Tornado! Wow, where to start?

Saturday's big tornado in SW Mo was too close. It is true what they say. It sounds like a train coming.
There are many stories and there are 14 dead in our county so far. More when you count the ones in Oklahoma. So my story is pretty insignificant, but to say I am here and unharmed and family is OK. But here it is.

We were having a family gathering at my Brother's house for our oldest brother who came in from NC. I have 2 sisters in the area also. We were seeing the sky looking bad and knew we were in for a storm. So both sisters headed home. One a few blocks away and the other about 12 miles. Just after they left the sirens started, so we 4 that were left at the house started watching the sky. Suddenly we heard the train sound and the lights went out. We crowded in the bathroom with the dogs in arms. (one was hiding under the bed) In a few min. we peaked out and the sky was real bright. Found some huge hail balls in the yard. And started hearing all kinds of police and ambulance sirens. I went home about 10 miles to the so. and was shocked by what I saw. I will post a couple pictures here but it is just the tip. Seems the tornado came out of Oklahoma, and made a path across country and hit the west and south side of our little town and then kept going. Many houses lost. Haven't heard a count yet.

We have one family that we heard their story and our old neighbor from out to our farm is a very good friend of this gal, Debbie is a single mom with a 7 year old daughter. She, her daughter, her boyfriend, and the Old neighbor with her 2 kids were in Debbie's trailer house so of town when it hit. They tried to get out and it was to late, the boyfriend was sucked thru a glass door and cut real bad. The rest were all thrown out on the deck and as the trailer began to twist apart, they were all, and I repeat ALL thrown into a huge hole where just a few min before a big tree had stood. Then the trailer house rolled over the top of them!! I still get chills just thinking about it. Debbie said she just knew she was going to die. The boyfriend spent a couple days in ICU and is home now to recuperate.

You know how when you hear about a disaster you always wish you could do something to help. Well we decided that we have a house sitting empty waiting to sell out to our little 20 acre farm, which is on the north side of town. So we offered it to Debbie to live in for awhile. It sure won't hurt us any and will give her some time to get things figured out. She has a couple of horses and they are OK and will be put in the pasture. I just feel grateful to be able to do something that will help someone.

So that is it for now from SW Missouri. My heart goes out to everyone who is suffering from their losses. There was 2 families who lost multiple lives. One was husb, wife, and 2 kids that the house fell in on them. And another that had 3 family members. We saw on the news this morning that a 21 year old firefighter died in the hospital yesterday from injuries. We was spotting the tornado and getting warnings out to help others.

IF you are safe and sound, count your blessings. We have many!!