Tornado

“Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.” 1 Kings 19:11-12 The Lord was in the gentle whisper.

I still cannot believe that I am sitting here, and writing to you after surviving an F5 or F6 tornado. For those who don’t know, on Monday May 3, 1999 at about 7:15 pm an F5 tornado tore through some of the suburbs of Oklahoma City. Our house is one of those 8,330 that were damaged or destroyed. Unfortunately, our house was destroyed. Let me tell you what happened that day.

At about 4:30 pm I called John to let him know that there were severe thunderstorm and tornado watches out for our area. The conditions were ripe for those weather patterns to occur. I could tell something was up when I walked Jay home from school. The air was very heavy and the clouds seemed to be an odd color of green or yellow. John told me that there was nothing on the radar at that time. By 5:00 pm three different cells had popped up and were strengthening. The cell that produced the F5 tornado started to develop south of us in Lawton, OK. Lawton is about an hour and a half away. We watched the TV in hopes the tornado would turn or just fizzle out. This did not happen.

We decided to put the dog and cat into their crates and told the kids to get into our safe place which was in the hallway just outside their rooms. We gathered blankets, pillows, cushions and Jay’s mattress to cover ourselves. When the tornado was about 15 minutes away in Newcastle we decided to take cover.

The TV meteorologists who covered the storm from start to finish were urging people to take cover under ground or to get out of their homes. We were always told not to try and out-run a tornado. However, many people did, just five minutes before the storm hit. Many said they saw the monster in their rearview mirrors as they sped away.

John, Jay, Hanna, Sherman (our dog), Vanessa (our cat) and I huddled down in the hallway. From what we could see from the extra bedroom window rain and golfball size hail pelted the house. All of a sudden it became quiet. We were hoping it would pass. In other instances it would get quiet, and the storm would just pass over or turn another direction. The TV storm chasers were just as confused as we were trying to figure out which direction the tornado would go. I got angry and was going to change the channel on the TV. As I got up the lights went out. It was pitch black in the house, and I sat straight down. We prayed as a family and then it began. Things began to hit the house. We thought it was hail and then we knew it was probably debris. The tornado was going to hit our house. We heard sounds of wood and glass breaking. Hanna and I began to scream while John tried to keep us calm. (It does sound like a freight train or low flying airplane, but that’s another story.)

The force of the tornado took our roof, the attic and pieces of the ceiling with it. Most of our outdoor furniture and toys were gone. We found a few clothing items and pieces of wood from the attic. The path of the storm went through our neighbor’s house to the west and crossed the street to the northeast. Most of people who left their houses were safe but the tornado destroyed the whole house. We still had a few walls standing. The people who were still in the neighborhood told me that the only part of their house that was still standing was where they were hiding at the time of the storm.

The master bedroom, bath, closet, living room, dining room and kitchen were turned to rubble or blown clear away. I looked up after the tornado passed and it was now light in our house. We climbed out of the house. John had put shoes on and grabbed his wallet, but my purse and shoes were no where to be found. Jay and Hanna were in stocking feet too. I guess we still thought the storm would just pass and not affect us or our home. John took us to a neighbor’s house and told us to stay there while he went back to search for and help other neighbors possibly trapped in their homes.

A group of guys dug out a couple of people before the rescue personnel arrived and told us to evacuate. The sky was getting dark and you could hear the rumble of another storm in the distance. John went back to get shoes, diapers and blankets for the kids.

We were okay and so were Sherman and Vanessa. Not a scratch! We finally made it to Oakcrest Church of Christ (I thought it was Baptist) by 1:00 in the morning. We took the long way to get there via police car (another long story), but we made it. I was able to contact my mom and our pastor through a ham radio operator. He called someone and they called someone, and mom was reached by someone else.

We slept very little that night. Jay thought we would starve but by the time we arrived at the church they had so much food, clothing, and other stuff we were in awe.

Friends helping us clean up

On Tuesday afternoon John’s boss and another co-worker/church friend picked us up. They took a collection and gave us an envelope of money and the church gave us money too. Our church secretary had a friend who gave up his apartment for us. On Wednesday we received clothes and food from co-workers and church people. We also started to sift through the rubble and found a few things. On Thursday we and about 15 others from John’s office went through the whole house. The kids’ rooms were wet but okay and the extra bedroom furniture was damaged but repairable. This was good. It is old beautiful furniture from John’s Grandma Bush. We found my purse and things you would never believed would have made it. Our bed was mangled and we never did find the mattress.

At this time we are in the apartment and have found a rental house to move into next week. We have no idea what the future holds. We want to rebuild but do not know how long it will take. Our Escort Station Wagon was totaled but the van is okay with about $3800 in damage.

I think I’ll stop here. Some things are still fuzzy. I believe Jay said it all the other day, “I thought I was going to die, but God’s arms were wrapped around us.”

John and I never thought we would go through a situation like this one. But we have gotten stronger not weaker. We both agreed that we knew we would not die. We had a sense of peace throughout the storm even though we screamed and yelled out to God.

Please send us E-mails. (Millhouse@mac.com)

We love you all. God bless. Thank you! (Matthew 7:25)

Love,
John, Audra, Jay, Hanna, Sherman and Vanessa

P.S. The salt water tank and Jay’s crab did not make it.

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More links…
More Pictures
Damage Panorama
Rebuilding movie
3 May 1999 Oklahoma Tornado Outbreak Data Repository
DetNow presents: The Century Project
NOAA Report
Composition and Structure of the Atmoshere