Tornadoes are no joke

There are two things I'm most afraid of-tornadoes and clowns. One of them attacked tonight. 

I think I've finally calmed down. It's been stormy here for the last few days, so we're kinda used to it by now. But nothing prepares you for when a tornado really does happen. I was at church with my aunt and cousin for Good Friday. The tornado sirens were going off throughout the service-and I must say, with the darkness of Good Friday (literally, the lights were dimmed), it was quite an eerie thing. Mind you, no one got up from their pews while the sirens went off. That is, until our senior pastor stood up, announced he'd just been informed that there was a tornado on the ground at 270 and 70 (not far from where we were), and that we needed to get to the basement. Once down there, I saw people crying, just terrified. I appeared calm, but I was shaking. Remember-scared to death of tornadoes. Then again, I was kinda glad I was in a church when it happened-I kinda felt protected. 

After we got the all clear, we finished our service and after we got in our cars to go home, I kinda lost it a bit. I think it finally hit me just how scary it was and how lucky we were. I then drove by Grandpa's house to make sure all was well there-it was, but his neighborhood looks like a war zone-trash cans and boxes in the street, branches everywhere. I could hear sirens all around me. 

The real craziness began as I tried to head home. "Try" being the key word. Turns out, the tornado hit our airport-theres extensive damage, the roof is gone, but miraculously, no one was killed. There is no power and the airport is closed indefinitely. Once I hit the highway, I quickly saw that traffic was at a standstill. There were overturned semi trucks, debris and downed power lines ON the highway. There were ambulances and police cars everywhere. To get off the highway, I followed some other cars going the wrong way up an exit ramp (no one was coming the other way) and I completely backtracked until I was able to make it to 70 going the opposite way that I needed to-but I couldn't go toward the city because the airport is that way and the highway was shut down. So on my long way home, I went by my office park, I couldn't see much because the power was out, but I think everything was in tact. It took me an hour and a half to get home.....I've never been so glad to see my apartment. I'm a little too keyed up right now to sleep. I just thank God no one was killed. It was pretty horrible tonight, but could have been so much worse.