It was 2007, I was in Alabama . Both of my boys and my granddaughter were with me at my house. My Mother and I lived very close to each other. When a tornado was coming, if we had time we would go to my aunt's house. She had a basement , we didn't.
The storm started in the middle of the night. We heard the sirens going off, but it was the rain , thunder and lightning that actually woke me. I got everybody awake, we had no time to get to my aunt's she was 12 miles away. My granddaughter wasn't even 2 years old, I also had an Akita. I told everyone we were going to my Mother's , she was alone with her 2 ankle biters .
Since her house was built differently than mine, it was actually safer. There was a long hallway we could get into, with no windows. I had the baby wrapped up in a blanket, I was carrying her. All the electric went off , so we couldn't see barely anything.
When I walked down my front porch steps, I stepped off into about 3 feet of water. Everything was flooded , my house sat down farther than my mother's. Her's was on a hill . The rain was literally coming down in sheets, the wind was blowing so hard it was hard to remain on your feet . I was still in 3 ft. of water with my granddaughter in my arms . My youngest son followed me down the stairs , then his girlfriend . The baby could hardly breath , the wind blew the blanket off of her. She was being pelted in the face by rain and wind. Her dad took her , he made it to my mother's house first. I went back trying to get the dog out, she wouldn't come . Akita's are big dogs. I couldn't pick her up . My oldest son said he wasn't coming with us . I kept begging him to come, no use. I left and made it to my mom's. The first thing my youngest son asked was , where is the dog? I told him she wouldn't come and I couldn't carry her. He already knew his brother wasn't coming. He promptly went back out in the storm , The only light was from the lightning striking , it was hitting the ground across the street . My youngest son knew he couldn't make his brother leave. My oldest was about 6ft.3. maybe 240 pounds of muscle. If he said no, that was it .
At this point the trees were bent almost in half . He was going back for the dog .
Before I could stop her , his girlfriend went after him. She was from Pennsylvania , she had no idea what a tornado could do. My mom and I had the baby. We were trying to calm her down , and get her wet clothes off. The noise from the storm was so loud we had to yell at each other to be heard. Maybe 5 minutes later my youngest son walked in the door carrying the dog , Then his girlfriend came in.
The worst part of the storm lasted about 15 minutes, but it seemed like a much longer time. It continued to rain for awhile after the wind and lightning passed . All of this happened between 2 and 3 in the morning . Everyone was alright , It didn't take too long for the electric to come back on.
The girl scared me so bad going back out into the storm, I took her on a little tour the next day. The tornado didn't touch down at our houses , about 2 miles down the road it did. I wanted to scare the hell out of her, to show her what, but by the grace of God could have happened to us.
When she saw the destruction it caused , houses looked like they exploded, trees ripped from the ground, cars and trucks mangled and flipped over , tree trunks that looked like they were in a pencil sharpener. Let's not forget the flooding. She wanted to go back up north. The storm was on the weather channel, her parents were calling , telling her to come home. And so she did , a month later she talked my youngest son into quitting his job to go back home.
I don't blame them . I always say I don't hate , that's not quit true. I HATE TORNADOS. May God be with you