Chapter 21: Tornado Pays a Visit

The sound of the tornado got louder and louder to the point that it was almost deafening. I had the three girls and Grace huddled around me tightly as we sat in a corner of my basement. Rain was pelting the basement window trying it's darnedest to get in. We could catch glimpses out the window of debris flying around my yard. I could tell that the girls were not the only ones scared. Several times, as something hit the house with a thud reverberating to the basement, I almost increased my laundry bill. During some of the lulls in the racket I could hear the fire sirens going off in town. After about 30 minutes of this 'hell on earth' the sounds died down and we could finally hear each other speak. "Well ladies," I said "I think we made it. Let's go up and see what the damage is."

We shakily climbed up the stairs and went outside. What we saw was enough to take your breath away. There was destruction and debris everywhere. My lawn was covered with various parts of assorted houses. There were two by fours, roofing shingles, plywood, glass and wires galore. There were destroyed houses as far as we could see both up and down our street. Amidst all this damage there were four houses virtually undamaged. My house, one on either side of mine and the new house across the street stood just like they had before the storm. I didn't even have a single broken window which is a minor miracle in itself.

I told Grace she better call Robert to let him know that she and Janet were ok. She tried her cell phone but was unable to get a signal. That was when she started to worry. Not knowing sometimes is worse than bad news. I had her come with me while I got a ladder out. We climbed up on the roof and still no signal. It was then that I remembered my portable radio I had clipped to my belt. I switched to one of the Texas City repeaters and called for any station in town. A ham I knew named Ed came back to me asking how I was. I told him we were ok but my neighbor could not get through to her husband at the refinery. He then told me that they had a lot of damage there but he would try to get through to him. I gave him the number and signed off telling him that I will monitor the frequency.

People all up and down the street started to emerge from the ruins of their houses. Many of them were dazed and some were even injured to various degrees. I took Grace back into my house and had Janet sit with her to try to calm her down. Grace was getting progressively more panicky and hyperventilating and nervously shaking. Kim and Tammy were both very calm and level headed so we decided we needed to start a plan of action. I had both girls go up and down the street passing the word for the uninjured people to try to help the ones with injuries down to my house.

We planned to set up an improvised triage area there. My next door neighbor was an RN who worked in the ER in Houston and her husband was a paramedic. They were both home so we recruited their help with the injured. Once Grace was calmed down enough I had her and Janet go from house to house to see if they could get some cots. They did pretty good and soon my living room resembled a hospital ward. We collected what blankets and medical supplies we could from the four houses. I fired up the radio in my car and contacted the Harris County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in Houston to give them a preliminary damage report and ask for some help. They told me that my subdivision was the hardest hit in the area. They also said that Texas City had some damage reports coming in.