One Lady's Story of Surviving the Tornado that ripped through Town
Monday, May 20, 2013 started out as a normal day until the urgency of the storm warnings came across the news station.
Watching the hail come down and the skies turn dark, I got an uneasy, panicky feeling in my heart and the pit of my stomach. The tornado sirens were going off in the neighborhood. The news station started naming areas close to where we live, and were telling people to take cover, to get under ground.
I called my daughter who lives in Massachusetts but only got her voice mail. I told her I loved her very much and that I wasn't sure what was going to happen.
I was sitting on a stepstool between the washer and dryer in our small utility room, off the kitchen. I got a call from my sister, Elaine who lives in Tennessee. She had just heard on the radio that a tornado was on the ground in Oklahoma City. I told her I was trying not to panic and that the sirens were going off in the neighborhood. Then my phone 'beeped', so I told her I would call her back after I checked messages - there were none. I dialed my daughter's number again with no luck. Then I called Paul, who was at work, but there was no connection. Next I called Elaine and we connected.
She sternly told me to "... get into a hall and lay on the floor as flat as you can get NOW!" I grabbed my purse, went into the hallway and laid flat on the floor. All of a sudden I felt the wind on my feet as if I were barefoot (I had shoes on) and felt it grabbing my legs. I started screaming! I told Elaine I couldn't stay there in the hallway and I started crawling (army style) into the bathroom, next to were I had been laying in the hall.
Now I was on my left side holding the cell phone tightly against my left ear. Our kitten had come into the bathroom with me then went back out into the house. I thought I felt her on my ankles then realized it was dirt, dust and debris blowing across them and onto me. All I could do was scream. Elaine told me she loved me and I stop screaming long enough to tell her I loved her, too. My eyes were shut tight as she screamed right along with me! (I am so thankful she was 'there' with me through this!) I remember thinking, "I can't die, my family will be sad." I also remember the image I saw while my eyes were tightly shut was like a stained glass kaleidoscope.
The sound of the tornado and the house coming apart is indescribable although I did read one woman's description that fits pretty good: "... the roar of a lion with a freight train coming out of its mouth."
Everything got real quiet. Remarkably my sister is still on the phone with me. Elaine asked if I was dead. All I could say was, "Shhhh, listen... is it over?" She asked if I could move, and I couldn't because there was stuff piled on top of me. She asked if I could open my eyes, I could not because they were full of dirt and dust. I wiped them and my vision was very blurry but I could see my glasses just a few inches from my face. I put them on. Elaine could sense the feeling that was building in me and did her best to calm me down by telling me to focus and center myself... and breathe.
When I was 'calmed down' she asked me to look up. I told her I could see the sky. She heard hysteria rising in my voice and told me to close my eyes again and focus. She asked for my address and where I was in the house so she could call the local police and let them know I was buried inside. As soon as she got the info she needed the connection dropped and I could not reach anyone. I was lying there smelling the dirt and dust. I had it in my mouth, nose, ears... I smelled what I thought was a skunk but then realized it was probably propane leaking out from the other houses. I tried to send a text to Paul to let him know where I was but the message would not go through.
I looked up and saw the sky
Just seconds after my phone disconnected I could hear a man yelling, "Call out!" I laid there thinking, what the heck does he mean, 'call out'? Then it dawned on me that he was looking for people who were trapped, like me! I started yelling 'I'm in here!' The man came around the back of the house and I heard him say, "Oh my God!" I thought 'oh my God WHAT?!?' I could feel the release of pressure as he pulled the debris, the walls, roof off me. He helped me up and out of the house. Amazingly I only had cuts on my arms and legs (the bruises showed up later). I asked his name and he replied, 'we don't have time for that right now...' I looked at him and told him I wanted to thank him and asked his name again to which he replied "Corey".
my safe place
I could hear gas hissing from the other houses. He asked if anyone else was in the house and I told him our kitten, CC, was in there but we couldn't find her. I told him I knew the lady next door was home so he went over there and pulled her out of her closet. Suddenly some one shouts there's another one coming and we could hear the sirens going off in the next neighborhood. I looked around and asked where do we go? there was no placed to go! The siren stopped. I kept looking up at the sky... our neighborhood looked like it was a war zone, like several bombs had gone off.
I walked away from this
I started walking up the street towards Telephone Rd. with Corey, another man and a lady with a dog in her arms. Phone service was still out and I needed to let Paul know I was alive and where I was going. I could hear the sirens from police cars and ambulances and fire trucks as people were walking around in shock including me. I didn't know where to go. I tried calling Paul again and was able to leave a voice mail for him. I didn't know that message would take over an hour to reach his phone and that he had been trying to contact me as well.
Corey said I could sit in his truck. He ran ahead then came back saying his truck had been stolen. Then he continued down the side streets in search of others that may be trapped. I thought how odd that he didn't get upset that his truck was missing.
I crossed over Telephone Rd. to the Warren Theatre's parking lot. A nurse talked to me a bit and I told her I wasn't hurt that badly and I was sure others needed her attention more than me. I stood off from the crowd so I could be easily spotted by Paul when he came looking. All I could see was the devastation all around but I don't think my mind let me take it all in at that time - thankfully!
Paul left work after the 'all clear' in his area was given. He had to park near the 4th Street bridge where the Post Office was, behind what was the Moore Medical Center. From this viewpoint he saw what looked like 'hell'. Paul saw fire and smoke and the devastation as he looked toward where our house use to be. He hadn't received my message so didn't know if I was dead or alive or if he would find me as he walked into the neighborhood, his home from the time he was seven years old.
One of the things Paul noticed was an old tree which leaned towards the back of the house as it grew. The tornado came through the back yard area and from it's angle, that tree should have fallen on the house but instead was lying along side the house. If it would have fallen on the house it would have been onto the bathroom, where I was.
Finally my message gets through to Paul and he heads over to the Warren Theatre. I saw him looking for me among the people who were sitting on the steps. He grabbed me and I wrapped my arms around him and cried in his arms.
We went back to the house the next day to see what we could salvage from the ruins. It was raining so the only thing we did was look for our kitten. On Wednesday we started going through the rubble. Paul called for CC again and thought he heard a little 'meow'. He called me over to where the back bedroom used to be and said, "Listen... do you hear that?" He called CC again and we both heard her meow. Then out from underneath all the rubble she came, without a cut!
Every day for 2 weeks after we were at the 'house' going through the debris, saving what we could. We pulled bricks out of the way to see what was salvageable underneath and every day for 2 weeks I dreaded going there. I hated being there and shook uncontrollably while there.
The outreach of the community and the people from surrounding areas as well as those that came from out of state to help all stricken by this disaster was filled with love, kindness and compassion. It was overwhelming at times to experience such love.
The husband of the wife next door thanked me for having Corey get his wife out of the closet. I told him I had no idea where he came from because he got here so fast. He told me Corey told his wife that he worked at the Harley Davidson shop over by the Warren Theatre. I recently stopped by there to thank him again. I was told no one by that name worked there or ever worked there.... I do believe that Corey was an Angel heaven sent.
my car but not my pool
I survived an EF5 tornado, laying on the bathroom floor clinging to my cell phone. By the Grace of God and His Mighty Angels, I survived an EF5 tornado and am very grateful to be alive.
Lynne Holman
Moore, Oklahoma
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1 Peter 1:6... you will rejoice forever, not withstanding that at present time you are under pressure by the various trials that pass over you. So that the proof of your faith may appear more precious than refined gold (that is tested by fire) to glory and honor and praise the manifestation of Y'shua whom you have not seen yet you love him and in the faith of whom you rejoice (it is glorious and beyond expression ) that you may receive the reward of your faith, the life of your soul, the grace given to you... Therefore strengthen your mind and be totally awake and wait for the return of Y'shua as obedient children - do not go back to your old ways. Be Set Apart as He is Set Apart (be holy because He is Holy). Put your Faith and Hope in Elohim, our Father in Heaven. Our minds become sanctified by obeying the Truth and we will be full of love, like persons born anew by the Living Word of Elohim who abides forever.
If you should suffer on account of righteousness consider yourself Happy :-)
Do the right thing instead of trying to please everyone else
Put YHWH first in all things
Be not dismayed at the trials that befall you as if some strange thing has come upon you...
these things are for your probation.
Rejoice that you have participated in the sufferings of Messiah, that you may also rejoice at the revelation of his glory. Cast all your anxiety upon Elohim for He cares for you. Be sober and guarded because haSatan like a lion goes about and seeks whom he may devour. Therefore, resist him being steadfast in the Faith and know that the same suffering befalls your Brothers (your fellow believers) that are in the world.
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