The Aftermath

Yesterday we made our way home from Louisville! We knew our vehicle ran okay – we just didn’t know how loud or how cold the drive would be. We made it home in once piece! We were never so happy to home! We breathed a sigh of relief after quite a long weekend.

Here is a random pic of the bruise that the iceball had caused. This was taken 3 days after – you probably understand now why we feel so blessed that it was my leg that got hit and not my head. I honestly thought it broke my leg at first b/c of the pain (I’ve broken my leg before), but thankfully, that was not the case.

Here’s the detailed story of what led up to us being in Henryville. While driving north of Scottsburg, we realized the sky was getting kind of ugly. It started to rain pretty hard and we soon heard/saw a tornado siren going off. We didn’t know where we were at that point, so Dan turned on the radio. The radio said if you are in Scottsburg, seek cover RIGHT NOW because there was a tornado spotted. I looked on the map where that was and Dan looked out his window and saw a water tower that said “Scottsburg.” We both looked at each other and thought “uh oh!” We debated whether to stop, but we decided to just keep going. Many stopped, but we decided to run (I know, it’s probably against the tornado handbook). Well, when it started to let up a little with the rain and wind, we both looked at each other and thought “whoa, we just escaped that!” We almost chuckled out of shear relief of what we escaped. Well, we drove a little while longer, listening to the radio and hearing them list the names of all the cities that had tornadoes around them. We soon heard the radio say that Henryville had just gotten hit. I looked on the map and saw that Henryville was the next city we were going to hit. We figured that since they already got hit, that we would be okay. We arrived JUST as it had passed – in fact, people were still getting out of their vehicles (ones that had been tossed by the tornado). We didn’t get out of our car b/c it didn’t look like anyone needed help. As we sat there at a standstill (cars were everywhich way on the road b/c of the first tornado), we wanted to get through, but couldn’t at that point. We realized that the sky was getting uglier and uglier. We turned to the right and that is when we saw the big ole F4 tornado brewing up and getting ready to go. Dan said “this is going to get ugly real fast…” and then bam, that is when the hail started to hit. The first one hit and we thought “ooo, that’s going to leave a mark.” Little did we know how many of those marks our vehicle was going to sustain. A hail ball came through one of our back windows (Dan didn’t tell me b/c he thought it’d scare me), one cut his mirror off, then one came through my window (that’s when we put the pillow in it) to prevent them coming in, and then the sunroof.

On the way home from Louisville, we passed a lot of electrical trucks heading to Henryville

This is the exit for Henryville – it was closed, except to local traffic. It was hard to go through there again. Very emotional

We realized the damage that occured from the 2nd tornado – even more so, we realized at that point truly, what a miracle it is that we survived.

We don’t remember that tree root being there from the first tornado

I know this picture is blurry, but between the two trees on the left side of the picture, there is a GIANT metal sign laying on the ground. When we arrived at the exit after the first tornado, it was still up, just bent. The 2nd tornado just mangled it to pieces. More trees were down, and there was actually a tree wedged up underneath the bridge where many people went for cover. We are so thankful that we were far enough away from the bridge that we had no choice but to stay in our vehicle. We also believe that b/c of the make of the bridge area (with a hill/bowl area right next to us), that God positioned us perfectly so that we wouldn’t get lifted up. Being next to a hill created a form of a ditch and we were also next to a semi to block more of the damage. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend that (though we had no choice) b/c it could’ve flipped on to us, like the one next to him did. We had mud all over our car from the tornado spinning. It was hard to see this exit on Monday because we saw way more damage of what really occured b/c of the tornado we were in. It gave us a better perspective on what really happened and even more so, God’s grace He showed us that day.

There is a video on youtube – if you search “Henryville Indiana tornado across I-65,” you will see the tornado that we were in. I am not going to post it b/c they swear in it, so if you watch it, I recommend turning the sound off and just watching it. Just the first minute is worth watching b/c the rest of it you can’t really see anything going on. There was also another video but we have yet to locate it again. On Sunday, we were watching the news and they were showing all sorts of videos that people had taken of that tornado and Dan wondered if there was one from the beginning of it, when it crossed I-65. Sure enough, he found one. I started to cry (go figure…lots of tears have been shed over the past few days!). We kind of wished we had videotaped it b/c we saw the tornado actually forming (hence our pictures) but we realized that was the last thing on our mind. The pictures taken weren’t taken during the intense moments :)! And yeah, we are smiling in the pics, but at that point, we could either laugh or cry. At that point it was “laugh.” Later it was cry.

We brought our vehicle into the shop yesterday. We walked in and 3 guys just stood there with their jaws on the ground. They could not BELIEVE the damage. They couldn’t believe we drove it home (what else were we going to do? I must say we got a LOT of wierd looks on the highway). They were great about it though, being very sensitive to the issue at hand, but we told them straight up that we understand if it is totaled. That opened up the door for them telling us their opinions. Of course it’s just between them and the insurance company, but it was rather obvious at that point what they were going to do. They said that part of the “roll cage” is made of this special steel that is tested to not dent. Well, we have dents everywhere on it and they were just in awe of the fact that that stuff dented – that the hail hit THAT HARD. Again, another reason to be thankful. The thing is, the vehicle runs PERFECTLY fine. All the damage is in the body. Monday night we couldn’t get it out of park (something with the brake sensor) so we had to drive it with a screwdriving in place. Other than that, it runs fine. When they gave us the total estimate, we couldn’t believe it would cost that much just to fix the body of a vehicle, yet at the same time, we aren’t shocked, knowing what it looks like now.

So we had to say goodbye to the vehicle yesterday. We were honestly sad. Dan put it well (as he always does) – “we have built a relationship with that vehicle over the past few days, we’ve been through a lot together.” That is so true! That is exactly how I feel too. We look at that vehicle and it was the avenue God used to save us. We look at all the damage it sustained and that damage could’ve been on our bodies. So yes, we have been through a lot with that vehicle. But, we are hoping to get another Explorer just like it. We would love the exact same one if we could! So, the car hunt begins…