"Somebody upstairs must be looking out for you."

Grandma commented as we stood in our dark cold dining room staring out the window at the destruction in our neighbors' yards.

The day had started out so normal. We got up and went to church where i got to meet random people. One person i met had known my mom since she was a kid and we discovered had spoken at my church in WY a few months before i moved out there. It is a small world. At any rate, the day had started off a bit rainy but by the time my cousin's soccer game started it was mostly sunny and in the 60s.

After the soccer game we went over to my Aunt and Uncles to see the brand new baby goats.

From there we went out to eat. That is when things started getting interesting. As we were walking into the restaurant my Aunt got a phone call saying that we were in the middle of a tornado warning until 5. The time was 4:30 and i pointed out that by the time we were done eating the warning would be expired. I was right about that but very wrong about what could happen in half an hours time. Ten minutes later, out of nowhere a big old black cloud covered the restaurant and it rained, no wait, that is hail. The car windows are open!!!!

Now we are very bright Lancaster county folk and we handled this like most highly intelligent people do, we went outside and stood under the overhang and watched. We stood there is awe of the crazy weather and my Grandpa's ill fated attempts at covering our car hood with a small thin blanket. When hail closely resembling moth balls began bombarding us on all sides we finally headed to the safety of indoors, or rather the safety of a large window. Yep, we sure are thinkers.

The wind came stronger then I have ever seen, blowing the hail in a straight horizontal line. It was so gray outside you could barely make out the cars just a few feet away. The hail pounded the walls with loud rapid popping sounds. Still we stood by the window watching. Eventually it eased off to a slow rain and we sat down to eat. Watching on the news we saw the red area moving away from us towards Ephrata. Not for a moment was I at all seriously concerned for our nice new house in Ephrata. We had no trees in our yard, no shed, no fence, and no cars in the driveway. The only thing we bothered to worry about was that we got home in time to take the dog out.

We left the restaurant a bit later and headed for home. Driving along we saw yards that had so much hail piled up it looked like snow. Apparently some kids even went sledding in it.

A little ways down the road my Aunt called to tell us that poles were down on 322 and we would have to take a different route. When my Aunt said that all the houses on Hackman Rd had windows out and tons of holes in the siding we figured she had heard it from someone who heard it form someone else and it was not that bad. We did not realize she was driving right by it. Now Hackman Rd is the street that our little Agape Dr comes off of.

As we were driving along the back roads we came to a farm where several Black-Bumper Mennonites were gathering near a barn that had been smashed. A little ways down the road we saw another toppled barn and random trees down. Then we came to a calf barn, completely intact except for the roof which lay on the other side of the driveway several feet away. On the other side of the street was the development right behind ours. There we saw a few Mennonite girls in dresses trying to cover up a big broken window. All the houses were full of holes and had windows out and random pieces of fence, siding, broken chairs, rain spouting, etc. in their yards. Then came Agape Dr. The house on the end had holes in the siding and the second, third, and forth house on the left had their garage doors buckled in. Then there was our duplex. Toppled over in the front yard spilling crap was a porta potty...

There were no holes in the siding, a few shingles had come off the roof, the John Deere wind chyme in the back yard was broken, and my mom said angels must have been sitting on the piles of boards for our deck because they were still right where the builders left them.

After assessing out damages we walked the development. We went down streets with names like Patience, Perseverance, and the best, Gentleness. All the houses on the west end were full of holes in the siding,

fences were ripped apart, and some were completely gone,

all the stop signs had been broken right off,

a soccer goal lay in the front of someones yard until the owner came in their truck and picked it up. Our neighbor's car was all dented up and their grill had been blown right off their porch.

There were lots of rumors going around about the damages else where in town and this morning thanks to electricity we know better what all happened. On 322 eleven poles were taken out, thus the lack of electricity. Our church's steeple was toppled from its perch. In a trailer park nearby 8 trailers are totally gone, and the rest are all severely damaged. Thankfully no one was seriously injured.