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.