Tornado - Part One

It was a dark and stormy night…thunder crashed…lightening exploded in the sky…the wind howled…and then…silence… Okay, okay, I never said that I was a writer but it sure seemed fun to start this Blog this way.

Thoughts of a tornado. Wow – I have been thinking about writing about “our” tornado since it happened and haven’t been able to articulate this experience very well. So, I will just write and we’ll see what happens.

It really was a dark and stormy night. I wasn’t that worried about severe storms because tornadoes don’t happen in October – that is ridiculous. We were watching TV on the night of October 18 and the news stations broke into whatever we were watching to inform us of impending storm fronts coming across northern Indiana. Now you have to understand, this happens a lot around here. You get sort of used to it and take it in stride. After awhile they were on the TV all the time just giving updates of the various storms around the area. “There have been rotations spotted in this area, and that area, etc.” They showed, on the map, a storm that was heading right for Nappanee. It was about an hour out and I figured I had time to get things around should it keep developing. Gail decided to go outside to watch the approaching storm. Yes folks, you are reading this correctly, Gail decided to go outside and watch for any tornadoes. Most sane people are in their basements, but nooooo, Gail is outside……….I am still a bit upset about that one. I was watching the weather reports when all of a sudden the lights went out and I could here the tornado siren start. At that point, Gail came racing into the house and ordered me downstairs. Gail never, and I repeat never, gets upset about storms so when he came racing into the house and yelled for me to go to the basement I knew that something big was happening. I was not prepared to run because I had an hour to prepare…r-i-g-h-t! I did, however, manage to grab the important things for the basement – blanket, jacket - I already had a flashlight close at hand, cell phone and my two dogs. I went down stairs with said items in hand, except for dogs that were running all over the place in totally confusion and panic. Why was I yelling at them? What had they done to make me so angry that I would raise my voice in such a manner? Kody kept running in circles until he finally went down the stairs. It is funny now – it wasn’t then. Have you ever played that game of what you would take out of a burning house? What would you save? Well in that moment, I took the things that seemed practical to me and took nothing of any sentimental value. I wonder what that says about me? Lesson learned in this part of the story – be prepared BEFORE the storm hits and leash your dogs so they will listen quickly. By the time I got to the basement, the tornado has already passed about ¼ of a mile from our house. While I was rushing around collecting the things I wanted and trying to convince the dogs to come with me, the tornado has already done its deed. Because Gail had been outside, he heard the tornado coming. He did not see it, but heard it. He says it is a sound he will never forget. It sounds a little bit like a train way off in the distance. He is sad that he wasn’t on the other side of the house because he may have been able to see it if he had been on that side of the house. I told him that he could have been tornado bait if he had been on that side. He really did miss his calling – he should have been a tornado chaser. Not while married to me, of course!


Since I did not hear any of this part, I will pass on what Gail told me. Since he was outside watching for any storm, he was very aware of what the weather was doing. He said it was raining and the wind was blowing, etc. All of a sudden everything just stopped or almost stopped and got really calm. He remembers thinking “man, is this all there is going to be. We are going to miss the storm, again!” (What a crazy man!) Then all of a sudden the wind picked up and began to blow ferociously, the rain was actually going horizontal to the ground and that is when he heard the tornado. There really is a calm before the storm. That whole process lasted maybe 5 minutes. It went through so fast. After the tornado went through the wind continued to blow, but not as bad. It still was raining, but not as much – more like sprinkling.

We waited for several minutes before going outside to see what had happened. At that point, we really didn’t know what had happened. Gail knew he heard something, and thought it may have been a tornado but didn’t know for sure. Two of our neighbors houses were damaged by the high winds, but ours was fine. We lost several shingles – nothing in comparison to what we would see in the coming days. Our next door neighbor came out and told us that a tornado had hit Nappanee. We learned later that it touched down somewhere around Bourbon and traveled on and off the ground for about 20 miles. All of Nappanee and surrounding areas were without power. That was a really weird experience to look all around you and everything is dark. By this time there were a lot of flash lights all over the place. It didn’t take long for rescue units to start making their rounds to make sure everyone was okay in our neighborhood. We were. Some of our neighbors, on State Road 19, were not so fortunate. About 7 homes right around the corner from us were destroyed. The rescue units could not get to their homes by that road, due to felled power lines, so they were coming into our development and going through the field that adjoins us to get to them. All night we heard sirens, the beeping that utility and rescue trucks have on their trucks when they back up. It really was unsettling.

As we walked around our development, we saw trees snapped off at the ground, numberous shingles and siding on the ground. There were several trampolines that were just gone. We found one, however, wrapped around the garage of a house. It was imbedded into the side of the house, as if someone placed it there and pounded it into the wall. Amazing. Like I said before, that was only the tip of the ice-berg of what we would see the next day.

There is so much more and more I would like to share – I think I will close this, so I don’t over-load you on this first post. I know I am “wordy” but thanks for letting me write it all.

Love to all!