Tuesday, April 26

Spent the morning getting ready to go to a town about two hours away to visit with Son and Daughter-in-Law, who suffered through Monday night's tornado. Mother and I baked a bunch of potatoes, wrapped in foil, that we kept warm in a hot/cold chest, and gathered lunch items and other things, while Hubbie went to pick up several sacks of ice and fill the van with gas. The ice was for a large chest, to be used to store food from Son's refrigerator, since the power is out in the stricken area.

Around noon, we were ready to head out. On the way out of town, we stopped at a fast food place to pick up a large bucket of chicken. We kept this hot in a hot/cold bag.

We checked with family to plan the best route to Son's house, since there were road blocks in a number of places, preventing curiosity seekers from getting in the way of officials working at the storm-torn site.

We had no problems traveling, until we arrived at a small community a few miles from the highway intersection. A power pole lay across the road, with power company workers trying to remove it. So we had to back up and detour around the site.

Daughter-in-Law had alerted us earlier that we needed to call when we arrived at this point, so they could meet us at the gate to their residential area, because personnel was stopping people from coming who were not guests of the residents. So I tried a couple of times to call...no answer.

At the highway intersection, we had to wait for a while, as state police directed traffic, but we were not stopped from proceeding on the road that leads to the residential area where Son lives.

As expected, at the gate to the residential area, fire department personnel stopped us, saying that Son would need to come to the gate to vouch for us. I explained that we were the parents and grandparents to Son, but the guy was adamant. He was maybe worried that three senior citizens might loot the place? I was a bit aggravated by his officious attitude. I wondered what we would do if we'd come all that distance and couldn't get past the gate guard.

But Hubbie backed the van up and out of the way of other traffic, while I tried again to call first Daughter-in-Law, who didn't answer her cell phone even after I'd tried three times, and then Son, who did answer after a couple of tries. I would have called Son to begin with, but thought I heard him say last night that he'd misplaced his phone. Later, I learned that the battery on Daughter-in-Law's cell phone had run down, which is why she hadn't answered.

While I was doing this, Nephew and a young man drove up in a truck, and Niece and her grandmother came in a van. We all had to find places along the roadside to wait until Son arrived.

Son arrived presently, and we all proceeded to his house, where Nephew and the young man he'd brought along used a chain saw to start cutting up the many trees lost in the tornado. Daughter-in-Law estimated that they lost about 20 trees, which was disheartening, but at least their home is standing, which is more than is so for much of the neighborhood completely destroyed in the storm.

Nephew and Niece brought along two of their younger children and another child, who played among on the trunks of the fallen trees, as well as in the mud holes created when the trees were knocked over, roots and all. It's always amazing how children can find fun even in the worst of circumstances.

Son and Daughter-in Law and I cried and clung to each other upon our arrival. They, including Grandson, had been terrified as they crouched in a closet during the storm that violently shook their house and toppled the trees into the yard and onto the top of a truck. Their camper was flung against a tree, and the trampoline was disassembled, leaving only the legs arranged in a pattern on the ground.

It was strange how the trees were toppled in what looked to me like a perfect circle around the house. I laid awake in bed later contemplating this, and decided that maybe Son's home was at the outer edge of the tornado, and that the trees were caught in the swirling motion of winds on the outside edge of the storm, while the central funnel tore neighboring homes to bits.

We stayed at Son's home about two hours, until Niece alerted us that more storms were moving in, with the threat of tornadoes about an hour away. So we all packed up and left. Nephew and Niece went to their home, while Son, Daughter-in Law, and Grandson opted to stay in a motel for the night.

Hubbie, Mother, and I kept ahead of the storms on our way home, and arrived safe and sound. Mother went to her house for a little while, but returned to our house before long. In the meantime, I put leftovers from Sunday in the oven for Hubbie's and my supper.

After supper, we sat down to watch weather reports on TV, but before long, the power went out, and we resorted to candles and flashlights, and listening to weather reports on the radio. Around 8 p.m., there was a report of threatening weather to just to the east of us.

Mother hung around until it appeared the storms had passed, about 11 p.m., and then Hubbie accompanied her to her house. We hit the sack shortly afterward, where I lay awake, the events of the day swirling around in my head, until about 2 a.m.