Trenton Tornadoes

On Wednesday, April 27th, 2010 we had several tornadoes hit our small town of Trenton, GA.  The first tornado hit around 9am and was an F1.  The F1 hit our elementary school and blew several transmitters so that left us without power at work.  I was terrified.  I had Lincoln at work with me because it was my mom's day to watch him and she always picks him up at the office.  The first storm peeled the roof back at my mom's business so everyone went down there to try and stop the water from ruining her inventory.  We had heard there was another storm heading our way around 2pm.  Christian's boss made them leave and go home so thankfully Christian would be there if another storm hit.

The tornado they were predicting for 2pm ended up just being a wind storm.  After that the news was saying a huge storm would hit around 5:30pm.  Christian and I decided to make a plan.  Since we do not have a basement nor does anyone in our neighborhood we would have to crawl under the house.  We never in a million years thought that we would have to use the plan but decided we would rather be safe than sorry.  Christina took an old blanket and laid it out under the house.  I packed a bag for Lincoln that had a couple of bottles, diapers and blankets.  I also included flashlights and our cell phones.  If Christian told me to go I was in charge of getting myself and Lincoln under the house.  Christian was in charge of getting the two dogs and closing the door and of course being the calm one while I am freaking out.  We kept watching the news until about 4 or so min before the tornado hit.  Last thing I remember seeing on the TV before the power went out was that the tornado (f3) would hit in 4 min and to take cover.    Lincoln and I sat in the floor in the kitchen next to the back door.  Once I started seeing the trees behind our house twist around Christian yelled it was time to go.  I grabbed Lincoln and his bag, ran outside into the storage room and under the house.  Keep in mind I am pregnant, we were crawling in about 3.5 feet of space and Lincoln weighs over 27 pounds.  We flew under the house.  Christina grabbed the dogs and was right behind me.  Somehow when he was closing the door to the storage room Lola got out and was outside during the whole storm.  Poor thing!  I have no idea how long we were under the house.  I just knew I was scared.  After a while Christian figured it would be fine to crawl out but he wanted to check before Lincoln and I got out.  He checked on the house, found Lola an crawled back under the house.  He said I wasn't going to believe the roof.  We crawled back out (which was a lot harder than going in) and I was amazed.  Every tree behind our house was on the ground roots and all.  Most of our shingles on the front of the house were gone and some on the side.  There was debris everywhere!!  We meet some neighbors in the street and checked on everyone.  Thankfully everyone was safe.  We talked to our parents and they were all safe.  We thought we had seen the worse of it.  We came back inside and I went to change Lincoln's diaper in our bedroom.  I hear water dripping and turn around to a huge puddle of water in our bedroom floor.  We found damage in our bedroom and Lincoln's bedroom.  Our ceiling fan was also full of water.  We decided that we were going somewhere because we didn't feel safe at the house.  We packed our bags and just as we were about to leave another tornado came through so under the house we went!  This one wasn't as bad as the one before but still scary.  After that we were definitely leaving!!!!  My dad kept texting us to call him ASAP but we couldn't get through.  We finally got in touch with them only to discover their house was destroyed.  They loaded up their dogs and headed to Tiftonia to get a hotel room.  We went to my friend Tiffany's parents house that had a basement. 

Moore's Funeral Home

Half of the the funeral home is missing.

Law Offices

The back of Moore's Funeral Home

Dade Gas

What is left of Village Green Apartments

This is my house.  The second tornado tore most of the shingles off the front of our house.

Our back deck.

The field behind our house.

Since most of the shingles were gone off the roof of our house and it continued to rain we had several leaks inside our house.

My mom's house.

Thankfully because of the damage the first storm did to my mom's business they were all there instead of at home.  I am so grateful that they are all okay.

Most of the upstairs of my parents house is gone.  The blue room is my brother's bedroom.  The middle is the bathroom and the room on the end that doesn't have any walls left was the workout room. 

This four wheeler was in there garage.

Their living room

Their neighbors house.

The house across the street.

We drove around the next morning to see all the destruction.  I couldn't believe my eyes.  There were destroyed houses everywhere.  We are all very thankfull to be alive and grateful that we had someone watching over us.