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Friday, April 4, 2008

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!

3 comments:

Tracy said...

So thankful you and your family are okay minus a few roof issues. I've been on the phone most of the day checking on family/friends. Little Rock has been all over the news here in Dallas. All this makes you want to hug your babies a little tighter, doesn't it? :)

Little Oak Table said...

i prayed for ya'll during all that. i knew you were really close. it was such an eerie night. we did not know the bad weather was near us. then the sirens rang, we turned on the tv and they said if you live near toad suck take cover now. we were like, uh, that's us. so we had to get in the tub. an awful feeling! glad noone was hurt!

The Booys said...

wow, we didn't realize all that had happened until another friend of ours sent some pics of that area! I had no idea Amanda's house got hammered like it did! That is scary! So, glad everyone is okay. That hits really close to home! Crazy Arkansas weather!