There are no words for this.

Music: CNN 
10:35p

I thought when I came home Sunday afternoon, the Shawnee storm in Oklahoma had been bad. That we'd seen the worst of it...okay, storm season is well underway (albeit a bit late). They had again predicted bad weather for the area the next day. I thought what I'd seen was going to be the worst, and things would get quiet again.

I was dead wrong.

Monday, after deciding to do absolutely nothing all day (to let my body catch up from such a hectic weekend), things on the weather end had been quiet. I wasn't paying much attention to the chasers or the streams online. It was only after my dad had asked me if I knew what the chasers were up to, did I jump on my iPod. My Facebook page was blowing up with reports of a tornado moving through Moore, OK. I immediately changed the TV to the Weather Channel, and I was greeted by an image I never wanted to see again:

I had a blinding sense of deja-vu.

I watched as the monster tornado crossed through the city, annihilating everything in its path. But I had no idea just what the aftermath would be. Minutes after it passed, I saw pictures of what the twister had left behind.

There was nothing left.

Schools had been hit, and it was a mad dash to try to rescue kids and teachers trapped in the rubble. My heart hurt; I thought of my nephews and how it could be them trapped in there. The reports started coming in of people losing their lives. There were cars tossed around like toys and twisted into something unrecognizable. Buildings were flattened or wiped completely off their foundations. Immediately they were calling the storm an EF4, but from what I saw, it looked more like EF5 damage, the highest rating you can give a tornado. 

My mouth dropped as I watched the images on the screen. How could this be happening again? Moore had been hit before; May 3rd, 1999. I still remember my mom coming to wake me up to let me know what had happened, and I stayed up all night watching the coverage. That was unlike anything I'd ever seen, and hoped no one would ever see it again. 15 years almost, and those poor people are being hit again. I can't imagine. 

I watched the coverage well into the night. I was sad, and hurting for those kids and those people who now had to rebuild once again. When I woke up this morning, daylight revealed so much. Stories of people and heroes and survival. But what made me really break down this morning was a story of an elderly woman. She grabbed her dog and they rode out the storm in the bathroom. She was alright, but she had lost her dog. Her house was completely demolished. As she was being interviewed by the media, someone noticed something moving in the debris; it was her dog. He crawled out of the rubble, shaken up and dirty, but alive. I had a flashback to the day when it was my family looking for our dog the day the Channelview tornado hit. That hit way too close to home for me. There are just no words for this devastation. So many more people could have lost their lives, but warnings have come so far since that terrible day in '99, and thanks to social media, it's easier to reach people and give them time to get to safety. I am hurting so much tonight for those people in Oklahoma. I am praying for their recovery and I know they will once again rebuild, and hopefully won't have to worry about another tornado in our lifetime. Lightning doesn't usually strike the same place twice, but there's sadly an exception to that rule, I guess. So please, whether you know someone up there or not, please pray for them, help where you can. I plan on doing something to help. The recovery will take months, if not longer. Years....

I am also worried about my friend John. He went up there to check on loved ones, and I have not heard from him. I hope he is alright and safe, and I really hope he comes home soon so I can throw my arms around him and give him a big hug. I am really worried about him....

This is indeed a sad day, but life does go on, and I hope we don't see another monster like this for a very long time. If you've seen the images, then you know what is going on, but TV does not do it justice, until you actually witness it or experience it. 

I am going to go find something to do to take my mind off of things for a minute. I feel overloaded, and need a sense of normalcy. I talked to my friends J.R. and Jessica tonight..just to be able to make our usual jokes and conversation made me feel better and it was like God heard me. I needed that more than I realized, and remembered my promise from my last blog, but they actually found me first! 

I'm off to bed and find something to watch to take my mind off of these horrible images. Please pray for Moore and Shawnee, OK. Help if and where you can. Goodnight.