by Celewis
(Benton, AR)
Cleaning up tree damage
I live in a small town SW of Little Rock, Arkansas. On April 3, 2008 my mother called and said that a funnel cloud had been reported about 30 miles southwest of my home. I began gathereng my flashlight, keys, phone blankets and purse to put in our hallway (our only interior room). I also put on heavy foot wear and clothing and instructed my daughter to do the same. She kept asking why and I told her the weather might get bad so we should be prepared.
At a little after 9 p.m. it became very quiet outside. It became very hard to breath and my ears began to pop. The local news reported a tornado in my area so I began listening. I heard a roar, like most people say accompany tornadoes, so I headed for the hallway, layed down on top of my daughter and began to pray.
The roaring got closer and turned into a screaming whinning wind. I could hear debris hitting the house and the rafters popping one by one. I thought at this point we were loosing the roof. Then you could hear the torndado was past. My daughter and I got up and realized the electricity was out and felt around for the flashlight and turned it on. What a relief to see we stil had our walls and ceilings!
I called my husband at work to tell him to come home and let my family know that we were safe.
We lost quite a few trees but the house and barn were untouched. You could go into the yard and measure 100 ft any direction from the hallway that we took cover in and find no damage. I say the hand of God was covering us.
The tornado stopped and turned directions at our fence line. We were all blessed that night. None of our neighbors lost their lives…even a goose setting eggs in a neighbor’s barn was still setting eggs (without the barn). A car dealership, mobile home park and other houses where hit that night without andy deaths occuring.