I debated running in the rain when it started pouring down so hard my rain gutters couldn't hold all of the water. Eventually the rain was mixed with hail the size of golf balls. They hit our roof, shatter into smaller pieces and still were bigger than quarters in diameter.
When the sirens started to go off we decided to hide in our pantry. Carson was in 7th heaven. He kept asking for every kind of food he could see.
I had the TV news in the background just in case when I heard Emilia's preschool named among the areas damaged by the tornado. They didn't mentioned injuries but I was still freaked out by how close the storm had hit. The news crew kept talking about tornado sightings and damage near where my friends and family live.
Emilia's school looked like a war zone. Parts of the roof were gone, huge trees laid on their side with insulation from the roof caught in their branches. One of the big recycling bins was tipped over and had a metal duct wrapped all around it. The power poles were being held up by trees and there was no electricity in the school.
The wind broke Emilia's classroom windows and debry was everywhere the classroom and hall. Luckly the kids were all safe. Emilia said that they hid in the bathroom connected to the classroom kneeling down with their hands resting on their heads. Some of her classmates cried but she was brave and didn't. She said a prayer and sang songs until her teacher told them all to get up because it was time to leave.
They had to walk through the damage to get to the saferoom where the rest of the kids were. I think that shocked her a bit. Some of her things are still at the school because it wasn't safe to go into her classroom to look for them.
This is what the Star Telegram said about the incident:
John Smith watched the tornado from his third-floor balcony in southwest Arlington, videotaping it as it touched down and rose back up, zeroing in on a school at St. Barnabas United Methodist Church. There, his girlfriend and young son were inside.
At the church, Amy Richardson, director of the Early Education Center, shepherded 82 children, ranging from toddlers to 5-year-olds, from their classrooms to a safer spot in the middle of the building.
"We knew what we had to do. We had a plan for it," Richardson said. "We just waited. We had pastors coming in to tell us when to duck and cover. There was a loud rumbling noise, the walls starting shaking and windows started breaking.
"But the kids were very calm. Some of them got upset when the power went out."
Water began to pour into the sanctuary because the tornado had ripped away the roof in another part of the building. But the children were safe.
"Our plan worked," Richardson said. "It's nice to have a plan."
We were blessed that we didn't sustain damage to our property unlike some friends and church acquaintances whose homes were completely destroyed. In one instance, immediately after the firefighters exited the home with the medicine they went in to get, the entire roof collapsed into the house.
