For those of you who may not know, we live in a small suburb of Chattanooga that only has about 3,000 people. Last night we were hit with a F3 tornado that actually hit less than a mile from my house. All day there were tornadoes and bad storms in our area, but around 8:00 they were showing a small cell headed straight towards us. At 8:10 they told our street to take cover on the news, so I jumped up, grabbed Nicholas out of the bed and ran to the laundry room (our most interior room). About fifteen minutes later Michael opened the door and told me to get as low as possible and lay on Nicholas, that there was a huge, visible funnel directly behind our house.
(Photo courtesy of my neighbor, Lucas George Photography)
Within five minutes it was all over. Immediately we started hearing sirens, horns, and just chaos. Our town was flat. It absolutely breaks my heart to look at all of the pictures I've seen on FB and the news websites today.
This is of the main street through downtown Ringgold. This is next to the First Baptist Church, which lost it's steeple.
(Photo courtesy of a FB user)
This is the intersection 0.5 miles from my house. It was a pizza hut, Hardees, Taco Bell, and Super 8 Motel.
(Next three photos are courtesy of Beasley Photography)
The other side of the intersection. This used to be a Hotel, Waffle House, KFC, and a BP.
Food Lion and Ace Hardware plaza about a mile from my house.
I did go to the command center (which also happens to be the Ingles grocery store I shop at regularly) at 11:00 to offer my help last night, but they were still not to the point of going into the the rubble yet. Please, please pray for our area. We were hit so hard and there were so many lives lost. From what we have heard tonight they are still trying to get to some people. We are under a curfew on our street and also told to boil water due to the water treatment plant being damaged. I wasn't able to sleep last night, sirens everywhere, so many images in my head, and the thought of how close it was just wouldn't let me go to sleep. I'm hoping for a better night tonight.
