Tornado Sirens

Yesterday morning before 2:30 am, we woke up to the tornado sirens sounding. The ironic thing was that I had done a tornado drill with the kids earlier that day when they test the sirens (every Saturday at noon or so.) Danny had asked if we would even hear them at night if they went off. Well, what do you know? Danny sat bolt upright in bed at 2:30! The man who sleeps through every baby cry and vomiting child upset in the middle of the night... The wind was almost blowing the trees over and the sky was pink. We jumped up and turned on the TV to check, and it assured us there was a tornado warning for Omaha. I woke up the kids and we went down to the basement to wait it out. Since our computers are in the basement, we read up on the news watches and followed the Doppler radar map of storm intensity. I kept trying to zoom in, because the worst of the storm looked like it was right on top of us! The sirens went off 3 times total, then the watch was cancelled at 3:00 am. So that’s our first actual tornado warning!
Then Sunday morning we learned that the funnel had touched down in Millard, 15 miles west of us, and then proceeded Northeast to about 7 miles away from us. There was quite a bit of damage in those areas, but no one was hurt. My neighbor Naomi drove out to her sister’s house and said that the house at the end of the street had a tree through it! We were very blessed to be kept from the damage. We had severe rains, but at least our roof was not ripped off or anything! We are very blessed to be out of the path of the storms.
Our friends Angie and Aaron in our ward live in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and they were not as lucky. They are lower and right at the water table level, and water seeped in through their basement all day with such heavy rains from the storm. Danny and a couple of our neighbors went over after church and helped take up carpet pad and clean up, then I pitched in a bit with my friends to get dinner for their family.
I have tried to describe our little community here to my family, but I don't think people really understand how it works here unless they have lived here! I have been thinking about it today, and I think that is just one of the most fantastic things about our "bubble." If someone has a need, people jump in and help out. I have made the comment before that it is like the Law of Consecration in action. At first I didn’t quite get the community thing because I am so used to doing things on my own. But now I am glad for it, and have to remember to reach out and help and participate with others. I know the kids love being here and having friends around all the time, and I think it’s great to just walk around and talk to our neighbors and hang out with each other, not to mention potluck get-togethers and babysitting swaps!
Damage in the Millard area, Southwest Omaha, from yesterday’s tornado.