A little over 13 month I listened to Marty Logan describe a
tornado moving through my hometown of Woodward. On Monday, I sat on a bus and
listened to Mike Morgan describe a massive, sometimes “barrel shaped” tornado
move through Moore. When the twister first dropped near Newcastle, I held out a
lot of hope that it would be a short lived event that would lift before moving
into the community that had suffered a devastating event just 13 years earlier.
While looking at radar on my and listening to the KFOR “Storm
Team” describe what they were seeing and try to report the event as best as
possible, I began to come to the realization that this was only going to get
worse…it was headed into Moore.
Many know that I am a huge severe weather geek. Not the kind
that tries to look at the models and make my own predictions or forcast, I let
people who are much smarter do that, but I pay attention enough to have an idea
of what’s going on. The weather fascinates me. I will watch severe weather
coverage for hours on end. I have watched coverage of tornados moving through
communities, and while I was worried for the people, with the exception of
Woodward in April of 2012, I had literally never become sick to my stomach. Monday
became the second time.
At 2:26, as storms began initiating in central Oklahoma, I
texted my best friend Britney, making sure she was paying attention to the weather.
Britney is the varsity girls head basketball at Southmoore High School and I
figured she was at the school. At 2:45, I received a reply that they had taken
the students into shelters, and it was obvious that she was scared. At this
point, for the first time in my life, I had no idea what to say, especially
from a bus, three hours away, to try to help someone calm down. At 3:04, got a
text saying “It’s huge. I can see it right behind us.” At this point, I became
scared. Helpless. Prayerful. Numb.
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| Josh and Britney's house, looking up the driveway. |
From that point on, I had to rely on the stream from KTOK in
hopes of finding out she was okay. Shortly after the tornado passed Southmoore,
I was able to put about 95-percentile on the school being spared by the descriptions
from Morgan. However, then the realization came to me that the deadly tornado
was tracking towards Britney’s home, and I had no idea where her husband Josh,
also a very close friend, was. I went from tons of negative emotions, to joy
that my best friend had been spared, to the negative emotions of not know where
another close friend was.
Over the next two hours or so, I was patrolling Facebook and
Twitter, trying to determine if anyone had heard anything. I had pretty much
determined by that point that they had probably lost their home, but that was
the least of my concerns. Finally, in the process of reaching Josh’s brother to
tell him that I assumed Britney was unharmed, but didn’t have a good feeling about
their home, Jay informed me that Josh had been able to reach out to them. Yet
again, I was back to positive emotions. Joy. Thankfulness. Blessed.
As I type this from a hotel room in Stafford, Texas, I
haven’t had much communication with Josh and Britney. Everything is hectic around
there. They have no home. Their lives are in shambles, with just each other
(their two dogs) and family to lean on at this point. But due to that lack of
communication, I personally have had struggles dealing with the event. I know
there isn’t a lot I can do, but I feel helpless now. I have images of people I
care about picking through the rubble of their home, trying to salvage anything
they can. I feel guilty that I am able to go to Top Golf, sit front row behind
the third base dugout at Minute Maid Ballpark and each wings at a local Houston
establishment.
I have been incredibly blessed in my life and haven’t had to
deal with situations like this, while others, especially long time residents of
Moore, have gone through this twice in a little over a decade. I’m so thankful
that Josh, Britney, Itsi and Minnie Sayes are healthy.
This has truly been an emotional week.
