April 19, 1995: Oklahoma City Bombing
May 3, 1999: Moore, Okla., Tornado
September 11, 2001: World Trade Center, Pentagon, Terrorist
Attacks
There are always dates in our lives when disasters happen,
whether it is natural or man made, that we will never forget that what we were
doing at that time. Around 12:15 a.m. on Sunday morning (April 15, 2012), I
will always remember sitting in my living room in Bartlesville, Okla.,
listening to live coverage as my hometown of Woodward was being struck by an
EF3 twister.
As I am sitting here typing this, I am trying to completely
put into words what I have been feeling over the past 24 hours. I know it may
seem strange, not being directly affected by the event that took place nearly
three and a half hours from where I currently live, but it still seems surreal
(and I know I’m not along with people outside of our hometown).
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| Photo via News9.com |
All weekend, as I usually do, I was keeping a close eye on
the weather all around Oklahoma. After a long day of keeping close watch of
tornados that skipped across Woods country, I thought my weather watching was
over until a developing squall line in Western Oklahoma makes it way over to “Green
Country.” As I was winding down, my Weather Radio app sent a tornado warning
alert for Woodward. This really shouldn’t have been a surprise as super cells
can break away from a separate line of severe storms and spin up quickly.
Within a minute, I quickly pulled up the KWTV live stream up
on my computer. It wasn’t much longer after getting the stream going a
sickening feeling began to come over me.
Usually when I am watching weather coverage on “Channel 9,”
I hear Gary England talk to Marty Logan about a wall cloud, funnel, or a
tornado touchdown in some obscure field in Oklahoma. Not this time. This time I
heard Mr. Logan giving an emotional play-by-play of a nighttime twister ripping
through my hometown. Logan was truly a hero to many people in the path, as his
live reporting of where the tornado was gave many an idea of the severity of
the situation. (Logan interview by Kelly Ogle following a brief report.)
My next several hours were spent keeping and eye on Facebook
and Twitter, concerned about many friends and family that may have been in the
path. Every time I would see a report about a house or a business that was
damaged, I was able to narrow down who was in the path.
I know I have friends who have had their hometowns hit by a
tornado in the past, and some have even lost their homes in previous events.
But as I have gone through the day after, away from Woodward, seeing national
news reports with people I know personally with their homes in piles of rubble,
my heart aches so bad. I finally know the true meaning of feeling
helpless.
Woodward is a place that is special in my heart, and I know
those that lost their homes and belongings will bounce back. Please remember
them in your thoughts and prayers.
#WWTornado2012
#WWTornado2012
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