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by Jack Richard Norman

It was a day not like any other. The sun was out, but not its usual blinding self and there was an overwhelming humidity in the air like a thick blanket of moisture weighing me down. I thought nothing of it at the time, just another day to me. I had only arrived back in the States a week previous. After the fall I had gone home for Christmas break, and didn’t have to return until a week ago. Already though it all felt so familiar and quickly I was back into a routine. I had to be up early as usual for classes. This was the part of my day I did not look forward to. What seemed like an endless stream of classes back to back all the way through until lunch time. Yawning and dreary eyed I managed to pull myself from the bed and prepare myself for the long day ahead of me. Running over in my head all the classes I had to attend that day, Test and Measurements, Kinesiology, Arts in Western Civilization, the list seemed to go on. It was not an exciting prospect although the fact that I was here in another country, living a dream of mine, was more than enough encouragement to pull me through.

It was only the second semester of my freshman year. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the off season. I was used to having soccer practice at 3pm after classes every day. However that was not the case this semester. Our regime consisted of practicing only twice a week and not always at the same time. With all the classes I was taking and work to be done I was sure this was a good thing, although all I ever wanted to do was play soccer. I mean it was the reason I travelled three thousand miles and halfway across the world to be here. Today was one of the few days however that we had soccer practice. It wasn’t until later tonight but it was something to look forward to.

The day had dragged in, and my energy had slowly dwindled as I moved from class to class, but they were over now, it was lunch time, time to refuel and get ready for the night ahead. It was like a drug not on the market yet, the feeling of freedom, and relaxation the moment the last class of the day ended. I always imagined to myself if we could bottle the feeling of finishing classes for the day and sell it, someone could make a fortune. Especially selling it to students, who spend years of their lives craving that single best feeling on a daily basis. All day in school people had been talking of the weather and how it was supposed to storm later tonight, but I had never paid any attention. What do I know about the weather? I thought to myself, it can’t be that bad. In my country the weather is hardly a topic of discussion as it usually remains unchanged, always the same old cold, wet and dull weather. Occasionally when the sun rears its head it sparks a conversation but this is not as often as you’d think. Anyway, I had no time to think about the weather, it was almost time for soccer practice and I had to get ready.

I borrowed a car from one of my friends, as we were practicing at some high school a few miles from town. It was only Big Mike and I in the car, the radio was pumped up to an excessive volume, and we were on our way to practice. It didn’t take long to find the school, it was only a few miles down the road, and before we knew it we were the first ones at practice. It was short lived however. Before we even had a chance to exit the car our coach came to the car and said in a calm voice, “Go home guys practice has been cancelled tonight, there’s a huge storm cell coming this way, so make sure you’re inside and safe.” That was it, practice was cancelled and the few hours of soccer a week that takes me away from the stress of work and school had been cancelled. Mike was from Canada, so we were both international students and freshmen, and although we were from different countries our faces looked exactly the same. Our confused faces showed that we were inexperienced to American weather and what it can harvest. We both ranted the whole drive home, how can practice be cancelled due to weather it was indoors? This is crazy we thought, nothing will come of this we laughed and joked, as we arrived at my house. I quickly turned on the TV to see what all the fuss was about. There it was written all over the screen, expected at 6:15pm a large storm cell with high potential for rain, hail, thunder and lightning, and with the potential for tornadoes. I had never experienced a tornado before, I don’t know what all the chaos is about its only wind. That is a thought that will never go through my mind again.

Mike and I sat in my bedroom looking out the window, with camera in hand. It had been storming pretty bad for the last half hour or so, but nothing I hadn’t seen before. Some rain, some lightning followed by the voracious boom of thunder, but nothing worth getting in a panic over. We both sat still laughing and joking at the state “these Americans,” had got themselves into. Then all of a sudden it became calm. The say there is always a calm before the storm but this was the saying personified. The rain had stopped, there was no wind, just an eerie silent calm throughout the blackened streets. In the distance we could here the whisper of a siren sending out a warning, becoming ever increasingly louder. It was like an air raid in the 1940’s, the streets were blacked out and the as the siren grew the realization became ever clearer. Without notice the house began to shake uncontrollably, and an overwhelming rush of noise and wind surrounded us. The noise was deafening and the panic that evaded us earlier had found its way into our minds. There was five of us in the house at the time and suddenly we were all together congregated in the hallway. The fear in our eyes grew wider as the attic door burst open and insulation filled the room like a swarm of angry insects. Windows began collapsing inwards on themselves, and glass was strewn throughout the rooms. Quickly we scrambled to the bathroom. It was in the center of the house, with no windows it was the safest place to be. There were five of us huddled together inside a bathtub, blinded by the darkness of the room, when suddenly it was over. It seemed like an eternity at the time, but what in actual fact was only a 20 second time frame. As the noise faded and the dust settled, we opened the bathroom door to reveal the damage done. It was worse than we could have imagined. Our home was destroyed, from the inside out. Every window was smashed, with glass, insulation and debris everywhere. Our entire roof had been lifted off the house, twisted, moved and dropped back out of place. The front porch was lying in a wreckage in the front lawn. The laundry room was nowhere to be found. All that remained of it was the door leading inside, but when opened revealed nothing but the back yard. The washing machine, dryer and four brick walls had been swept away in a flurry of wind and haste. The car that I had borrowed lay under our garage which now looked like a pile of scrap wood and metal. We however, were not even the worst off in our street. As we stepped outside to see the wreckage, the house across the street had the entire front wall torn off and could see every room in the house. We clambered through the fallen trees, and torn houses calling out to people making sure everyone was alright and no on was trapped. People began emerging slowly from their homes, or what was left of them. Dust covered and shocked, it was a miracle that no one had been hurt...yet.

My house was about 2 miles from the school campus. After the dust had settled I had tried calling everyone, but there was no reception. All I could think about was my friends and everyone else on campus. Had it hit them? Were they OK? Why can’t I reach anybody? I wasn’t about to sit around and wait to find out. Myself, Mike and one of the other guys took off running. Down the street, onto the road and towards the school. In our journey we could see the devastation caused by the tornado. We followed a path of destruction all the way to the school. Homes were demolished, power cables lay skewed across the streets, cars flipped on their roofs, and people distraught everywhere. It was only about to get worse. When we eventually arrived at the campus it seemed that all the students were in the hallways safe and secure, except two. One of which was my friend and team mate who had taken shelter in one of the common rooms but it had collapsed under the tornado and he was trapped. No one knew if he was alright, or if he was alive. It was possibly the worst few hours of my life. We did all we could to help the fire brigade and rescue team, lifting rubble and debris out from the wreckage. Finally after 4 hours of searching, we had found David trapped but alive. He had been pinned down at the legs by some of the concrete wall that had collapsed. Once he had been rescued, he was taken to hospital for treatment, where he spent the next few months of his life.

The morning after it all became clear as to the extent of the tornadoes destruction. Pictures and news cameras showed pictures of the path it took, leaving everything in its wake destroyed. It had been one of the worst tornadoes in the history of the town, and F5 tornado, costing approximately $40 million worth of damage. These were all minor details in the bigger story to me. It was a miracle no one had died that night, and more importantly that we had rescued those trapped and helpless to save their lives. We never know what is in store for us and how things can change any minute of our lives for better or for worse. David made a recovery in hospital eventually but spent so much time with the weight of the building on his legs that he was in intensive care for months, and had to relearn how to walk. He will never play soccer again, and is lucky to be alive today. After everything he went through, you reconsider the priorities in your life. We take for granted the things that are given to us daily, and not until they are threatened to be taken away do we see what is truly significant. It was a day that changed thousands of peoples lives, for worse and for better. It was a day I will never forget, February 5 2008.