Interior of room with damaged window; broken blinds, torn curtain, debris on floor, wilted flowers; outside see-through view.

My Story.

Damaged room with exposed ceiling fan and debris after a storm, showing a bed and neighboring houses in the background.
Damaged interior of a closet with a "BLOOM" banner, visible cracks, mold, displaced clothing, shoes, and missing sections of the ceiling.
A fallen tree on top of a stationary car, causing visible damage, on a street surrounded by bare trees.
Illustration of Simba from "The Lion King" on a messy wooden floor with scattered debris.
Empty attic room with slanted ceiling, exposed insulation, damaged walls, scattered debris, and a broken light fixture.

It’s 1:07am on March 3, 2020. It’s quiet. Eerily quiet. The smell of broken gas lines, broken wood and mud filled the air.  Dust and insulation made a haze around us and filled our lungs making all of us cough.  I looked around at everyone and miraculously no one was hurt. There was glass blanketing the floor and I was the only one with shoes on. I stood up and said, “I’ll get everyone’s shoes”.  We were all in shock at what happened so there wasn’t much discussion. I opened the door to the kids’ room and saw there were no walls or ceiling. It was like straight out of a movie. All the trees outside were gone or laying down like a bomb went off. The sky was an eerie orange. And again…it was silent…complete silence.  

I shut the door, looked back at my family and said, “Well that room is missing some walls”.  I looked at Melinda and said, “Let me see if I can get your shoes”. I opened the door to our bedroom and saw the same thing.  Walls gone, roof gone and one of the brick walls had fallen in and crushed our bed.  There was enough room for me to walk on that brick wall to get to the closet.  Melinda’s shoes where there, untouched.  I ended up going back to the kids room and finding their shoes untouched in their closet as well.  We were all grateful to have shoes but now needed to figure out what to do.  How do we stay safe?

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