The first memory I have, as a child, was being caught in a hurricane in Biloxi. I despise hurricanes. They scare me. The worst experience I ever had was with Hurricane Hugo. I suffer from PTSD because of it. But, then there are tornadoes.
I have been in three in my life. I do not wish them on anyone. In light of the tragedies in Texas and Oklahoma recently, I need to tell you about my experiences. Oddly, when I lived in Texas for three years, I did not see one tornado. We did have a bad dust storm and torrential rains, as well as deep snow and bitter cold, but no tornadoes.
When I was in college at Presbyterian, I was in class on the 3rd floor watching a movie. I don't remember what class it was, but I remember the power went off, and we heard the sound of a train. The teacher knew what was happening, and he told everyone to hit the floor and get under our desks. I don't really know how much that would have helped, since it was a three-story building, but we did anyway. The tornado touched down on one side of my dorm and took out a tree. Then, it went up and came back down on the other side of my dorm and took out another tree. Then, it proceeded to go across the football field and take out all of the light poles before going back up. Had it gone through my dorm, it would have gone right through my room. Everyone says that it sounds like a freight train. It does.
The second one happened in Missouri, when I was with two friends at Six Flags Over Mid-America outside of St. Louis. We had gone to the park that night and went on the rollercoaster. One of my friends looked into the sky and commented that it looked like a tornado was coming. Apparently, the ride operator saw it, too, because he stopped the ride, and he had to walk down the track to the ground. The park has a storm shelter underground, which is where the employees went. Most of the patrons went to their cars in the parking lot. We didn't know where to go, so we looked for some substantial structure to go into. There were none. We found a security guard, and we stayed with him. We watched as the spinning cloud went over us, but it didn't touch down. My two friends were in awe. I was just scared. The tornado touched down about a mile from the park at a small airport and destroyed some airplanes. When the storm was gone, they reopened the park, and there were no lines for the rides. We had it all to ourselves.
The third one happened during a storm, as I was driving on a road between Clinton and Newberry. I had left seeing my parents in Laurens and was on my way home. I never liked driving on interstates, and really enjoyed the scenery of the secondary roads. On this afternoon, it was raining cats and dogs. You couldn't see very far in front of you. Consequently, you couldn't drive fast. There was a car in front of me with an older man behind the wheel. He was creeping along, and my eyes were fixed on his back lights. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a small tornado coming across a field. It wasn't moving fast, but I was calculating if it would miss us or not. It seemed to be moving about the same speed as us. I couldn't pass the old man, so I began honking my horn to try and get him to speed up. I couldn't brake, as I didn't know if anyone was behind me. So, I kept honking. He wouldn't speed up. The twister was getting closer. Just as it got to us, it went up and clipped the top of my car. I heard a thump and kept going. When we got to Newberry, the road turned into four lanes, and I could get around the old man. I gave him a dirty look, and he just looked at me and threw up his hands as if to say "Why were you honking?" He apparently never saw the tornado. I did. It put a small dent on the edge of my car just above the passenger side window.
I feel for those who have lost everything, including the lives. I have a lot to be thankful for. Hug someone today and tell them it will be okay.
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