Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Tornados, Way Too Close!!!

Hi all! Just wanted to share what happen yesterday where I live. By the way, we haven't moved yet but will this coming weekend. We had actually been working on our new property from this last Saturday until yesterday morning, when my son and I came back here...Forney, Texas...to continue to pack up the house. What we thought was a normal day, was not to be. By the way, we are fine and our home was not hit. 

All morning the skies were gray and cloudy...rainy and maybe stormy looking but no wind, no rain, no thunder. All over the Dallas and Fort Worth area, they were getting hit left and right with horrible storms and tornadoes. I didn't know! I just happened to be watching the national news and they showed a LIVE video of a tornado in Dallas. What??? I turned to a local channel and sure enough there were these huge storm cells all over DFW. I called my husband because he was in the path. I called my parents-in-law because they were in the path. I called my mom because she was in the path. Then my friend called me to make sure we were fine. I told her that nothing was happening here. Then my dad and step mom called from Arkansas to make sure we knew what was going on. While I was on the phone with them, Forney flashed across the news and they were saying to take cover NOW that there was a tornado on the ground. I had already put blankets on the hallway floor and a mattress to pull over us just in case because my hubby told me to earlier. So son and I ran to the hallway and ball ourselves up, pulled the mattress down over us, and started praying. I prayed...then he prayed....all while listening to the news that was still blasting in the background....he prayed again! The news had a storm chaser on the phone following the tornado. The electricity kept going off and on, so we knew something was happening. The crazy thing was that there was still no rain or anything going on outside.....that I could hear. It missed us and hit downtown Forney which is about a mile north of us. But it didn't hit too hard there. Then it went about  5 or 6 miles north to the neighborhood in the pictures below.

The storm chaser said there was a second tornado down. Then just like that, he said it was leaving Forney. He stopped to help people. It went through a neighborhood and hit an elementary school with children, teachers, and parents there. No one there was injured but it look the roof off and flipped cars over. That same tornado went on to Rockwall, Royce City, and Greenville, doing major damage. From what I understand, there were no fatalities but some injuries. God is great! This could have been so much worse.

Here are some pictures that I took today while driving by the neighborhood that was hit directly. I could only get pictures there because police wouldn't allow anyone that didn't live in the neighborhood in. This only represents a small portion of the damage that I saw while coming up on the area. It was just horrible! And unbelievable! 










This house, below, was completely flattened except that one small corner. On the other side of that wall is a bathtub. This is where a grandmother, her 19 month old grandchild, and two other children she was watching took cover....the ONLY place in the house that was left untouched. She said that the tornado was pulling her 19 month old grand child away from her and she held onto him. The baby only had injuries when it was all said and done. God put his hands over them and protected them! God is Great!!!!

Below are my pictures that I took but here is a link with her story:
http://www.wfaa.com/news/Grandmother-recalls-saving-child-from-tornado-146076975.html