Yes, I felt like I would be blown away Saturday morning watching the girls play soccer. They each got a goal by the way! Woohoo!
Yes, I forgot to watch the news while I made my appetizer for the happy hour at Laura's we were going to Saturday night.
So yes, I was unprepared for the beeping on the radio as me and the kids headed home on Holly Springs Road after P had been at a birthday party.
If I had watched the weather, I would have known that the storm was expected to hit at 3:30, but instead the nice mechanical voice on the radio told me....a tornado had touched down in Sanford and Holly Springs residents needed to take cover.
T freaked and wanted to know what we were going to do. I stayed calm and said, "We are going home," since we were less than a mile away. It was raining hard, but I did not feel in danger.
We got home and I immediately turned on the TV...satellite already out. Outside it was pouring rain and very windy. It was progressively getting darker. It was time to get into the half bathroom. Dane was in my arms talking up a storm. T was shaking and curled up on the seat of the toilet. She kept asking me what would happen...what would be do. P was quite stoic (surprisingly because she is the one that asks if we are near that place when bad storms or tornadoes are talked about on the news.) She told me she would outrun the tornado if the roof came off. She was glad Dane was wearing his helmet.
I was OK until the pinecones and branches started hitting the windows and sounding like bombs exploding. That along with the thunder and lightning made me question my calmness for a few minutes at the height of the storm. The electricity went out and it was pitch black in the bathroom. You would know that happened as I ventured to the stairs where T's baby and P's blanket (their security loves) were at. I could tell it was close by. Outside looked foggy and black and a confetti of leaves plastered all the windows. By the way, Scott was at work!
Finally, the thunder and lightning started to sound further away and in a matter of minutes the rain let up. The yard was littered with branches but no trees.
Here are a few shots from my drive to church the next morning:
After talking with neighbors outside and hearing one sided cell phone conversations, we found out a tornado had come down Holly Springs Road (the one I was on when I heard the warning) and done a lot of damage. Only streets away, roofs were off, trees were down, power lines were snapped. It took Scott an hour and fifteen minutes to come 11 miles home. He was sure we would not have power for days.
That night we did go to Laura's for a camp light happy hour. It was fun and luckily the lack of light meant my neighbors and friends did not get to see that I had yet to have the shower I meant to get before the party.
Power was off Saturday for about nine hours, Sunday for four or five, and Sunday it was off and on four or five times. Tuesday I finally ventured to the store to replenish the fridge since we lost a lot.
The girls did not have school on Monday since the school did not have power.
We are safe and so lucky! I am so thankful...and now I can no longer tell P that we don't get tornadoes.
On a different note....Dane is nine months today! Slow down will ya Father Time!
