Living Through Tornadoes and Hurricanes

I've been through both. Texas has it's fair share of wind damage, rain,lightening,thunder, drought, and even plenty of ice and snow.  But oh, those wind storms!

The hurricane came along when I was around ten. I lived in a suburb  near Houston. I slept through a large portion of the storm, and was really surprised that Mom didn't wake us up earlier than she did. Apparently, she and Dad were up monitoring the house, making sure we wouldn't blow away, and had finally gone off to sleep. No work that day either, for the both of them, because we were flooded in.

I remember hearing a bunch of the neighborhood kids just outside my bedroom window. I heard more laughing and playing than usual. I peaked though my window and was astonished! Our cul-de-sac was completelty flooded, and the kids were literally floating on their air matresses! I got dressed, woke up my brother, and hollered at my sleeping mother that we were going outside to play.

Our house was pretty much unscathed, being that it was built up higher than the road. We called our little cul-de-sac the "Circle". We jumped ramps in it with our bikes, ran around it until we couldn't anymore, and now this! Swimming and wading around in our own little pool!

There was also a lot of construction going on in the area, and a couple lots down from our house was a large sand pile. It was more like quicksand after the hurricane, and we wasted no time 'wading' through that as well. I remember the sand being up to my thighs, and at my little brother's waist! It was difficult to get myself out of the watery sand, and just as bad to get him out as well.

Finally, I remember going to school long after the hurricane, and seeing flood lines along our bus route. Some folks' floodline were almost half way up their houses. I realized that we were very lucky that we hadn't recieved any damage. It really was just a playday.

The tornado was quite another thing. It happened in '97; the same tornado that hit Jarrel, Texas had hit us first. Luckily, when it hit our neck of the woods, it was only an F-1 or maybe an F-2, according to the weather reports.

I can say for certain that the weather was awful that day. Anyone who is familiar with tornadoes knows what tornado weather feels like. It's humid, hot, and very heavy and oppresive. I was picking up my oldest from school, and had my car radio tuned in to the local station that had been giving the best reports. We pulled into our mini mall to grab some milk at a grocery store, when some kid busted out of the pizza place next door, talking on his cell phone. I heard him say that a tornado was barreling down 317. We were ON that road! I immediately grabbed all the kids, and my husband  and I had no where to go except the walmart. As we quickly walked with the 3 kids to the front door, you could see the formation of the tornado just above the Walmart. It had to be the strangest, scariest thing I'd ever seen.

The employees moved us to household goods with the rest of the patrons so that we could all grab a pillow from the shelf in case of flying glass. Luckily, we were at the right place at the right time. We were apparently 'nicked' by the winds, but not in the tornado's direct path.

We finally got in the car to head home when it was finally safe to do so. It took about ten minutes to get home. As we were driving, I noticed trash along the road. Lots of trash.The further up the road we went, the bigger the trash got. I noticed shingles along the side of the road. Then we even had to drive around a lot of wood, and insulation. Dear God, I thought. Do we even have a house to go home to?

We pulled into the little road that leads to our house. Trees were completely uprooted. Shingles were everywhere. Paper and trash covered everything. I was in complete shock. We pulled up to the house. It was fine! We checked it inside and out, and it was fine. We decided to investigate the neighborhood more thoroughly and to check on our neighbors.

It didn't take long to find out where the path of the tornado had gone. About a half-mile from our house, we took another turn to the left. Metal fences had wrapped around trees. A car had been turned upside down and thrown accross a field about three hundred feet from where it had originally sat. We also found out that one of our neighbors suffered a broken leg after she had a part of her house fall on her as she sat in her bathtub for safety. She had been the only one hurt, and with all that we saw, it was hard to believe. 

To see it on television is certainly not the same as seeing it with your own eyes. It took many days to clean the mess. We truly did have lots of community spirit. Those with chain saws helped with the fallen trees, and everyone pitched in. I think we were all thankful to be alive, especially when that same tornado turned into the monster that killed about 30 people in Jarrell, Texas. Several of the dead included kids just getting home from school. The tornado was an F-5 by then, and the devastation there was complete. Even the concrete foundations of some homes there were sucked in. I'll never forget it.

I'm still fascinated with weather. I love a good thunderstorm, and snow turns me into a little kid. But I can definitely say that I also have a healthy respect for the weather. It can change your life in an instant.