Just Breathe

What a terrifying 24 hours we've had here in Oklahoma!  I just can't believe that it all really happened!

When the May 3, 1999 tornado hit, I was just a few days away from graduating high school.  I was worried about my grandparents and my cousins and aunts and uncles who lived in Midwest City, Moore, and Norman.  Luckily they were all safe and no one was hurt or lost their homes.  I never would have dreamed that four years later I would marry someone whose parents lost their home in that very tornado.  And that just a few short months after we were married, another tornado would rip through the same town, taking businesses and homes again. 

The May 10, 2003 tornado came awfully close to my new in-laws' home yet again, only missing by a few streets.  I was pregnant with Alex at the time, and Ryan was stuck on the highway trying to get home.  This was the same highway that the tornado jumped and destroyed more homes and businesses.  This was also before Ryan owned a cell phone, so I had no way of knowing whether he was alive or not until he walked through the door to our apartment.  Alex was born just 2 short months later, so just imagine the panic I was going through: my husband might be trapped on the highway (it was shut down because of what was going on), my in-laws were in the direct path of the tornado, and I had no real safe place to go except to stand in the hallway of our downstairs apartment.  I was pregnant and terrified.

I have always hated tornadoes, but I hate them even more now. 

Just ten years after that terrifying experience, I was sitting across the state worried about my family who lives in the area.  My cousin's children attend one of the two schools that was destroyed yesterday.  My cousin's husband went and picked up his three children, all of whom are close in age to my own children, and took them to safety at my grandparents' home in Midwest City.  Luckily, Grandma and Grandpa have a saferoom in their home, so everyone was gathered there.  Jose, my cousin's husband, then went back to the scene and helped rescue workers dig people out of the rubble.  Some of the children he helped pull out were classmates of his children.  He also helped pull out their middle son's teacher.  I just can't even imagine.

My in-laws were all safe, but we were out of touch for awhile.  The tornado hit just a mile south of the elementary school where my sister-in-law teaches.  It was headed straight for her school before it made a turn to the right.  If it hadn't turned, it would have hit her school, the high school where my niece was, and then probably the junior high where my other niece was.  Praise the Lord for that small twist of fate!

I'm bawling right now just thinking about the very close calls our family has experienced in the last 24 hours.  There was another tornado that ripped through the Ramona/Vera area.  I have an aunt and a great-uncle and great-aunt who live right near where this tornado was.  They are all safe and okay.  Praise the Lord!

This is the nature of tornadoes.  They are unpredictable.  People can say what they want, but the truth of the matter is: we know there's a possibility, we know that they will happen, we just don't know when or how destructive they will be.  We can get pretty close to the timeline, but tornadoes are tricky, mysterious beasts.  Like the one yesterday, they can drop down, destroy things in their path, and then disappear.  They can be headed in a straight line or they can turn for no reason whatsoever.  I will never understand tornadoes.  But, if you're like me and you've lived in Oklahoma your whole life, you have to respect them.  They are terrifying, unpredictable monsters.  They can rip people's lives apart in seconds.  And they can leave homes and businesses untouched just a few feet away from utter destruction.

As Moore rebuilds, all of Oklahoma will join together.  We did it before, and we'll do it again.  That's who Oklahoma is.  That's what we are about.  We are a family.  As someone else said, we may not have fancy attractions or be pretty to look at, but we are an incredible close-knit community (the whole state).  We take care of each other. 

So, for now, we must remember to just breathe.  Support those who lost loved ones.  Lift up those parents in prayer whose babies were taken away from them yesterday.  Donate your time, money, and anything else you can spare.  We will come together and rebuild. 

But, first, let's just breathe.