Remembering One Year Ago...

Tonight marks the one year anniversary of the EF3 tornado that ripped through Nappanee destroying homes and demolishing businesses. Wow! I can't believe it's been one year. Since then homes and businesses have been repaired or rebuilt, including a brand new Taco Bell/KFC, and a brand new home for Dairy Queen.

Since I wasn't much of a blogger a year ago, I never really posted my thoughts of the event or even my story of what was going on that night. Now that I've been keeping a consistant blog, it's time for me to give you the timeline of that night as well as Friday and Saturday. So here you have it.

It's been one year since that night and I remember it like it was yesterday. I can still smell and feel the warmth of the air. The tornado was called the EF3 and it was, it really was... ok, time to be serious.

Thursday, Oct. 18, 2007

9:00PM - Flipped on the TV to watch The Office, only to be interrupted by Mike Hoffman's weather report. There were tornado warnings. To tell you the truth, I was just wanting to watch The Office. I wasn't really worried about anything, because I just thought nothing was gonna happen.

9:55PM - Headed out to go to work. Walking out of my apartment, I remember looking to the western sky's and thinking, "Hmm, it does feel really weird out tonight. We might actually see severe storm, possibly a tornado."

Around 10:15PM - Working in Martins, walking around we hear a tornado siren. I just don't think anything of it.

Around 10:20PM - The tornado hits Nappanee. Again, standing in the middle of a grocery store, we had no idea what was going on. We heard noise and then thought, yep, there is a tornado. One of the store managers runs back and tells us to get to the back room. We go back, the tornado has passed.

10:25PM - 10:40PM - Confused and worried, I spent all this time trying to contact my parents. At that time, none of us knew where this tornado hit. The cell phone I had, was very low on battery power. I called my parent's house, but no answer. I was worried that maybe it hit that part of town and then just passed north of Martins, maybe over the golf course. I was worried that my family was hurt or maybe killed. I then tried contacting my brother in Fort Wayne. His phone was dead and I didn't have their home phone number. Finally I got a hold of my dad.

Me: Dad, are you guys ok? What happened? Where did it hit?
Dad: We're ok. What are you talking about?
Me: I'm talking about the tornado that just went through Nappanee! I'm calling to see if you guys are ok. Do you know what's going on?
Dad: There wasn't a tornado. The sirens went off, but there wasn't much of a storm.

At that point I was relieved, knowing that the tornado wasn't near my family and that everyone was ok. I went on to explain what was going on and then my phone died.

10:45PM - We walked up to the front of the store and looked out. All we saw was darkness and in the darkness the flashing lights of all kinds of emergency vehicles. A police officer drives up and we open the front doors. He asks if everyone is ok and then goes on to kind of describe the path of the storm, stating that Dairy Queen and Taco Bell was gone. We knew that our boss's house was in the path as well. We spent time calling him and he then came to the store along with a lot of Martin's CEO Representatives. The big boys!

Around 11:00PM - They all arrive and check on the store. It was kind of a big deal, considering the store had just opened up a few weeks earlier. We then had to shut off the main generator due to the fact that there was a gas leak.

Around Midnight - With a lot of help from the employees that arrived we spent hours pulling dairy, meat, produce stuff out of all the coolers. The coolers in the back were still up and running. A dry ice guy came and we started putting up dry ice in all the freezers. All of this in the dark with just a few flashlights.

The rest of the night(early morning)- We got the power back on. The manager wanted to get the store all ready, for we were gonna be open the next day. I turned on my phone to see if I could do anything with the few seconds of power that I had. I had all kinds of voicemail messages. Some of them from past students of small groups. Everyone knowing where I lived and really concerned. I was able to get a text message out, but then the phone went dead. With the power back on it just turned back into a regular working night, getting all things stocked and ready for when the store would open. All through the night the phones were ringing, people wanted to know if we would be open.

Friday, Oct. 19

Around 6:00AM - Employees arrived, still not sure when the store was gonna open. The rest of the night crew got everything put up.

8:00AM - It was growing lighter outside. It was time to walk out and see the destruction. A few employees and I walked up to the intersection of CR 7 and US 6. We walked up slowly. Standing there looking across the road, it was an eeire feeling. The sky in the background along with the destruction, looking down US 6 was a very eerie sight. My jaw dropped. It was the first time I've ever seen anything like this, live, and not on a movie or tv.

I then looked over at my apartment complex. We walked over there and there was tons of debris all around in the parking lot. Some of the buildings were damaged. Huge wooden beams sticking out of the roofs. Walking around I noticed that 80% of all the vehicles were damaged, by either hail, tree branches, or any other type of debris. My car was parked at Martins. We walked into the building and down stairs to my apartment. The power was still out. I had nothing but flashlight that you crank to keep it alive. My place is in the basement of the building. It was pretty dark down there. Instead of saying it on here, just ask me about walking around. It's kind of funny. The only thing damaged from my apartment, were the window hinges. I left my windows open that night.

I then grabbed some stuff and went to stay at my parent's place for the weekend. Heading back on Saturday morning, the land lady said that it isn't safe to stay there and that she ordered everybody to stay out until we were told otherwise. So I had to stay at my parent's house for a few weeks. When I was able to move back in, I was told that she was gonna deduct the those weeks from next month's rent. That was nice.

More to say, but I leave that to links from those who posted after the tornado. Look at these links for stories, thoughts, and tons of photos.

From Derry Prenkert: Tornado Touch Down in Nappanee, Relief Work at the church
From Jeff Simpson: The Storm., Pics from the aftermath

Sorry, for all the poor grammer and spelling.