Not your typical Mother's Day story.

My plans were to sleep late then get up and fix breakfast for my family but that didn’t happen. I awoke around 5 am to the sound of thunder. I lay there trying to go back to sleep as the thunder continued to crash about every minute or so. As I lay there, I heard the thunder booms getting faster and faster until they were going off continuously. If you are a big weather buff like me, you know what that means. Usually it is a sign of a tornado developing.


I got up and went to the living room and turned on the TV. It was as I suspected. The Weather Channel was reporting tornado activity in our area. The system was moving rapidly though and it was soon gone. There were reports that a tornado had touched down near my Mother in Law’s house so being that it was Mother’s day, I decided to go check it out. I got my oldest son up and we headed into town. We only found a few trees down in that area but it was obvious that there had been hail from the small branches and leaves littering the roads.


We got back home and braced for the next round of storms bearing down on us. This was the storm that hit Oklahoma but it had died down some by the time it reached us. We got some needed rain and some wind but nothing serious. In the early afternoon, I fixed a nice dinner for my family and we were able to relax a little. We had garlic shrimp, grilled chicken, fresh squash from our garden, beans and rolls. The weather then turned nice so we decided to do a little plant work in our greenhouse.


Around 5 pm, we began to hear thunder again and the wind picked up. The weather service said there was another storm heading our way so we ”hunkered down” and waited to see what would happen. Around 6 pm, things were winding down and it looked like we were again spared. All of a sudden, the wind began whipping and the trees were bending and swirling around. It was a very odd wind, changing directions rapidly and the air was filled with dirt, dust and leaves. It only lasted a minute though and then it was gone. As soon as the wind began dying at our house, the power began blinking on and off. A few minutes later, it went off for good. We turned on the portable radio to see what was happening.


The weather service said there was a tornado on the ground on our island. From the path they described, it had passed right over out house. It actually touched ground about a mile from us and then plowed it way through the island, knocking down trees and power lines. From what I heard, it only destroyed a few houses but that is because that area is mostly woods. After the storm was gone, we took a ride to see what was going on but all the roads on and off the island were blocked. Our power was off until 2 am this morning and I am dead tired from getting no sleep. The main road on our island is still blocked but I was able to use a smaller road and get to work.


Last night as I lay there sweating without air conditioning, I thought about how fortunate we were and what It must be like in Oklahoma where the storm did its most damage. These storms keep getting worse and worse and have to just pray and thank God for sparing my friends and family. Say a prayer today for the families that lost their houses and the people that lost loved ones in the storm.

Photo's from Charleston's news paper, "The post and Courier". It was too dark for me to take pictures this morning. This is a few miles from our house.

Have a Blessed day,

Greg