Worst Storm The South Has Ever Seen

     Wednesday morning I woke up to my mom leaving to go to an appointment.  I looked out the windows and noticed it was storming horribly.  My mom left for her appointment and I got up to get my morning started.  I was walking through the living room when the power went out.  I didn't think anything about it and went on with my day.  About 30 minutes later my Dad told us that my mom was trapped in a stairwell at her doctor's office building.  She had been blown across the parking lot and had a terrible time getting into the building.  When she finally got inside she was about to step onto the elevator when the power went off.  A hospital administrator told mom to get into the stairwell because there was a code ''black''.  My mom was crammed in the stairwell with tons of other people for about 20 minutes and then finally they told her it was safe to come out.  One of the first tornadoes of the day had touched down about 9:30 a.m.  When she finally got up to the doctor's office the power was out and she was sent to the hospital to have some tests done.

     When my dad told us about my mom being trapped I got my little pocket radio and started finding out information about the storm.   I heard reports saying most of the stop lights were down and that power lines were down also.  I also heard that there were still many more tornadoes to come.

     After my mom's test at the hospital we went to get some lunch because we didn't have any power.  While we were out, the sky turned pitch black and it started to rain harder.  When we got home it started to thunder really loudly.  It rained on and off the entire afternoon.  Around 5 o'clock p.m. I turned my radio on and it said if you have a safe place go to it now.  Dad was texting us from work telling us to get in our safe place and stay in it.  I told my mom and we all went into the laundry room.  While we were in there, we prayed, listened to the radio, and read the bible.  While we were praying at one point the ground shook really hard.  It was loud and scary. 

     After about 20 minutes in the laundry room we came out and sat in the living room and read with what ever light we could find.  The rest of the night we could hear terrible storms.  I thought the power would cut back on in the middle of the night.  I was wrong.

     I had no idea what all had happened that day.  I didn't know that dozens of tornadoes had ripped through Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama killing hundreds of people.  I didn't know that we would be without power for more than 3 days. 

     The rest of the week was very strange.  We didn't get our power back until Saturday.  Many others in our area are still without power even today.  There were 119,000 reported power outages.  We had a hard time finding ice for our coolers.  My parents went out for hours one day driving around trying to buy ice.  Trees were down everywhere and stoplights weren't working.  Some stores were closed and the ones that were open were sold out of ice.  We had to do everything in the dark;  eat, read, use the bathroom.  Even in the daytime it was very dark in our house.  We used candles and flashlights.  We went to the store a bunch of times to buy food because we were storing our food in our cooler.  Everything in our 2 refrigerators and freezers had to be thrown out.   I still didn't know how bad the storm had been because we didn't have TV to watch the news.  It wasn't until yesterday at church where I heard all kinds of stories that I realized how bad it had been.

     There are still hundreds of people without power.  There are hundreds of people dead.  There are hundreds of people injured.  There are buildings that are completely smashed to the ground.  There are buildings with trees in them.  The storm damage is unbelievable. People have lost their homes and worse yet, many have lost family members.  I've never ever seen this kind of destruction.  I am so thankful that our family is okay.  I've heard of so many families that have lost their moms or dads, sisters or brothers.  Just on our street there are homes with trees smashed onto the roofs and trees down in the yards.  Our home was safe.  (The one we are renting and the one we are buying!)  My dad was working in the tower Wednesday night and he was instructed to be the one to go down with the ship.  He was to be the last one to go to safety.  We prayed hard for him that night.  God protected him and us during the storm.  I am so thankful.

     I have never lived in a place with storms as bad as these.  I have never lived in an area that has had tornadoes as bad as these.  When it rains here it really storms.  The thunder is really loud. 

     Here are some facts about the tornadoes:   In Hamilton County, where we live, there were 7 tornadoes.  In Chattanooga alone there are 9 people dead, 300 injured, and 474 houses damaged.  The worst of the tornadoes was one that traveled through 3 counties.  It was an EF4.  The average speed of the winds were 90 miles per hour.  A single EF4 tornado with winds of 175 mph tracked into Tennessee from Catoosa County and traveled 35 miles through Hamilton, Bradley and Polk Counties.  The April 26-28 tornado outbreak included 288 tornadoes from 8 a.m. April 26 to 8 a.m. April 28.  There are at least 344 deaths. 

I am so thankful to God for his protection over our family during this storm.  A power outage is inconvenient but it is NOTHING compared to the loss of life and property that many people are experiencing.  The sadness in our area is heavy on many, many people.  I hope a lot of people will come to know God through this horrible disaster.  My brothers and I are hoping to be able to help with clean up.  We are looking into ways we can do that.  If you would like to help you can make online donations at www.timesfreepress.com/neediestcasesstorm

Donations will be channeled to the local chapter of the American Red Cross and will be used to aid local storm victims.