You never really believe that something like this can happened to you, but it can. On August 24th, 2006 our life was flipped upside down in a matter of seconds! A F3 tornado ripped through here and basically left us with a hole in the ground and the clothes on our backs. Our house, my family and I were in the heart of that tornado. One of the hardest parts of all of this was that we lost a good friend of ours, our dog, Belle. We will forever miss her!
The memories begin. It was supper time. My daycare kids (I only had one family because I was just coming back from maternity leave) had left about 45 minutes beforehand (thank god). Levi was putting his dishes in the kitchen and just happened to look out the window and noticed a tornado (this was probably about 10 minutes before it hit). He told me to look and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. So I get things ready, and dummy me, turned on the tv to see if we were under a warning. What was I thinking?! Of course we are under a warning, there’s a tornado coming our way. I brought things down stairs, got the boys and our dog down stairs. In the mean time Levi is outside, videotaping the tornado (yes, we still have the video). At this time, it was very calm outside (the calm before the storm). I’m trying to keep a 17 month old entertained in unfinished basement that has a lot of stuff just being stored. I had Jace (who was 5 weeks old) just sitting in his car seat. Our dog was just running around all anxious. Levi finally comes downstairs (probably minutes before the tornado hits) as it was starting to get windy out. I had the kids kind of in the middle of the basement by the extra bed that we had. Levi said that we should get under the stairs. Of course we stuff under our stairs (we were remodeling our house at the time). I was barefoot and we were trying to move to stuff around so that we could get under the stairs. Levi said he could run upstairs and get me a pair of shoes….thank god I told him I was fine. Right after that we both felt pressure in our ears and looked at each other. I was hanging onto Gavin and Levi grabbed Jace, who was in the car seat and tried to get under the stairs. Within seconds, the tornado hit! It was the longest short period of time ever! I tried to hover over Gavin as he is crying. Levi was in charge of Jace. At one point Jace was sucked up and flew up towards my husband, luckily he was able to get Jace. The stairs that we were somewhat under got sucked up and this homemade shelving unit that Levi made fell over and pinned us in. Thank god for that. Levi says he remembers hearing the nails being ripped off the roof. I remember screaming, crying, being scared, trying to protect everyone, the suction and trying to just push ourselves down. After all that, came the rain and our faces were covered in mud. We looked up our house was completely gone. It happened so quickly, which it is a good thing it was quick, I don’t think we would have survived if it would have lasted longer. I remember just crying and looking at Levi wondering if the tornado was done. Was there more to come or was that it? What should we do? How are we going to get out? We were pinned in and had a hard time moving. Then all of a sudden we heard gas. We had to get out of there. Levi pushed against my legs and pinned me in even more in order to get himself and Jace out. He got out and climbed out of the basement. He was going to go lay Jace on the seat of his truck, but there was glass everywhere. He came back and told me that I had to get myself and Gavin out of there. Levi was unable to help. The adrenaline kicked in. I climbed up this shelving thing holding onto Gavin and then I had to step on this very wobbly shelf in order to climb out of the basement. I just prayed to God that the shelf was going to hold us and that I wasn’t going to slip. We got out. Levi put us arms around all of us. I remember looking out at the lake and it kind of reminded me of the titanic. There were so many pieces of our house just floating on the surface of the water and then eventually sinking into the lake. Our whole house pretty much ended up in the lake. We were so lucky to be alive. Looking back, it’s hard to believe that any of us survived. We ran to the next house that wasn’t so damaged (which was a few houses away). We ran over glass, live wires, branches, debris and whatever else that was on the ground. I was barefoot and Levi lost a shoe somewhere. We got to our neighbors and got the boys situated a little. Then Levi left to go look for Belle (our dog) and minutes later, I went back over to check things out. Our house was gone! Everything was gone! We just had a hole in the ground. Moments later someone had found Belle down on the shore of the lake. She did not make it. It wasn’t fair….she was taken by that darn tornado! This was when one of the biggest life’s tests was given to us. How much could we handle? What were going to do now…we were homeless, I was jobless, we had no vehicles, we had no personal belongings…we had nothing! Needless to say, things improved, we are back on our feet. It was a tough few years and the horrible memories are still there. We have to face that every day and it has impacted our lives forever! We definitely are always aware of what the weather is like and we are more prepared. I could go on and on about the tornado, but I don’t want to bore people. Some days are still difficult because of it, it doesn’t just go away. I know some probably think, “just get over it and move on”. But it’s hard when you look back and realize how close we came to losing our lives. Like I have said in the past one second later or one step over, we may not have made it through it. I just wish everyone else would take bad weather seriously. It can happen to you….it can happen quick….it can happen without a warning…..the weather can take a turn….IT CAN HAPPEN!
***Thank you again to everyone who helped us!!!
Facts about this tornado:
NICOLLET AND LE SUEUR COUNTIES. RATED F3. IT WAS ON THE GROUNDFOR 33 MILES. IT TRACKED FROM FOUR MILES WEST-SOUTHWEST OFNICOLLET... THROUGH THE CITY OF NICOLLET...THEN TO THE SOUTHERNOUTSKIRTS OF ST PETER... ACROSS THE NORTHERN PART OF KASOTA...THENTO LAKE EMILY... AND FINALLY DISSIPATED FOUR MILES NORTHWEST OFWATERVILLE. THE TORNADO KILLED ONE PERSON AND INJURED 37. IT WAS ONTHE GROUND FROM 530 PM TO 625 PM.AT FIRST...THE LONG TRACKED TORNADO WAS NO MORE THAN A FEW DOZENFEET WIDE...THEN EVENTUALLY GREW TO ONE HALF MILE WIDE. AS ITNEARED DISSIPATION... IT WAS BACK TO A COUPLE HUNDRED FEET WIDE.THE TORNADO WAS DISTINCTLY MULTIPLE VORTEX. IT OCCASIONALLY VEEREDEAST-NORTHEAST AND EAST-SOUTHEAST. IT TURNS OUT THAT THE REPORTS OFTORNADOES NEAR KILKENNY... WATERVILLE AND MORRISTOWN WERE ACTUALLYMULTIPLE REPORTS OF THE F3 TORNADO THAT WAS ROPING OUT FOUR MILESNORTHWEST OF WATERVILLE. THIS TORNADO WAS ON THE GROUND LONGER THANANY OTHER MINNESOTA TORNADO SINCE THE OUTBREAK OF MARCH 29 1998.
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/mpx/?n=24aug2006
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