We traveled to Jackson, MS this weekend (Clinton, MS actually) to visit my grandmother, Meme, this past weekend. We went to spend time with Meme and to attend my sister Carla's baby shower on Saturday. Carla is due 7 weeks after me with her first baby, a little boy!
Here I am at 32 weeks (feeling quite large) and Carla at 25 weeks.
We took advantage of our beautiful sunny weather on Thursday and played outside in Meme's yard.
My sweet Meme and her beloved dog, Zack. She doesn't go anywhere without this little fur ball. :)
Well, like I said we took advantage of the beautiful weather on Thursday.
And it's a good thing we did...because things would change drastically on Friday...
My mom got to Meme's on Thursday night and my sister left to stay at her in-laws. On Friday morning Isaac woke us up bright and early as he usually does. I was a little surprised he didn't sleep longer due to the fact that it was incredibly overcast outside and dark in his room. But I got up with him just the same feeling quite groggy laying on the couch while he watched his Mickey Mouse.
Sometime around 9:45 a.m. that morning my mom and I wanted to do some last minute shopping for Carla's shower so we hit the streets with Isaac, leaving Meme at home, going to a few shops close to her house. Thankfully it wasn't raining yet but very overcast. We decided our shopping should come to an end close to 10:30 due to the weather worsening so we headed back to Meme's with my mom in the passenger's seat saying, "Meme is going to be so worried about us."
"Oh, she'll be fine!!" I say. You see, I inherited a gene from my Dad...a specific gene that makes me unafraid when it comes to stormy weather. ;) I've never been scared of potential tornadoes...because let's face it, I'd never been in one.
We finally arrive at Meme's, and just like my mother predicted Meme was watching the weather man, with curlers in her hair, worried sick about us and our shopping expedition. We continue to watch the weather for five more minutes all the while the weather man predicting possible rotations near Clintion MS.
"We really need to go in my little shelter," Meme kept saying. Her shelter is a tiny closet in her bathroom under the stairs.
I quickly reply with, "Meme, I will go in the closet when I hear something."
The weather man soon predicted hail right in Meme's neighborhood so Mom and Meme walked out to her carport to try and put the front of my car and my Mom's car inside. About a minute after they began to move the car the tornado siren went off.
"Oh, I've heard those before," I thought, still unafraid but looking out the window to check the sky just in case.
About a minute later after the siren went off is when I heard it. The sound that everyone says you will know. Even like all the rednecks on the news confess, it did sound like a freight train coming towards you. But even then, it was different. Right when I heard it I scooped Isaac up as fast as my pregnant body would let me and we started bee-lining it down the stairs to Meme's bathroom. As we approached the bottom of the stairs the lights began to flicker on and off and the pressure in my ears became so drastic it felt like I was 30 feet below the sea. Meanwhile Mom and Meme are running in from outside yelling, "It's coming, It's coming!!"
If I wasn't scared before...I was then. :)
We frantically rushed into Meme's tiny closet with Mom shutting the door behind. No sooner than we closed the door we heard loud rushes of wind, train, etc., big booming sounds from outside, the house shaking, Isaac screaming in my ear, us praying....and finally after about 30 seconds or so, silence. If I'm being honest I will tell you that it was probably the scariest moment of my life!!
Well, to make a long story short. We walk out of the closet and open the back yard to find this...
We look out the front yard to find this...
I was amazed that nothing had fallen on Meme's house, besides her carport and my mother's car. I thought for sure my car had a tree on it.
Once we collected ourselves 10 minutes later...when neighbors began to venture out of their homes scared and confused we surveyed the damage. Would you believe my car had nothing on it!!
I had to keep a close eye on Isaac as we walked around. Power lines were down all over the streets, nails on the ground, etc.
Here's the front of Meme's house with one shutter blown off...
Here's her swing set that we enjoyed the day before.
Unfortunately, pictures don't do all of this justice. Or should I say,
my pictures don't do it justice. But at least you get the idea.
About an hour later Carla and her husband J.B. get into the neighborhood by walking. You couldn't drive anywhere due to power lines and trees down. They said we should be thankful we were alive after we saw the neighborhood right beside Meme's--houses were on top of houses!
Thankfully my uncle lives in Jackson so we were able to stay with him the first night.
Here we are walking out of the neighborhood to his car. It was pretty amazing to see how fast the town acted to clean up. They had the army national guard, fire fighters, and even prison convicts out cutting up the trees and debris in the road.
Okay folks... so that's my tornado story. :)
I'll be back to post more pictures from the clean up and my sister's baby shower....
