Thankful but sad

This house no longer has a roof and is 2 doors down from our old house.

Our friends house. They just moved in 1 months ago.

This looks so scary.

Our other good friends house..took her 3 hours to get her kids to come out of the bathtub where they were taking shelter during the tornado.

Wow...what a mess!

Thankfully no one was living in this one.

Melissa's friend from cheer lives in this one..or DID live here.

It's 7:30 a.m. and I can hear helicopters over our neighborhood surveying the scene of yesterdays terrible act of mother nature. It had been stormy all day Tues. and all through the night as winds, hail, and rain just beat all the houses for hour upon hour. I woke up many times during the night just listening to the storm and wondering when it would let up. Then at 5:15 or so the house just started shaking and the winds were crazy, stronger than any we had experienced before. Brian and I were sitting straight up in bed ready to run down the hall and gather the kids at any moment. The windows seemed to be ready to shatter at any moment and so we took off down the hall with our cell phones as flash lights. I do keep one in my nightstand drawer but didn't think about it at the moment. Our kids were already up and scared as the house was shaking as if in an earthquake.....little did I know that just across the park on the other side of the lake many of my friends and neighbors houses were being torn a part and glass, wind and debris were flying all around inside their houses. One friends kids were screaming upstairs as their dad was trying to get up the stairs to help them. Their house has been condemned as it is literally falling apart at the seams. One whole wall has come away from the frame of the house. They had just moved in there a month ago. Some houses lost their roof and another lost half of their house that is out behind them somewhere in the forrest. One friend even had a boat lodged in their roof right above their sons head. I spent all day with friends and their children over, running back and forth to their house trying to get items that might get ruined with their roofs leaking and caving in. Brian, along with church members worked all through the day putting up plywood on windows, doors and even garages that were completely gone. One sister in our ward brought out pizzas to all the men working so diligently in the horrible weather. Without power, our bishop and stake president came over to check on us and let everyone know that dinner would be out here for all as our wonderful Relief Society and my Young women president arranged the food. I probably had 75 people over eating dinner that night which was a lot even for my house. I am so thankful that as my house only got a couple broken windows and shingles, that my friends who have no home at the moment had somewhere to go. I am thankful that I belong to a church that is always there to help any and all in an emergency. I am also thankful that we were sparred but sad that my friends don't have a place to call home for awhile. It was a day I will not soon forget..actually, never forget.