Boys, I've a feeling we're not in Utah anymore....

How in the heck does a girl, who grew up in Tornado Alley, never see a tornado in her life until she lives in UTAH?

I remember very well seeing the many aftereffects of tornados back home and even seeing a wall cloud once but never an actual formed tornado.

To be correct, I saw 2 funnel clouds yesterday and a tornado.  Let me tell you me tale of woe....

Ok, so it's not that bad but hey, if I can use a quote from the Lego Movie then I'm gonna!

So the older boys had been out of school for a little bit and were playing on their electronic devices.  The weather outside was starting to look awesome...

...ok, I'll stop.

But seriously, the weather outside looked so inviting.  And by inviting, I mean it looked like a storm was in the future... but that is exactly what I call inviting.  I LOVE STORMS!!!! So I had the boys go outside with me.  They immediately decided to go to Victory Park.  By the time that I had caught up with them at the park, it was sprinkling.  So we decided to start walking back.  By the time we got back it was raining.  The boys went inside and I stayed out on the porch.  

Everything just happened so quickly.

I look up in the sky and see this funnel cloud forming in the distance.  I yelled at the boys to come and see it.  They were amazed, thought it was cool, and went back inside.  Within seconds it disappeared just to form again.  It truly was fascinating.  Fascinating enough that I couldn't even break away to get my camera.  I just wanted to watch.  I slightly shift my eyes to the left and see all this debris floating in the air in slow motion.  I yell at the kids again to come and look.  It seriously looked like it was in slow motion, high in the air.  I still don't know what the debris was but the boys were amazed.  So they go back inside and I turn around long enough to make sure that they are watching Ruger just to turn around to walk on the porch again to see an actual tornado to my far left, right over the school!  And right over the school isn't really a good way to describe it.  Because it was all through it.  It was so different from the funnel cloud  because the funnel cloud was distinctive, white, and perfectly formed.  This tornado was huge, dark, and just whipping everything around.  I wasn't in a trance anymore and immediately ran inside, yelled at the kids to get in the bathtub and we were off.

The next is just humorous.  Can you imagine 5 people in a bathtub?  One of them being a teenage taller than me?  So we are huddled in there when Levi says, "Um, shouldn't we be in the basement?"  Hahahahahaha!  I still can't believe that totally went over my head.  This Oklahoma girl could only remember her tornado training from growing up.  There are no basements in the area I grew up and we were always told to get in the bathtub or in a hallway without any windows.

So off we crouched down into the basement.  We weren't down there too long when we heard the hail.  That is about the time that David called.  His office is in Harrisville and he just happened to go outside and saw the wall cloud hanging over Washington Terrace.  I told him there was a tornado and off he went to go home.  Unfortunately, this storm had knocked out a lot of power and so his normal 15 minute drive home took him about 45 minutes.

During his ride home, he would give us updates here and there.  We have emergency radios but for some reason nothing was coming up.  And I have to admit that for a second I doubted whether I really saw that tornado or not.  Maybe my emotions were getting to me and it was just a really bad windstorm.

But after everything calmed down, we saw the damage.  Just blocks away.

 There is no way that our camera can really show the damage done...or how beautiful the mountains and following rainbow was.  It's so weird.  So much damage and then you look to the mountains and I couldn't help but think of who was really in control in this moment.

 This is across from the church we attend.

 Maddie was afraid Ruger was cold while we were out and about so she put her coat on him.  Oh, I love that girl!

 The Seminary building is connected to the church.

This was the only damage as far as I could see.

Before we even went to see the damage, David was off trying to locate those who needed help.  I know this is bragging on him but it's me writing this (Alisa) and not David so that's ok, right? :)  I am so grateful for David's serving heart.  So grateful for the example he sets for our children and those around us.  He ended up finding us because the emergency personnel told him that they were still assessing the damage at that point.  But as we were walking around some friends from church, The Roberts, drove by and told us that the Red Cross was at the Senior Center and that people were donating food there.  So off David and Levi went.  Later David told me that there were quite a few members of our church up there helping.  Some of the men sent the Young Men out to check on the elderly.  So grateful for this community and the example that they are setting as well.

We were out of power for a while but it got us in bed early so hey, there's a plus!  While David and I were laying in bed and we were going through the details of the day, it was interesting to see the differences of perspective...like what it was like for a husband to know there was a tornado near his family and him not being able to do anything about it.  Like him watching those families, whose homes were now uninhabitable, as they came into the Senior Center and how some where so upbeat.  Like they were cheering on everyone else.  And then other's looked, as he said, so "beat down."  And in no way was he judging between the 2.  It is just interesting seeing different reactions to similar circumstances.  It was just another realization to me that we are all so different and most importantly, we all hurt differently.  And that is ok.  I hope I remember that because I really want to love others even when it may seem like someone should or shouldn't be reacting to something the way I think they should or shouldn't.