This is "Home Sweet Home" after the tornado.
Well, I guess by now you have figured out that our home has been hit by the tornado today. Out of all that we have been put through today, we have been overwhelmed with all types of emotions. We can replace the material things, but we almost lost our son John Ryan today.
We were standing on what use to be our front porch when we saw the funnel cloud rotating and the tornado was spotted. You have always heard what people say about the sounds that come before or the lack of sound just before one hits...well.....from first hand experience, you could have heard a pin drop just seconds before we heard the sounds, and it is a different sound than a train, it was a really unusual wooshhhhh wooshhhhh sound and saw the actual tornado funnel cloud.
The tornado is in the right hand corner. I got this picture just as it was hitting the people who live behind us. The trees are being destroyed that separate our land. This is what is left of our barn. Our son John Ryan was in the barn trying to park his truck in it so it wouldn't get damaged. He didn't get out before it hit the barn. By God's saving grace, he was able to hold on to a pole that is a support for the building and he survived. Of course, he's got a couple of bumps and bruises but he is
ok. Thank You Jesus and God!
This is the side view of the barn. You can still see Dillon's 3 wheeler untouched.
No matter what emotions we ran through today, we
have been certainly been touched by the phone calls, the people who came to our rescue with tarps, the ones who climbed up on our house to nail tarps and metal pieces down so it wouldn't ruin the inside anymore than it is, to the many, many people who came to our home and helped us get our emotions back together, to the food that was brought to us. But most of all...the prayers that were said for us tonight. Dillon and Katie were at school and all I could think about was getting my children home. Just as soon as it left, I jumped in my
Maxima and headed to
Centertown because I couldn't get anyone on the phone. There was
debris on our road, electrical lines and pole snapped into and tons of wood everyone. I just moved what I could to get around and got to my babies at
Centertown. They were safe and very emotional. Thank you faculty and staff at
Centertown for everything you did to keep our children safe!
We would like to also thank
Caney Fork Electric for getting the pole back up and the house with electricity as quickly as they did, also we would like to thank
MTNG for coming out immediately to get the gas cut off and to make sure there wasn't a leak, and for Andy and Aubrey @ Ben
Lomand Rural Telephone Coop. for coming our after having losses at their properties and getting us temporary telephone, television, and
internet. The American Red Cross has been out here bringing water and food for us through the weekend. On Sunday night, Gary and Randy England brought our entire family a hot meal from Kentucky Fried Chicken. They also wanted to know if we needed somehwere to stay, they would put us up somewhere if we couldn't stay at home. THANK YOU IS JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH!
But most of all, is that were so overwhelmed with our family and friends who have called or just showed up at our home this afternoon and evening. We have the most wonderful Christian congregation we are members at and how they came to our rescue. Our drive way was full of our Christian family at Westwood showing us their love and care. Please pray for our family and for all of the other families who have been touched by this horrible storm. God spared my family of serious injury and that is the most important thing to us. Material things are just material things and my family means more to me than anything, just under God and Jesus. I need all of my friends to get down on bended knee and say a prayer for everyone touched today. What was also so touching was when Dot Dunn called me and said how worried Andy was about his "Ms. Joy". Blessed are little children! He said that he needed his mommie to take him to Ms. Joy's house so he could see her and make sure I was ok. I love you Andy too!
New Central Unit. Jimmy Priestly and his crew are the berries. They have it completed!
Jack and Diane Odom are former employers of mine and are some of mine and John's dearest friends! We go waaaaaay back! We love them! Got these huge trees to replace the ones that were damaged. Had to get a back hole to dig the holes. They are Bur Oaks and a Weeping Cherry.
Me and my Mother (who is 85) got the landscaping all trimmed back and cleaned up. When the roofers/vinyl guys get done, we're going to strip all of the pine needles and timbers up and replace all of that.
My husband, my father-in-law Wayne, John Ryan and I worked like dogs and then here shows up Mike Grissom with a track hoe and a back hoe. John played around and got the barn almost completely down yesterday and Mike came in and had sparks flying when he tore down the rest of the barn. (he did not know that the electricity was still hooked up to the barn) ha, ha It was like the 4th of July for a minute or two! Ok, now that the barn is leveled and a hole dug to China and everything in it and burning (by the way we do have burn permits) we can say it looks much, much, much better around here. Oh, by the way...I actually got the yard mowed yesterday as well. Oh...I forgot...the clothes line is in full functioning working order! Done been wearing it out! Only a few of us southern women still use them, winter and summer!
