Hitting Close to Home

Cherokee Valley Rd, Ringgold GA

Wednesday, April 27: Finals are over. Anthony headed home around 2pm driving my car. I moved my stuff from Southern to my cousin's house just off of Edgmon Rd. The plan was to stay there for about two weeks while I worked then come home on the motorcycle. That evening after supper we decided to go play racket-ball. While we were there, the tornado warning went off and the lights blinked. Just outside the gym we watched the storm pass over. It was a good thunder storm with lots of wind. We decided to go back in a play for a little longer before going back to the house. So the when we did, on Tucker Rd. we passed several people walking. We talked to one person that said four trees were down across the road. So then we tried getting back on Tallant Rd. and got to Edgmon but not all the way to the house before a cop was blocking the road. Trees and power lines were down all over the road. People were parking their cars and walking to their house. At this point were starting to get worried if something happened to the house. So we parked and walked the quarter mile to the house making sure to avoid the power lines. There was a big tree down across the road just before the driveway. Once we got to the house, it seemed like everything was destroyed except the house. Trees and branches were down everywhere. The was someone's book on Michael Phelps that landed on the fence that goes around the pool. Twenty feet way from the original position laid the trash can. The front of the house just impaled with leaves. Sticks were sticking in the ground six inches. In the back yard, one big tree was uprooted and landed ten feet from the house, taking out the power lines and pole. Amazingly the only damage to the house was a spot with shingles missing and places where hail had gone through the roof. The other houses in the area also just had tree and some shingle damage. My cousins did not want to camp out in their house without electricity so we packed some of our stuff and moved to the Mathis's house (faculty). The next day we heard some of the reports from the tornadoes that went through the area. Closest to us (less than ten miles), Apison and Cherokee Valley roads got hit the worse with many deaths. These are roads that I have run, biked, and driven on. The roads were impassable and closed off, but a week later I drove those roads and they just looked like a war zone. Houses were completely leveled and scattered all over the place. Trees covering the hillside behind the houses on one side were all snapped in half. At Southern, there were a only few trees that came down. One came down across one of the girls dorm parking lot smashing a car and blocking the entrance/exit. So anyone wanting to leave the next day could not do so. The tornadoes also hit Alabama including the Oakwood campus. They sent everyone home without taking finals and postponed graduation.

Looking back, God protected my cousins and I. It would have been really scary to have been at their house when the first one came over so close, and would would not have been able to get the cars out for a day or two. It took eight days for the power to come back on. Southern did not have any building damage though some faculty homes that got hit, but God protected them. There were some incredible stories that I heard from the ordeal. This one couple got sucked out of their house and landed in a field with the wife breaking her pelvis and the husband breaking his arm. People's belongings like a checkbook was found in another town. One lady said at church that it was coming straight at the house. It came three feet away, split in two, then went around the house. One guy, heard it coming and ran into the bathroom. The tornado went over and destroyed the whole house except the bathroom with they guy in it. So many stories of protection, but there were still many homes and lives lost.

Why did God allow the paths that tornadoes took?
Why were some houses completely destroyed and others a short distance away standing untouched?
What if I lost my house and all my possessions?
What is most important to me?
What is God speaking to me through all this?
Am I spending time to head His voice?
Time is short, so what is it like to live being ready?

Please pray for the people there. Even seeing it first hand, I can only imagine what it is like to experience the pain and emotions of losing possessions and loved ones. If you care to find out more details, look at pictures or videos, just google tornado damage including the name of the places that I mentioned.