The Storm

The other day it was a hot 104 degree afternoon with some clouds. I could see some dark clouds from my 3rd floor window. It was time for me to get off work so I logged out and headed home. My phone sent me an alert to let me know there were possible thunderstorms in my area. Thats a normal broadcast this time of year so I just looked a the sky and shrugged my shoulders. “It might rain later” I said to myself. 

On the way home, my husband ended up behind me as he got off work at the same time. Though he came from another direction, the time distance to our work is the same. 

We were only about a mile from the house when all of a sudden a heavy rain started pouring. It was hard to see. Then the wind got up strong and the rain began to swirl. Once we were in the neighbor hood, The wind and rain was so hard I could not see in front of me. Then the hail came down. We were almost home, we were only 4 houses away from ours. I could not see anything at this point. It was just white. I could hear leaves and limbs slapping my car as I just held the steering wheel tight and winged it to the house not knowing what was in front of me. We both pulled into the car port safely and just looked at each other. “Where did that come from?” I was thinking we needed to take cover but it seem to be dying down a little. The hail was only pea size but it looked like we had snow. 

As soon as we walked into the house at 5:30, the power cut off, the wind and rain stopped and the world was still. We walked outside to see if we could see anything. Our street was covered in leaves in limbs like a blanket. The other neighbors started coming outside and we all gathered in the street to talk about what just happened. It was a twister that came through. 

Neighbors from the street over came walking down to let us know there were several trees down on that side and they saw the twister come down the road from their window. It was crazy. Me and Nick knew then that we were actually driving through a tornado. We were lucky to have no damage.

The main road up from our house was blocked off as well as other streets. Trees were toppled and power lines were down. We were without power for 10 hours. It finally came on early that next morning. Our food in the fridge was still cold and nothing seemed ruined. People were panicking because of the power being out. I found it to be quit nice. I enjoyed the conversations with neighbors and sitting outside until late. I loved the candlelight dinner and shower, No TV and open windows. We left the windows open and went to bed. It was very dark and we could hear the frogs and cricket chirping. I loved the feeling of being in the wilderness. With the roads blocked off we did not hear the usual sound of cars rushing by. It was nice. 

Below are just a few pictures I took. I wanted to save my camera battery at the time. 

I believe God allows the big storms to come sometimes to clean up nature and to give people time to stop and be still. He is with us in the storm as well as in the light of day.