And The Thunder Rolls...

We have grateful hearts this morning... as the crazy tornado that brought havoc on so many parts of Arkansas left us unscathed. Trav was at a birthday party for a friend, when the sirens rang out, the lights flickered, and I grabbed three kids out of bed and into the only window free part of our house. Luckily, it passed right by us - literally.


Unfortunately, however, as it blew by us, it landed less than two miles from us and put a big hole in my sister's roof. After hearing what sounded like a freight train coming through her neighborhood and hiding in the bathtub, my sister had a knock on her door from the neighbors telling her that the whole front part of her roof was gone.


So Trav, who was back home to check on us by now, armed himself with a tarp and headed out to scale her roof and "stabilze" the situation. After two hours, several tarps, and two very helpful neighbors later, the roof was patched for the night. The insurance people are supposed to be out today to put a temporary fix on it for her.


Amanda's electricity is out, of course, and probably will be for at least a day or two, as is that entire area off of Mississippi. So I drove over there this morning to retrieve the food from her refrigerator to take to mine. Here are some pictures I managed to snap around the neighborhood.


This house is practically right across the street from Amanda's.



And this one is less than a block away.

In the almost eight years we've lived in this house, we always hear the tornado sirens go off every Wednesday at noon when they test them (at least I guess that's what they're doing). They are very close to our house and while they're loud, of course, I never realized how alarming that sound could be until last night when for the first time I heard them go off when it wasn't noon on a Wednesday. It's so unbelievable how a tornado whips through and can level one house, leaving the one next to it with no damage at all.

Amanda was especially grateful for Travis last night, who apparently was the crew supervisor of the newly formed construction team made up of Amanda's very kind neighbors. He scaled her roof in the pouring rain, dragging tarps and wood from the ground that had fallen, and all while wielding a nail gun. He also then managed to made it to work on time this morning too after voluntarily sleeping on the couch because two little girls were too afraid to sleep in their own beds. Bless him! Hopefully any customers shopping for cars will go easy on him today!