Tornado? Wall Cloud?

Last Tuesday morning around 12:35 a.m.-Sister Katie Koford and I woke up to horrendously loud winds outside of our duplex in Murray Kentucky.  The week prior, the tornado sirens had gone off twice.  We thought it was just another bad storm.  I looked out the window and could see nothing.  Sister Koford mentioned that our alarm clock was not on.  "Our power must be out."

As I looked out of the window again, I saw that the Lightning lit up the sky, but I still couldn't see to much other than shadows.  Then I began to see flashlights and said to Sister Koford, "What are our neighbors thinking!  They're all outside with flashlights!  Don't they know it's a storm?"  She and I joked about it a little bit, watched our neighbors for a few more minutes, and went to bed.

The following morning, we understood why they were outside with their flashlights.  Our power was still off, and debris littered the ground.  With winds as strong as 100 MPH, roofs were torn off, windows shattered, limbs and branches of trees were whipped around, and trees were uprooted from the ground.

Our street was hit pretty badly.  Our next door neighbor had a very tall tree fall and knock off the side of his roof, and bash in the side of his car.  A few houses up, the front door to our neighbors home was blocked off by 3 different trees.  Our house remained untouched.  Everyone in our neighborhood had some kind of damage-or at least large limbs in their yard to clean up.  We, however, had just a few twigs in our yard.  As we drove around that morning, we began to see how awful the storm had been.  People explained that it was a kind of wind that hit straight down on the ground and bounced back up into the sky.  Others said that it had to have been a tornado with the amount of damage that occurred.

Still, I don't know exactly what the storm was, but I am so grateful we were protected.  What a miracle! As we talked with other people in the area, trying to help them clean up, we realized how truly blessed we were.  There were no deaths, no injuries-just property damage.  We met one man who's car had been totaled when a tree had crashed through his garage, crushing his car.  When we asked him if he was doing alright he replied, "Oh me?  I'm fine!  It could've been worse."  And with a smile, "I'm happy it landed on the roof over my car instead of the roof over my bed!"

The car that was totaled after a tree fell through the garage.

Though there was a lot of damage, we feel blessed in this area to be so protected.  As I have learned about the other deadly tornadoes throughout the south, I pray with gratitude that we have been blessed with so much safety here in Kentucky.

My heart goes out to those who have been injured by those deathly tornadoes.  I pray for the families of those who are suffering the effects of lost loved ones and lost homes.  May God bless them.

Here are a few of the pictures from the storm that ripped through Murray...

This is suppose to be 14th Street

This is a driveway to one of our neighbors homes.

This power line fell into a tree-causing a fire.  Behind it, a huge branch from that tree fell on this woman's (Kathy)  house. 

The wind was 100 MPH-so strong, that leaves were plastered to cars.

I took this picture in front of someone's home. 

Another street blocked by Tree Limbs

The grass was literally yanked up by strong winds pulling this tree.

Power lines were twisted and crushed by trees.

This is our neighbors house.  Three trees were blocking the front of her home for days.