As most of you know, our oldest son, Ashtyn, has many anxieties. This year a tremendous fear of storms can be added to the list. I don't know why at nine years old he has so many fears and anxieties but there's no doubt that this fear is no joke! It started in the spring when the Oklahoma storms started firing up late in our afternoons. Ash will spend an entire day looking out windows, checking the weather app on my phone, asking me to watch the weather on TV and worrying about what storms MIGHT come. Any cloud, no matter how small or big, that passes over our house Ash will see it and he will worry about it. I feel so helpless in helping him get over his fears but it is something we are working on.
Just one short week after the Moore tornado hit, which made the national news and was still being covered on a daily basis on our local news, Mustang had its closest encounter with a tornado that we have seen since we've lived here. We knew for days that we would have a chance of severe weather, including tornadoes, that day. The weathermen are very good at giving us adequate warning. Unfortunately, storms can have minds of their own and don't always do what science says they should. Noni was at our house that afternoon recovering from a surgery and while we were paying close attention to the volatile weather outside we honestly weren't too concerned. Like I said, we've lived in Mustang for almost five years and have never even had a close call. I've lived in Oklahoma since I was 8 years old and have only had to seek shelter from severe storms a handful of times. I guess it's a bit of irony that we live in a state where we have some of the BEST weather prediction equipment in the country and have the most warning time of anyone to take shelter from potential tornadoes and yet it so rarely happens that we tend to not heed the weather warnings and instead set up camp in our front yards gawking at the storms and taking video. In fact, many of us get in our cars and chase the storms ourselves! I mean, you know it must be somewhat exciting when there are actual "storm chasing vacations" where people PAY MONEY to ride along with professional storm chasers!
As we kept an eye on the weather that spring May day, Ashtyn was very worried. He was keeping his keen eye on the clouds outside and asking a TON of questions. As the storm grew and moved closer and closer to the west side of Oklahoma City we had the news on full time. Ash was snuggled right up next to me on the sofa as we all gathered in the living room to see if we would need to take any safety precautions. The storm looked like, at first, that it would hit us but we were doing our best to keep that information from Ash until we were positive that we needed to take action. Just when we thought we should grab our things and go the tornado took a turn to the north east and began moving past Mustang. My insides breathed a huge sigh of relief and I made eye contact with Brandon giving him a "thank goodness" look across the living room.
As the tornado moved past us, Ashtyn asked for an update and we were happy to say that the tornado was moving away. In true Ashtyn form, he asked a couple more times and asked for many details before he took our word as true. We assured him that the tornado was now moving north east, past Mustang and that tornadoes always kept a forward pattern and at this point it could not turn around and come back. That sentence may be the thing I most regret EVER SAYING IN MY LIFE!!!! No sooner had those words come out of my mouth, Ash asked "Are you sure?" and I was in the middle of replying "Yes..." when the weatherman announced in a loud and panicked voice that the tornado had done something very rare! The tornado HAD NOT continued a forward motion but HAD in fact turned back and began moving toward Mustang once again. The weatherman was now practically screaming at Mustang residents to take cover immediately! My heart skipped a beat and we all jumped into motion. Ash being 9 years old understood everything the weatherman had just said and immediately FREAKED OUT!!!! And when I say "freaked out" I don't mean cried a tear or grabbed my arm or even asked what was going on...NO! Ash FREAKED OUT!!!!
Before I could even react, Ashtyn jumped off the sofa, on the verge of hyperventilating, and ran down the hallway toward the master bedroom screaming at the top of his lungs "I'M GONNA DIE!! I DON'T WANNA DIE!! I'M GONNA DIE!! I DON'T WANNA DIE!!" My heart literally broke in that moment. Ash ran into our room, slammed the door and refused to come out. I opened the door and found him running back and forth frantically with his hands on either side of his head crying and screaming blood curdling screams. I've never heard sounds like that come out of my baby.
The house was in total chaos. The weatherman was screaming through the TV to take cover, telling us we only had mere minutes. The tornado sirens were going off outside. Ash was screaming and crying, flailing his arms and refusing to move. Brandon was yelling for everyone to get to the car and barking at me to "GET ASH!" I had no idea what to do! I pleaded with Ash to leave the house but he was terrified. Eventually, Brandon had to literally pick Ashtyn up, against his will, and force him into the backseat of the car. Ash was only wearing shorts, none of us were wearing shoes, my mother in law could barely move as she had just gotten out of surgery not two days prior and we were getting into our car with NO idea where we were going to go. We don't know anyone with a storm cellar that lives close and the only person we do know with a storm shelter wasn't answering their phone! (We found out later that they were already in their cellar.)
Once we were loaded into the car we drove up to the church, where Brandon works. That's the only place we felt like we could go and find a safe place in case we ended up going through anything near similar to what Moore had experienced one week earlier. Those devastating images couldn't help but be on the forefront of our minds. We ran into the church, soaked by the rain, and went into the offices. Brandon led us all into the men's bathroom and we huddled under the sinks. Ash was still a puddle of tears, Maddox had now begun crying himself, my poor mother in law could barely get onto the floor and I was trying my best not to look scared myself (even though I was terrified...petrified). Brandon went into the offices and tried to look up the current weather online so he could keep us posted. I didn't like him not being with us but by this point our cell phones weren't working and we had to know what the weatherman was saying. Every couple of moments Brandon would come in and update us. Glenda and I were doing our best to calm the kids. We prayed many times and tried to talk about anything and everything EXCEPT the weather.
We hadn't been taking refuge in the church bathroom but a few minutes, it already felt like an eternity, when our friends Doug, Jill and Seth showed up to share our bathroom shelter. They too had nowhere else to go and the church is very close to their house. Once Seth showed up my boys seemed to calm a lot. Ash was still extremely nervous and worried about every little creak and bump and whine and was especially worried about daddy, as he was still in another room watching the weather, BUT they were much calmer, nonetheless. Seth is not only the boys' best friend but their big brother as well. In many ways, that night, he was their security blanket. I was so relieved when our friends showed up.
We did our best to huddle near the sink counter but there was no way we would all fit underneath so we put the kids the closest. Seth was AMAZING at distracting my boys. Before we knew it he had them making "oh my goodness a tornado is coming" faces for the camera. Unfortunately, our visit to the men's bathroom at the church was far from over...
Moments after the Everaard's showed up the electricity went out. Thankfully Jill had her phone charged and so we had some light. At one point, Jill even showed the boys how to make shadow puppets! I don't know what I do without my friend Jill. Just like Seth is comfort to my boys, she is comfort to me!
It was a good thing we were at the church that night because after we lost power and the storm was literally swirling directly over us, tornadoes dropping out of it at random doing damage across the city, a small family came banging frantically on the church doors. Brandon let them in and they told us their story. They lived in a country home west of Mustang and tried to stay in their home to ride out the storm. They waited too long and no longer felt safe and so loaded themselves and their very large dog into their car and started driving east. Just before they reached the edge of town a large barn in a field along the road blew apart and the wind carried a large piece of metal sheeting right into the back window of their car breaking it completely out! They were obviously very scared and needed to find shelter right away. They saw our cars in the church parking lot and decided to see if they could get in too. Of course, we let them take shelter with us inside.
By the time the night was over we were in the men's bathroom for about 2 hours. Most of that in total darkness. The men did join us, eventually, when the tornado threat was the strongest. The sounds outside were, at times, very eery and haunting. Once the tornado sirens went silent we all made our way out of the bathroom (it wasn't the most pleasant place to be sitting on the floor...) and sat in the office until we knew for sure no more tornadoes would be headed our way.
By the time we got home it was dark outside and without power in the whole city it was extremely dark. Us city folk aren't used to that kind of pitch black! Even in the darkness we could see that there was damage in our neighborhood. NOTHING that could possibly compare to Moore. The damage we saw in our city was much more minor. Downed trees, leaves everywhere, fences laying flat, etc. We knew we would see the full extent of the damage in the light of day. We were exhausted, our boys were exhausted and we all needed to get to bed. We lit some candles around the house, got ready for bed and then did our best to get a good night's sleep. I can tell you that I didn't sleep well at all. Every sound woke me. I tossed and turned.
When morning came I thought for sure we would have power and resume life like normal. With some minor clean up to do, of course. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case at all. Now, don't get me wrong. I am in no way complaining that going without power for a few hours is anywhere near what those whose city was decimated had to endure...NOT...AT...ALL!!!! However, anytime you have to go without power it's no walk in the park. In all, we ended up not having power for 24 hours. It was annoying but it was ultimately okay. Noni and I played board games with the kids in the morning. We read books, played, went outside for a walk and just talked to each other. I know people say that going without power is sometimes refreshing and draws them closer. I guess I can see what they're saying but let me tell you...this family LOVES its electronics and we don't particularly love going without them! Ha! However, it was nice to see that we could survive and actually have some fun without all our gadgets.
Unfortunately, this experience has done NOTHING to help my poor son's storm anxiety. He has been worried about clouds FAR past tornado season. Even today he gets nervous when he sees clouds and when the city tests their tornado sirens he has to make sure that it is just a test...many times. But that's okay. We are working and doing all that we can to help him with his many anxieties and we pray that he will make progress.
In the end, I can't lie, this close call with a large tornado made me very nervous. I did my best not to show it and tried to stay strong for my kids but I was honestly scared to death. I'm an Oklahoman. I like thunderstorms. I've grown up in this state and can pretty much tell the weather by its "feel" and "smell" but this was far too close a call for me! Plus the fact that a tornado went against science and did something it's "not supposed to do" can't help but make us nervous. Two professional storm chasers died in the tornado that veered close to Mustang. That says something! This tornado most definitely had a mind of its own, didn't care what "nature" says its supposed to do and when all was said and done turned out to be the largest tornado on record in history! This tornado was TWO MILES WIDE!!!! Good grief!!!! Unfortunately, people did lose their lives in this tornado as well. With as scared as we all were I'm glad that my family walked away unharmed and our home suffered minimal damage. Sure we had to put up with the loss of a lot of food out of our fridge, we had to sit on a men's bathroom floor for 2+ hours and I had to comfort my son when he was sincerely petrified of death...but we all walked away unharmed and healthy.
When the storm hit we totally lost cell phone reception. TOTALLY! In fact, our cell phones were in and out of service for a good 24-48 hours after the storm, if not more! I knew my family would be calling to make sure we were okay and I did my best to text them but nothing seemed to be reaching them or going through. Every now and then my phone would suddenly explode with tons of text messages and missed call alerts all at once and I could at once see who all was trying to contact us and check on us. One of the first text messages I received was from my sister, who lives in Ponca City. All her message said was "I'm trying to make sure you are okay. Mom and dad are very worried. I'm afraid if we don't hear from you soon dad might get on a plane and fly to Oklahoma City!" My parents live in Connecticut. I couldn't help but laugh when I read that message. Not because it's funny really but because my dad would actually do that! Thankfully I was able to get a text message to my sister before my dad bought a ticket and she got word to him that we were okay! Ha! I gotta love my parents. At least I know they love me very much!
I will always love Oklahoma and I will always be proud to be an Oklahoman. Our weather may be unpredictable but our people are not. This is my home!
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