came home and we watched this storm develop in Lawton - which is 1 1/2 hours from us - while we ate dinner. This is crazy to me now - that we watched this massive storm that was coming for us but we didn't know it at the time.

I've lived in Oklahoma my whole life and have had to "take tornado precautions" before so I wasn't too worried. When it was in Chickasha headed to Bridgecreek, Gary England (the ONLY weatherman for us) was tracking it in our direction. At that point, Cutest Boy thought we should probably leave. I really thought we would be OK - I had dinner to clean up, laundry to fold and mounds of clothes and toys I was going through to get ready for a garage sale the next weekend. We had just been through a close call that October and nothing came of it, right?

Then it got to I-44 and was headed for my best friend's house. She's across town from us but CB decided it was time to go. We loaded up all the kids and the dog and headed to my MIL's house in Midwest City to get in their cellar. (Who knew it would eventually track about a mile from there!!) I remember driving away, talking to Katrina, crying because it was headed right at her. I was so scared for her! It ended going about a mile north of her but cut straight through the heart of south OKC - where so many of our friends from church lived.

The rest of the night is kinda foggy to me. I remember riding out the storm in the cellar, coming out and debris was falling out of the sky like rain. There was the smell of natural gas in the air and it was so weirdly calm. No electricity at my in-laws and I remember it started getting warm and muggy.

And we had no idea what was going on at our house. It was hard to tell by listening to the radio if our neighborhood had been hit - we knew it was close, but not certain.

I had to respond to a Code Black at the hospital - they were expecting massive casualties. I can't even remember the patients I saw that night but I do remember a Chaplain saying he thought my neighborhood had been hit. I couldn't even think that thought.

After CB dropped me at the hospital, he tried to go to our house. He couldn't even get close to it - trying from every direction. We even tried again after he picked me up at midnight. We spent that night not knowing what we would find the next day.

Here's what we came home to:

This is the back of our house. We didn't take a direct hit - this was all wind and debris damage.

Side note: I don't even know where some of these pics came from. I don't remember taking any pictures but I sure wish I had. I was just so numb for days. I do know that Clifton Briscoe gave us a bunch of "general" pictures but I don't remember taking any!

This is looking into the dining/kitchen area. What you can't see is the layer of mud and glass on everything. I've always said there was the tin from 2 barns in my front room! But, the vase with the guppies in it (on the bar to the left of Brandon's head if you look closely) was sitting there undisturbed!

To this day, I am so thankful my husband thought to drive us away from there. We would have been fine in the bathroom we would have hid in but to walk out to that MESS...oh my.


This is photo is looking toward my neighborhood from the adjacent field. If you can click and make it larger you can see the houses more clearly. Several houses on our street - just a few down from us - were almost wiped out. About half a mile from us, 2 men died at their work place.

We spent that summer in CB's best friend's mom's guest house. Super small - but not a bad way to spend our time since they had lots of land and a beautiful pool. We were out of our house for about 4 1/2 months and got a great re-model out of it all.

I remember so many helpful people - friends and others that just wanted to "do something." I remember never wanting for anything. I remember going through the house and making list after list of things that were destroyed but knowing that all the important things had been saved. I remember the insurance company being so easy to work with - making sure we were reimbursed for every little thing. I remember the construction company that worked on the house did a wonderful job.

It's hard to believe that you cannot tell where that tornado ate up the countryside and destroyed house after house. 10 years ago, I was convinced that we could never get rid of all the debris and devastation. Go to www.kfor.com - I think they have a whole section called May's Fury. We watched the special Saturday night. It's hard to believe that happened to us!

There's so much more - but this post is definitely long enough!

But, of course, all the glory is the Lord's. He knew Richard shouldn't be away from his family that night and then He led him to drive us away from the terror we would have experienced if we'd stayed. He directed our steps that night and in the days following.

For that, I am grateful!

B.