Saving Me

So much Destruction

Stormy's POV:

The storm raged outside, the thunder rolling and vibrating the ground followed sharp streaks of lightning, waking me up from what had been a restless sleep. The wind howled, making the brick house seem like it was about to fly from its foundation. Rain came down in sheets, pouring so hard at times that you couldn't see out of the windows. The fact that it was the dead of night only made my anxiety about the storm raging outside even worse. I usually made out okay during the daytime if a storm rolled in, but at night, it was like my worst fears and the one memory I wished I could say had all be a bad dream came crashing back to me like an angry wave crashing onto the shore.

Ever since I was a child, I had always feared thunderstorms that came at night, especially those that came in the spring, bringing with them tornados and hail the size of baseballs. It would be easy to blame my fear of thunderstorms and tornadoes on watching Twister at a young age, but that wasn't why I feared them. Not when you had your own story to tell. Not when you could have very easily been the little girl in the movie who watched the father get sucked from the underground shelter because he was trying to keep the storm that was raging outside, on the outside.

Only we had not been in an underground shelter since those were rare in Eastern North Carolina. I'll never forget that day for as long as I live, mostly because that day was the day that I learned what it meant to lose someone that you loved. That was the day that not only did my life change, but so did so many others'.

The date was April 16, 1993, and it had started out just like any other day. Mama had made pancakes and bacon for breakfast -something that I can't eat to this day because it makes me think of that day. After a hearty breakfast, mama and daddy had loaded my sister Windy and I into the truck, off to go spend the day that the spring carnival about 45 minutes away. Windy and I had sat in the backseat, playing I spy while mama and daddy had sung along with the country songs on the radio.

I remember the buzzing alert coming through the speakers, scaring me and making me pay attention since we had just learned about tornados in school this past week and how when one was near, the local radio stations would send out an alert. I listened as the computer-generated voice came though the speaks, dad turning it up so that he could hear it better. In more ways than one, I wished he had not done that because even now at 35, I could remember that message word for word.

"Form the National Weather Service in Wakefield, a tornado warning has been issued for the following counties in North Carolina until 10:23 a.m.: Halifax and Northampton. Locales that could be impacted are: Rich Square, Jackson, Weldon, Garysburg, and Roanoke Rapids. It is important that everyone in the storm's path immediately seek shelter. If you live in a mobile home, please get to the nearest sturdy structure immediately. Again, a tornado warning has been issued for Northampton and Halifax counties, expiring at 10:23 a.m."

I remember thinking how odd it was to have a tornado warning with the sun shining but I'd learned in school that weather could change very quickly, often in split second. As if to prove what I'd learned as correct, the sky grew dark, and rain started to pound over the roof of the truck. I remember the wind picking up. But it was the worried look that had been on Mama's face that told me that we were in trouble. I remember her telling daddy that we had to find shelter and soon, something that was easier said than done since the stretch of road we are on only had the occasional house every couple of miles. And between those houses were acres and acres of open fields, the perfect place for tornados to build their strength.

A loud crack of thunder and the sharp flashing of lightening from outside my bedroom window pulled me from my thoughts of that day, making me jump from the bed as if it was on fire. I'd been so lost in my thoughts that I had not realized that the wind had picked up and the rain had begun coming down harder, if that was even possible. Another loud crash of thunder sounded though the night, followed almost instantly by a streak of lightening that momentarily brightened the sky from pitch black to almost daylight. I'd just lifted my phone from the nightstand to check the radar when the alert came though about a tornado warning. My heart stooped in my chest for a second before the instinct to protect my daughter and my life kicked in.