toto???

In my previous post today I mentioned that we were to have extreme thunderstorms with the possibility of tornado and boy did we ever! Me and the boys got home just in time before the "crud" really hit the fan. It was before 5:00 CST and the weather was intensifying. According to the radar, the storm was heading in a northeast direction ~ we were right in the path. Unfortunately, the majority of homes in Middle Tennessee (and maybe other regions) don't have basements. Middle TN sits on rock so if you want to dig you have to blast your way through using dynamite. Anyway, lightening was intense, the rain was pounding, the thunder crashing and every 5 minutes seemed to get worse.

Cameron and Jose were standing at the front door and I at the dining table. It was pretty loud and all of a sudden it got extremely quiet ~ a very strange kind of calm came over the house. I yelled for both the boys to be quiet so I could hear something, anything, but I didn't. From where I was sitting I could see the TV and out the front of the house. The tornado sirens began to scream and scream loud - even Cameron stopped to observe the noise. The weather lady, Lisa Patton, demanded with urgency for people in our area to "take cover." I immediately went to the front door where the boys were and all of a sudden a white wall of water and wind dropped from the sky and was racing to our left. Jose and I shouted, "OMG!!! CLOSE THE DOOR!!!" There was a loud howling noise and tremendous lightening. We couldn't even see out of our house - nothing but a white sheet. We went into the interior of our house, which is merely a hall and just kind of stood there.

Within one minute things settled down. It wasn't until about 20 minutes later did we watch on the news that a tornado had touched down on the street behind our house which is Murfreesboro Pike. It tore up the McDonald's, Advanced Auto Parts and other various structures. The storm tore down light poles and knocked out all the power to this area behind us. Big trees were down, but not on our stretch of road. The UPS guy shows up at our house to deliver a package (those guys are amazing!) and rushes to the house and I meet him on the covered porch. He asked if we were okay and if we still had power. Yes! Yes! He just came from the street behind us and adjacent to us and said 'no power up there, really large trees are down and the main road (Murfreesboro Pike), well, there is something really wrong up there.' He left.

We focused on the TV again and already the news crews were out on M'boro Pike and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Not total devastation, but enough to make the weather people say that a tornado touched down on Murfreesboro Pike. O--M--G!!!! Tell me she didn't just say that a tornado touched down behind my house??? Tell me this isn't so??? Sure enough! Me and my boys had just witnessed the outer bands of a tornado impeding towards the ground. It basically surfaced in our front yard. One second nothing was there and the next this white racing wall of white began hitting our front door. This same storm hit a town a little further south of Nashville called Franklin (Historic Battle of Franklin during the Civil War) and touched down. It also started a fire at a nursing home. Then it came our way and touched down. Then proceeded on its original path and touched down in a town a little further northeast from us called Donelson near the Nashville International Airport.

We are expected to get more thunderstorms either tonight or in the morning I think. I'll be watching the news at 10:00 tonight - you can count on that! I'm glad we're safe and sound. I've never seen anything like this and even though I'm not completely comfortable saying "it was a tornado," that is what it was and I don't want to see that again. Whether it was the outer bands, the eye of the storm, the squall line or the tail, a tornado is a tornado...and my husband better be home next time this happens (praying to God it doesn't).

Thanks for listening!