So, in case you haven't heard, this past Wednesday,the Southeast was hit with several tornadoes! They have completely wiped out neighborhoods in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Virginia. We had four rounds of storms here. I thought that I would walk you through my day:
TUESDAY AFTERNOON: Administration gave every teacher a battery operated flashlight.
TUESDAY NIGHT (around 8pm): Chris looked at me and says "Megan, I don't want to scare you, but there is a 70% chance of tornadoes all day tomorrow! Just so you know."
WEDNESDAY
7:30am: I arrive at school, and talk to Beth McCoy (another 1st grade teacher) she suggests that I need to prepare my kiddos before we send them to related arts at 8:20am.
7:45am: I proceed to my morning duty in the cafeteria. I see Mrs. Levine (our principal) with the safety director for HCDE. I assume he is approving our "Tornado Drill" plan.
8:10am: The bell rings, and students arrive in the classroom.
8:15am: I move all students to my carpet to talk about the day. I explain that there are storms in the area, but we are in the safest place in Chattanooga. I tell them that our school has been standing for over 100 years, and Mrs. Levine, Mrs. Brown, and I WILL keep them safe. I also show them my new flashlight, and make sure they understand what to do if the lights go out while we are moving to the hallway.
8:25am: I take students to P.E.
8:35am: Mrs. Levine distributes a memo to all teachers explaining the updated Tornado Procedure.
8:40am: Mrs. Levine announces for all students to be moved to their designated location. I run down to my room, grab my flashlight, blue attendance card, and get my students from P.E. We move to the ground floor, shut all doors, and sit in silence. We wait for further instructions. Mrs. Levine remains very calm, explaining to kids that this is just a drill.
9:00am: Mrs. Levine asks that students cover their heads, and teacher assume their positions over students. This is when I THINK the big (300 year old) tree fell out front...
9:15am: Power goes out, along with the AC. We being fanning students with our blue attendance cards :)
10:00am: We remain seated on the ground floor in silence.
10:15am: We are dismissed to classrooms, with all Pre K, K, and 1 students staying on the ground floor. I was excited that Mrs. Zeigler's class joined us in my room. We ate snack, drew pictures, and ate a wonderful lunch the cafeteria worked very hard to make (in the dark).
10:45am: HCDE made the call to begin dismissing schools at 11am. Students started to be called to go home.
11:45am: All students that were still in the building were called to the front stairs for dismissal.
12pm: Mrs. Levine allowed all teachers, who had more than a 15 minute drive to leave...I left. I walked out the front door and I was in AWE! I began taking pictures.
1pm: I arrived at home, took Delilah out, and turned on the news. Another storm was set to hit at 2:30pm. Another at 4pm, 7:30pm, and 9pm. I watched and waited. It looked like we were in for it.
I set up camp in the guest bathtub.
Chris remained in the living room watching the news.
As each storm came, more damage was reported on the news. By the end of the night, our nerves were shot, and over 70,000 people were without electricity. I was unaware of how lucky we really were...
When I woke up Thursday morning, several of my friends remained without power, and that's just the beginning. Ringgold, Georgia looks like a "war zone." The latest news report stated that there were over 162 tornadoes in the Southeast, 46 dead in the Chattanooga area, and 92,000 people without power. School was canceled on Thursday and Friday.
As I continue to pray for strength for those who were not so lucky, I am reminded of this quote:
"That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ" -Colossians 2:2
