On Saturday, my younger sister got married in a beautiful, candle lit fall color ceremony. It was beautiful and sweet, it went well, no major mess ups, then we took photos, then the reception started and they cut the cake and toasted and I FINALLY got to sit down and take my heels off. I had been in those heels since 3,it was now around 6 and I had been there most of the day and the day previous decorating and such.So,I sit down, take of my shoes, put my tired feet on the cold floor, start eating and I hear something. A high pitched sound over the bee hive of over a hundred people talking at once. I could not hear it clearly, then someone said “The sirens are going off!” I didn’t have my cell phone on me because quite frankly, in that dress, where was I going to put it?! So, I get up, go look outside, and then calmly sprint to the dressing room, in full bridesmaid ball gown glory to get my cell phone so I could look up the weather situation. I went and put my children into a safe place till I figured out where the tornado was. According to my chaser friends on twitter, an “impressive rotation was moving into West TN”. Great. A church full of wedding guests in full on reception mode and a tornado was coming.Anyway, later I was able to find out that one of the men had stood outside and watched the funnel go right past the church, I saw a radar image of the hook echo, my best friend called me and said she was watching it head our way on her way home from the church and then later I saw some very impressive pictures. As far as I’ve heard there’s been no reports of injuries or damage because luckily our area is mostly farm land.

But it did bring to mind something I found somewhat amusing. In 1986 less than 2 weeks before my sister’s birth, a tornado hit our small town of Sikeston, Missouri and yesterday, her wedding day…here comes another tornado. It seems as if important events in her life are ushered in by severe weather. And in actuality, everyone in my family, except me, was ushered in by a severe weather event. There was a tornado 2 weeks before my eldest son was born.

On May 15, 1986 Southeast Missouri experienced a tornado outbreak, I was 5 years old. My family had just returned from a deployment in Europe 2 months prior, my dad was at Ft. Knox getting things set up for us to move yet again. We were staying with my grandparents in Sikeston, myself age 5, my brother age 2 and my mother was 9.5 months pregnant with sister. I believe I mentioned in a previous blog this event and that I lived through my first tornado at the age of 2.Well, this event, is the one I remember. I don’t recall what happened leading up the mass exodus of our house to a sturdier house, but I remember that I was wearing purple pants and a t-shirt and I was wearing my favorite shoes, they were purple with zippers on the sides where I could stash pennies. I always stashed pennies. I remember my Mom grabbing my hand and us running (or rather waddling in her case) across the street to a solid brick house. We got inside and my mother who was largely pregnant, her middle sister who had a 2 yr. old and her younger sister who was also pregnant were in the hallway along with my grandmother, my brother and I. My grandfather and all the men were in the bedroom at the end, looking out the window watching for the tornado. I am very much a grandpa’s girl, and I wanted to be with my grandpa, so I was allowed in the room with the guys and I remember the tornado getting to the end of our street across a creek and my grandpa lifted me up so I could see it, I don’t remember what I saw but I remember the sound. Sort of a high pitch whistling sound, thankfully it went away from us, one of the links I’ve provided shows the EF2 tornado’s path in yellow. I didn’t realize how close it was till I saw that map. After it had passed a torrential rain came, probably the downdraft. After it quit raining, all of the drainage ditches and yard were very flooded and I was allowed to go play in the water, I remember that although I was having a good time, all the grownups were very quiet. Right after the storm passed, my daddy drove up. He has told us that as he was driving from Kentucky to Sikeston, all he could see was pitch black clouds in the direction he was going and when he got to my grandparents, he walked in and everybody was sitting on the couch, white faced and deathly silent and he asked “Did I miss something?” They then told him what had happened. However, the story doesn’t end with the arrival of super daddy as we thought of him arriving in full military came. My Dad’s sister lived in a small town called Vanduser, Missouri, there was one fatality there. Dad loaded us up into the mini-van and set out to make sure his sister was ok.This was when I saw for the first time what tornadoes could do, and I think although I remained scared of them for the next 10 years, it sparked my curiosity. I remember us driving into town and seeing trees twisted up and grain silos squeezed like soda cans and glass, so much glass, everywhere.We found my Aunts trailer, she was safe elsewhere but the trailer was upside down. Thankfully my sister’s wedding wasn’t ushered in by destruction of this magnitude and it was just a close call. What can I say? She comes in with a bang.  Congrats to my sister and my new brother, wish ya’ll the best and no more life events ushered in with tornado sirens!

Andrea McGhee

Lead Blogger

Mr Twister