Thank you to all of those who called, texted, commented, or sent messages on Facebook to me. Ill start off by saying most importantly that we are unharmed and fine. Our home is fine as well. I cant thank you all enough for caring. Heres the story: Yesterday evening on the way back from Pigeon Forge (about an hour and fifteen minutes-thirty minutes from the house) and school clothes shopping for Madalie we seen a storm starting to brew. About that time I received a text from one of my best friends Rebecca Jo Reece-Barger. She told me that there was a storm either coming or already in Campbell county (where we live) and that people were being ask to take shelter. Being Becca loves storms and was telling me she was scared I knew it was serious. She knows Im terrified of even lightening and thunderstorms in general. At this point we were too close to the house to really turn around and my mom was a few minutes in front of us on her way to our house. I checked the weather channel app on my phone and see we had a tornado WARNING (not a watch). Mom called us several times and ask us not to come home after she got here because it was getting bad. At this point we were exhausted and just wanted to be home. Oddly, on our way up highway 63 everything was very quite...no wind and no rain. However it was almost dark in the middle of the day and it was lightening. As we approached our cut off (Doaks Creek Road) we could see the difference. As soon as we turned into our driveway it began pouring the rain, fast and hard rain. The wind came out of nowhere. I hurried and got the girls and brought them in the house and told mom to get them. She ran down stairs with them. I went back outside to help Jason slide the garage doors open to get the vehicle in but when I went back outside one of the garage doors was hanging by the thing it rolls on and was flying half up in the air! I looked up and seen two large clouds rotating around one another. I ran out to the vehicle which was now in the garage and got my phone in case I were to need it. The garage door came back down and we slid them shut, latched them, and placed large rocks in front of them to keep them from opening again. We went into the house and went down stairs were mom was yelling for us to come down because Gabby was crying and scared. The bottom floor of our house is half underground on the back side and so we went to the down stairs laundry room where there are no windows and it is mostly underground. We stayed there as the power went out and we heard the thunder, lightening, and God only knows what outside. All of a sudden mine and my moms phones started going off and making a beeping siren noise. It was an emergency alert to take cover. We stayed downstairs until it sounded safe to come out. When we came out and went back upstairs it was mostly dark in the house (in the middle of the day) and we still had no electricity. It was still storming but just bad thunderstorm at that point. We waited and it seemed to pass. About 15-20 minutes after we came upstairs we started hearing sirens going up our little street. Doaks creek in LaFollette is a small farming community and nobody other than people who live here need this road (however, it can be used as an alternative route around the main highway) because it makes a circle. Mom and myself went outside and got in her car and went driving toward the other end of Doaks creek. Keep in mind that going straight on Doaks creek without taking side roads or turns is no more than a 3 mile stretch (but again there are side roads out into the fields). When we went outside I seen two trees down immediately and a tent that we had shading the kids pool was blown over and ripped up. The kids pool had blown into a shrub. We started going up the lane (the same one I run on and our family walks on) and began driving out toward Harris Farms (youve probably seen the pics Ive posted before of the pond and such). On our way there we seen tree branches and a mess in everyones yard but nothing like we seen about a mile from our house on our very street. Several (news said 10) houses with trees on them! Big trees! Trees blown over in peoples yard. Trees split into and peeled like a banana. Roofs blown off, buildings turned over on their side, gutters ripped off, one houses roof blown into a field and ripped up. As we looked up the side of the mountain their was two clear lines of what I described as looking like God took a giant weedeater and shaved and split all the trees down the mountain. We could see the clear path of the tornado and where it crossed over the mountain. The width was very wide and you could follow its path of destruction down the mountain and through yards and cornfields easily. Their were people outside everywhere. Rescue squads, police, ambulance, men with chain saws trying to cut trees out of the road for traffic, etc. We were told a man was trapped on his house as well. One lady we spoke with said they looked out and seen it coming and ran to her parents basement. After we came home, having no electricity was not so bad! I just felt thankful to be alive and to have our family alive and together. To not have damage to our home was nothing short of a miracle because 3 quarters of our street/community is severely damaged. We stayed without electricity until this morning. Oil lamps and candles helped us through the night. Again, I am so thankful to those who checked on us! I also should mention the working men and women of our county! The worked and got our electricity back on much faster than anticipated. Last night the rescue squad came to our house and said they were doing wellness checks. We told them we were fine. They said we were very fortunate to be fine. They estimated power to be out a few days but said it is possible to come back on today. It was on this morning so I know out county service men worked very hard lady night and all night. It continued to storm and lightening really bad all through the night so it wasnt an easy or safe job! Now we sit here today with a beautiful and clear blue sky. The fields are green and its abnormally cool for a late July day but nevertheless beautiful. Our community had a lot to clean up and cant imagine what the families whos homes were destroyed or damaged Are dealing with. Let us all be thankful it wasnt worse! PS. Sorry so long winded but I wanted to address everyones questions within one post.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 15:08:55 +0000
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