The 45-minute storm...

  It's 6:00, Thursday evening.   The evening started out wonderfully and we were attending our God child's Spring concert at Audie Murphie Middle School in Alamo...

That's Norah in the center.  A little blurry but had to share.  Norah plays the alto saxophone at Audie Murphy Middle School. 

Me, Norah and Ralph

We enjoyed seeing Norah and her parents, Odie and Mary Carden, and siblings, Gabriel and Michael.  While enjoying the concert several parents commented that two big storms were headed our way.  It would behoove us to rush home.  So after a short visit, we headed home.

It's 8:20, the phone rings...it's my sister-in-law, Cleo Hinojosa.

"Are you prepared?" she asked.
"Prepared for what?" I asked.
"Well, the storm that's headed this way."  she added, "If it contains tornadoes, what's the plan?"
"Geez, I never thought about that."  I answered.  "We'll probably head for the bathroom in the west side of our home."

After exchanging a few more insights, we hung up.  I began walking around the house.  Our back bedroom had stacks and stacks of papers on the bed and on tables.  Ralph and I had been organizing our records for this year's taxes.  The first thought that came into my mind was the wind tossing everything everywhere so I quickly repacked everything back into boxes and stored them away in the closet.

Next thing, I asked Ralph if we had masking tape.  Off he went and came back with several rolls.

It's now about 9:00 p.m.

"Start taping the windows." I said.

No sooner did we begin and hail started hitting the front side of our house which faces north.  At first it was like slow popping popcorn but it wasn't long before it sounded like tommy guns firing.

In the midst of all this, in our hall entrance we have a picture frame with Jesus Christ set in the middle.  The Jesus figurine popped away from the frame and I caught it.  I looked at Ralph, Ralph looked at me.  I held on to sweet Jesus, praying the Lord's prayer the entire time we were moving our furniture and taping.

Marble size hail was blowing in a straight line into the front of the house.  We taped the windows and I covered them with sheets and moved furniture in front to keep any debris out...if the windows broke, I thought.

The news report said it would last about 45 minutes.  It as the longest 45 minutes of my life.  Within 15 minutes there was a foot high layer of hail in our foyer.

The hail pelted the roof, the sides and demolished pretty much everything in its way.

This was out our garage drive way...the icy river.  Our neighbor across the street (you can see his garage door open) yelled out that there was about a foot of ice on our roof.

Thirty minutes passed and the onslaught began to slow down.  I placed my puppies in the west bathroom.  Sandy remained with us as we continued taping as many windows that needed it.

Thirty minutes later, it was over.


The aftermath...

Our yard, front and back, looked like cutter ants had cleaned every tree bare.  Our potted plants and bushes looked like someone had taken a machine gun and randomly shot everything in sight.

Bobo's and Pande's tree - a few hours earlier it was an umbrella of shade in  our back yard...all the leaves were gone.

I don't know if you can see but we have a lot of cacti...it was  systematically "gunned" down...but  the Blessed Mary stood tall and untouched.  Our lemon tree that was full of new lemons was picked clean...so was our valencia oranges and grapefruit trees.  I was unable to load the pictures.

Electricity went out at 11:00 p.m. and came on the next day at 6:00 p.m.  We were so blessed.  The front windows were chipped around all the borders...only two window panes cracked but held together.  Our left front light got busted, the roof needs to be replaced, the fence looks like it got pressure washed and best of all we were fine....but not my sister-in-law...

She told me that she felt so secure that after we hung up she sat down to watch TV.  When the pelting started she thought they'd be ok.  The shutters covering the windows on the north side of her home gave way and windows broke...ice and water started going in.  Her neighborhood was the worst hit.   Water started seeping in through the front door.  No problem, Cleo said, she began placing mats, towels anything to absorb the incoming water.  Thinking it was over and  under control, my brother-in-law opened the door when a fire truck went by.  The next door neighbors had an explosion and fire.  In rushed dirty, murky water.  Their entire house was under four inches of water.  Their three cars outside...totaled.  It was devastating.  Arturo's once pristine yard looked like Louisiana swamp land.

We attempted to go to their home since we couldn't communicate with them but were unable to make it.  (Police kept turning us away.)  Luckily, Gloria, my other sister-in-law and her husband, David, stepped in and helped Cleo and Arturo clean up.

We visited them Saturday night and found them in good humor, blessed to be alive.  Their home will probably be gutted or leveled and their automobiles totaled...but as Cleo said...WE"RE ALIVE!!!

I have never been more scared than I was that night...but Jesus Christ in my hand held us together.  Cutter ants have taught me, the strong will survive and if it does, it will come back better than ever.

The storm prepared us for what would happen Sunday morning...