Tornado Survival

[Sparrowhawk]

Hello all.

I did not write about this for a long time. However, if any of you have heard of the February 5, 2008 tornado, you will know what I'm talking about. I was a sophomore at Union University in Jackson TN at the time. I was on campus in one of the many dorms that was destroyed when it hit. This is my account that I have posted on my facebook and I now paste it here. It is too long to fit in one posting, so I am starting the thread and responding to it until the narrative is complete.

It has been 5 months and 5 days since the tornado hit Union University, and I still have not written my account. My main purpose in writing this actually is so I don’t get my memory mixed up on some of the smaller details or become tempted to exaggerate my story later in life. However, since some people love to read accounts of people who survived natural disasters, I decided to go ahead and post it online - even though my story is not really exciting.

February 5, 2008 was the first Tuesday of the spring semester at Union University, which had started its classes on the previous Wednesday. Classes hadn’t really kicked into full gear yet, and I was still enjoying seeing my roommates and friends again after 6 weeks of being home. I was playing a computer game with my roommate and friends most of the night, when I took a break to make some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and grab a coke. The news happened to be on the television and I noticed that there was severe weather in Memphis, where my aunts and uncles live so I was mildly concerned for them. My mom called while I was making the sandwiches to warn me to be constantly watching the TV since she had heard that Jackson was in the incoming path of the “severe weatherâ€

[Sparrowhawk]

I continued picking things up for a few minutes when someone started screaming for help. I ran outside. I stopped. It was the first time I saw just how bad it was. I could only see details of things within a few feet of me, but I instantly could see that the commons were gone as well as parts of other buildings with debris scattered everywhere. I was so stunned I was just standing there looking, the call for help being driven out of my mind by the sudden shock of the devastation. A second yell reminded me why I had run out there in the first place. It sounded like it came from the parking lot and when I turned to go that way I saw cars flipped and stacked on top of each other. I ran that direction, thinking someone must be pinned under one, but I was also trying to make sure I kept my feet on the concrete and avoid any down power lines. The call rang out again. It sounded like it was coming from behind again, but that now would be the destroyed commons. I started going that way when the call rang out again. It was the same voice but each time it sounded like it was coming from a different direction, I guess probably from the echoes. I began to get frustrated and feeling helpless when someone else yelled that they had found him. Apparently, this new person had someone with him cause he said “Help me get this off of him.â€

[Sparrowhawk]

My cousin goes to the same college as me. My mom called and told me to get a hold of my cousin because there were rumors (which turned out to be true) of people buried alive and, my aunt couldn’t reach him and she’s freaking out because he normally knows to call and she fears he is buried. Now having something to do, I was back to normal again. One of the things they had been doing while we were inside was sending around a sheet for everyone to sign. They had sent all of it to the one student who had managed to get out with her laptop and she was making a roll of people accounted for (the teachers were mostly at home when it hit at 7:02PM). I found her and asked if my cousin’s name had been found. She said no, but that she was not finished going through them and that there were some students over in our science building that she did not have a list of. So I started walking up and down every hallway, using the light of my cell phone to find people and ask if they had seen him. Nope. Soon the people from the science building were brought in, though I did not find that out till they began moving us outside. A second wave of storms was on its way and they were sending us to employees’ and friends’ of the university houses that were nearby. Right before we left, though I still had not found him, three people completely separate from each other said they had seen him at the science building and that he was fine. So I called him, but I could not get a hold of him, so I left a message saying that he needed to call his mom ASAP to let her know he was not buried or something else. Unfortunately, he must have a twin on campus. My cousin is Kevin Furniss, one of the students buried alive for hours in the collapsed commons. I don’t think I have ever asked him if he got that message, I was too embarrassed. Though for several days he could not walk or feel his legs, he soon made a full recovery. When I got to the place I was staying that night, a total stranger to me, the adrenaline finally wore off. I was shaky, dazed, and had no interest in anything. The people could not have been nicer, they offered to cook me anything I liked, offered me all the entertainment they had, but for the next day and a half, I would not eat, only occasionally drink a little water. I called my mom to let her know I was safe for the night, then stayed up watching the news, numb, but waiting for updates, thinking about how many funerals I would probably be attending in the next week. Dr. Dockery, our school president, was tearing up every time he updated everyone through the news media. Amazingly, all of the students buried under hundreds of pounds of concrete were pulled out alive, limbs crushed, but heads and torso miraculously spared. By the end of the night, though we still were not sure everyone was accounted for, everyone we thought we had at least heard from and they were all alive. I felt sick the whole night though, wanting to do something but unable to do anything I knew would help and doing anything else felt meaningless. So I just sat there. Praying sometimes, sometimes just sitting. My sleep that night was fitful, with me dozing only to dream of friends in the hospital screaming for help from me and waking up less than 5 minutes later. I did not sleep well for over a week and it was several before I slept through a whole night. Soon, we learned that indeed everyone had lived, despite the grim odds left behind by the 260+mph EF4 tornado that destroyed 70% of the housing facilities (which at 7 in the evening is where most of us were). The first responders trained for these situations had radio backed to prepare for 100 casualties minimal to the hospitals, I assume to help them quickly process the ones that were likely to show up dead so the could treat the living. God truly is amazing, however. Not only did everyone live, but everyone is expected to make a full recovery, though some will be in recovery for over a year at home with months of rehab and physical therapy. But if you look at the damage (which there are plenty of photos on the internet) and read about all the fatalities across several states, it is easy to see we are blessed. Praise be to God!!! For Your mercies are indeed new every morning! Hallelujah praise be to Your name! I am humbled in Your presence and in your compassion. Praise and Thanks be to YHWH, the LORD Almighty!!!.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/41208530@N00/sets/72157603861654921/

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,328885,00.html

PS I tried to keep names out. I named my cousin because multiple networks interviewed him and his name can easily be found.

[Sheenar]

Wow, praise God nobody was killed! Thanks for sharing! That is an amazing story!

[randomuser83]

Dude I feel for you in everything but next time can you please use paragraphs and some breaks. It was pretty hard to get through that but thanks for the post.

[Sparrowhawk]

lol sure, of course, when i see things like that I copy and paste them onto a word processor where i can enlarge the print and make double spacing =D