It has been a little over a month since an EF 4 tornado hit
our town, but it still seems a little surreal when we look back on that day in
April. The kids at the school where I
work were all excited because that Thursday was our open house. My son could not wait to show me everything
he had been working on this school year.
We took two cars that afternoon because I was planning on taking our
daughter to her tumbling class after the school open house. We had heard on the weather that there might
be some strong thunderstorms heading our way, but when you live in the mid-west
you are pretty used to thunderstorms in the spring, in fact I used to look
forward to those rainy spring evenings.
Everything was going fine when we arrived at the school, with the
exception of some light rain starting...but we had umbrellas so everything was
fine. Shortly after walking into our
son's classrooms we were notified that there was a tornado warning and we all
had to head into the hallways until the warning had passed. We had the option to leave if we wanted to,
so we figured since there was only a few minutes left on the warning, and the
storm system looked like it was not headed in our direction, we decided to head
home. The kids were worried about the
dogs so we thought we would ease their minds and just leave. As we were leaving another storm system
popped up, this one however was heading for us.
Our house is a few miles outside of town, but not in a subdivision. As we approached the 4 way stop which is a
little less than a mile from our house it started to hail, my husband who was
in the car ahead of me, pulled over and started pointing at the cornfield to
our left. There it was, a long narrow funnel cloud coming our way. This was the first, and hopefully the last,
funnel cloud I have ever seen.
The kids
started screaming as I drove as fast as I could and pulled into our
driveway. I hurried the kids into the
basement and wrestled the dogs down. My
husband stayed outside and watched which way the funnel was heading. As I settled the kids into the basement, the
power started to flicker and my daughter was panicking. She ran to get something from upstairs and
let one of the dogs out of the basement.
I rounded up my kid and wrestled the dog downstairs again and quickly
ran to check on my husband. The tornado
had grown in size and was now what they call a wedge tornado....this thing
looked like pure destruction. My husband
said that it was not heading straight for us, but it was heading for a
subdivision (there are actually a few in that direction) which was on the other
side of a cornfield behind our house. It
was heading directly for my parents house.
I had called my dad a few minutes prior just to make sure they were
aware of what was going on since out in the country we don't hear the tornado
sirens, but now I was franticly calling him again. He answered and told me that it sounded like
a freight train was heading for them.
They were in the basement taking cover.
As my husband and I watched from our back yard, this gigantic storm
plowed through the subdivisions directly behind us. We could see the destruction it was leaving
in its path, and several homes that were once standing were no longer
there....homes of people we knew, families that had kids that went to the
school I worked at. It was like a
horrible dream...we didn't really know what to do. The tornado, we later found out was half a
mile wide and left a path of destruction of fifty miles. As soon as it was away from our area, we
jumped in the car to see what had happened.
I called my parents and they said that it literally went around their
house, but many of the homes around them were gone. As we tried to get to them down one road, we
were told that there were trees down and we could not get through. We went around in another direction and
although we could not get to my parents subdivision, we did pull into one where
several people we knew were living. All
the homes were gone....just piles of rubble lay were homes used to stand. Thank God that most of those families were
not home, many of them were at the school for our open house....all those kids
and parents were safely huddled in our downstairs area and bathrooms at the
school. In the subdivision, the people
who were home started coming out and helping others.
Home owners were pulling in to find their
whole lives were completely gone. My
husband got to work helping one of his friends try to salvage whatever they
could find....in the dark and rain....I had the kids in the car and my husband
asked if I could run home for some garbage bags, rain boots and a
flashlight. I was not sure if the road
would be blocked off so I was hesitant to leave him there. I decided it was work a shot and headed
out. I needed to run to town and get gas
too so as I was pulling out of the subdivision I asked the police officer if I
would be allowed back in, he said yes so I headed home. At the house I quickly grabbed what I needed
and headed to town for gas. Since were a
few miles from town this took a little while, and when I got back the police
had blocked off all entrances to the destruction zone and I could not get back
in. All three access roads were
completely blocked. I tried to call my
husband to let him know that I could not get back to him, but his phone had
died. I called my dad, who was inside
the destruction zone but not in the same area as my husband, and he told me
that there were too many trees down and he could not get to him either. Well, I had no choice but to head back to our
house and wait. Worst case scenario, he
could walk across the cornfield to get back home. My phone was ringing and texting off the
hook, friend and family from around the country had already heard about what
had happened in our little town. I found
out that the town of Fairdale, not too far from us was completely wiped out,
also that a restaurant a few miles from us had 12 people trapped in their
basement when the building was destroyed.
I finally got a call from my dad that my husband had somehow made it to
his house and he was considering taking a bike back home...but by some miracle
one of our friends found a road which went all the way around the nearby
conservation club that was not blocked off and was able to bring my husband
home. My parents got lucky, other than a
few branches through their roof, a couple of uprooted trees and a damaged AC
unit, their house was standing. Many of
their neighbors were not so lucky. For
days after, our community came together like never before....thousands of
volunteers from all over, flooded in to help in any way they could. Every news station around was stationed less
than a mile from our house. Red Cross
provided food and supplies and everyone young and old rolled up their sleeves
to clean up the mess. The only thing I
could think of was just how lucky we all were that no one lost their life that
day.
Someone was looking out for us and
our community...and how crazy that all those people were at the school that day
and out of the storms path. Over the
next week or so, peoples belonging were being found as far as as 70 miles
away. Facebook was buzzing with pictures
of photographs and other personal items being shared until their owners were
found. It was something that I will
never forget, and hopefully never have to experience again.
Now, a little over a month later, homes are being rebuilt and
lives are being put back together. I
feel as though our community has grown in strength and somewhat bonded over
this horrible tragedy. Though many
people lost so much that day, it really shows that there is some good that
comes from all bad situations.
To see more images or videos just Google Rochelle or Fairdale tornado 4/9/15 #RochelleTornado #Tornado #HubStrong
