Good Friday (Photo Heavy)

This was one Good Friday and Easter weekend I will never forget! It was a gorgeous warm day on Friday with temps in the 70's. We were outside a lot of the day. We went to church that night, and returned home around 9:00 PM. My family and I were watching TV and the frequent interruptions in programming because of passing thunderstorms. We got 2 Weathercall alerts...one for severe thunderstorm warning, and another for a tornado warning. At around 10:55 PM, I heard a noise I will never forget. I asked Ed, "Do you hear that?" He didn't. I said, "Listen! You don't hear that?" He said, "Turn off the TV." As soon as I reached for the button on the remote, the power went out...complete darkness. Then Ed heard the "train whistle" noise! He grabbed Matthew and a flashlight and headed to our laundry room (no windows), and Jonathan and I got in the closet under the stairs. Those were the most terrifying seconds of my life! The noise got louder and louder, and I knew it was a tornado. It was, in fact, an EF-3 tornado. Read more about it HERE. The lightning was unbelievable! When things got quiet, we waited a bit, then got out. My husband took an umbrella door to door to check on the neighbors. It was really dark and hard to see much, but the light of day told the whole story! Below are some pictures from our house and around our neighborhood.

On a positive night, we thank God we were safe and the damage to our house wasn't that terrible. The power came back on Sunday night, and we just got our cable, Internet, and phone back this morning (hence the lag in posting). But my heart goes out to so many who lost so much right around us during this storm. Our neighbors, sheriff's dept, Emergency response, the Red Cross, and nearby churches were awesome!

Photos can't adequately portray how everything looks after a tornado. But here is the front of our house the next morning.

Here's a closeup of the tree that hit our house. It was an old oak that split...part hit our fence, and part hit the house.

This is the entrance to the neighborhood. Don't know if you can see the power and cable lines lying across the road.

This was the dogs' kennel. They were unharmed (really there was no time to get them in.) The roofs on their houses held up well.

More damage in our yard (and can you see the toy slide in the pool?)

The back of the house across the street.

Next door...that white thing around the roots is our neighbor's sprinkler system.

One view down the street beside and behind our house.

Just down the street from our subdivision entrance.

First Citizens bank of Beech Island (hard to tell from photo, but pretty much a total loss)

In Petticoat Junction area up HWY 278.

More Petticoat Junction (road blocked)

Workers trying to restore power and cable right outside our neighborhood. This stretch of road has been closed from 9-5 daily since the storm.

Praise God there was only 1 fatality from this. We are all blessed to be here! Glad to be back on-line too!