I have never before been in a situation where I had to literally grab my children and run for my life, our lives. Well, never until this past summer...
It was late June/early July, we had tucked the kids into bed less than an hour before and were heading towards our own pillows. A knock at the door stopped us.
When we were looking for a spot to park our 5th wheel in the Williston area, the prospects were depressing. Overpacked dirt lots are the norm. An ad came up on Craigslist for a small, private set up. Only a half dozen spaces and there was green grass. It was more expensive, but we were thrilled to get it. Well, that stormy night, it was our landlord's teenage son that knocked on our door. He was letting us know that a tornado was heading our way and that we needed to leave our camper. Immediately. He offered for us to come to their home with them or we could get in our car and go. With the storm tracking directly for us, we chose to run.
That was a scary feeling. I have never run from anything in my life.
We got the kids out of bed and hustled them out the door and into the car. I'm not even sure that any of us had shoes on, it didn't matter.
We knew which way the storm was going, so my husband drove us in a direction that would not intersect with it. I'm so glad he was with us. I wouldn't have know where to go, which dirt road led where. But he did, thankfully.
It was the strangest thing...there were quite a few vehicles doing exactly as we were. Lots of folks up here live in their campers, just like us. So there were lots of folks trying to find a safe spot to wait out the storm. We drove for probably thirty minutes and when we got to the spot my husband had been taking us to there were other cars there waiting. Kids in pajamas, worried parents searching the sky. Everyone silent. Looking, listening, waiting.
We were following the storms path on our phones and when the radar showed that it was safe we started the drive back home. That was one of the blackest nights I have ever seen. The sky was like ink, the frequent lightning only highlighting the thick walls of dark clouds...
When we arrived back at our campsite we were relieved to find our home still standing. The storm missed us this time. A little (okay, a lot!) shaken up, we got the kids back in bed and eventually made it there ourselves. What a night.
It is the first time that I have questioned our decision to live in a camper.
Life goes on, we put it behind us. Trying to just forget about it. What good is living in fear?
A week or so later we woke up to the perfect day. Warm and sunny and Dan had the day off. We just so happened to have a watermelon, so we threw it in a cooler with some ice and headed to the big lake...
The swimming beach was packed, so we skipped it this time and instead we found a beautiful spot and just enjoyed being outside. Ice cold watermelon, happy kids, sunny skies...yes, please :)...
We weren't ready to go straight back to our camper, the day was just too nice. So, we decided to drive around and look at apartments. Yes, apartments.
I'm so glad we didn't go straight home...
We were looking at the new apartments being built, which were basically construction sites at the time, and noticed an ugly looking cloud in the distance. The same direction that we happen to live. It was moving fast and pushing a lot of wind in front of it. In just a few minutes we had to put up the windows and get to a safer spot (away from flying debris)...
Where this storm came from, I have no idea. It was a beautiful day! But come it did...
We went on home and the sight that greeted us was not pretty. I started taking pictures should it be necessary for insurance purposes before the hail could all melt...
Plus, I have realized that taking pictures helps to calm me down. I took a bunch of pictures that day...
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| that's all hail... |
Our neighbors, young guys, were up on top of their rig and quite amped up. They had been there for the storm and told us that the noise was just unreal. Deafening. Large hail on metal, I can only imagine... They told us that we needed to check out our roof, they could see it and it didn't look good.
Dan headed up while I headed inside. I was greeted by a floor strewn with hail and pieces of our vent thingees. The storm beat down so hard that it even knocked down several of our light covers, the little round glass disk things. I am SO GLAD that we weren't home.
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| this whole thing was broken up...crazy... |
After assessing all the damages, we actually fared pretty well. The vent covers were all trashed, along with two of the vent assemblies. Our skylight over our shower was busted and we had a few dings here and there. No windows were broken (unlike our neighbors, theirs was smashed), our structure...with a few minor repairs...was still sound. I mopped and dried the floors, we put the pieces back together, and at the end of the day we still had a home. AND, I didn't have to do it alone. Dan was with us. Thank the Lord for that.
Some of the long time locals I have talked to say they can't remember there ever being a summer like this one. All these storms. We really have been blessed to come through it as unscathed as we have. There were some campers that got knocked OVER not too far from us. Oh man...
Phew. That wasn't easy to talk about, but now you know. All part of it I suppose...
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