Worst Storm Yet

Last night was the worst storm that I have ever been in that I can remember. I knew that there were supposed to be some storms rolling in, but we have had some good weather up until last night.

Its important for me to start off by saying that I was never afraid of thunderstorms until a few years ago in college. I was driving home from work and talking to Mr. Hunt on my cell phone. There was a pretty bad thunderstorm, but I was trying to make it home safe. All of the sudden a tree got struck by lightning right in front of my car. A big ball of green light went traveling through the tree and it made a very weird noise. The tree then cracked and fell down right in front of my car. I had to slam on the breaks. The cell phone turned off and I dropped the phone. I made it home safe, but I was terrified to try to run into the apartment. I have been scared of thunderstorms ever since.

I remember being half asleep, half awake when I was suddenly woken up by what I thought was the house across the street getting hit by lightning. I just remember laying there, and all of the sudden a huge light and loud clap noise (loudest clap noise you have ever heard) happened all at once and my eyes opened as far as they could. I quickly yelled Mr. Hunts name to wake him up, but he was already awake too.

Normally Mr. Hunt doesn't wake up for any storm, so I knew when he was already awake that it must be bad. Mr. Hunt got out of bed to see if a house was struck, but he couldn't tell. He was just staring out the window saying, "I have never seen a storm this bad." Once he said that, I was freaking out. He checked the weather on his phone and we tried to get some sleep. I had the pillows covering my head. I was trying not to see the lightning or hear the thunder so loud, but it was impossible. It was literally one big constant lightning, and one big constant thunder. Our power went out and back on 4 times before it went out and stayed out. I was really upset at this point because I cant sleep very well without a fan on.

Finally the storm blew over and we both fell back asleep. When we woke up, still no power. We had to get ready for work in the dark. I ended up having a wrinkly shirt on with a hole in it and my hair was a rats nest. I planned on taking a shower, but not in the dark.

On my way to work I noticed a ton of trees down, peoples patio furniture in the roads (not to mention our patio furniture spread out in the backyard), and the radio mentioned that there were 65 mile and hour winds that night! What?!?! Good thing I didn't look out the window.

When I got to work, I asked around to see if anyone else had power. Only one other guy's house didn't have power, but two other guys said that they huddled in the closets last night during the storm.

Mr. Hunt got off work a little earlier than normal and he headed home around 3pm to find out that we still didn't have power. By this time it had been 14 hours. We started to make a plan of action on where we were going to go for the night. I remembered that I just bought some milk and lean cuisines the day before so I was getting pretty upset. I called Duke Energy to see when they would expect the power to be turned back on, and it said my Thursday May 12 at 5pm! Wow, this was bad!

Mr. Hunt headed over to his brothers house while I finished up at work. By the time I got home, the power was finally back on. I talked to the neighbors and they said it turned back on around 5pm. I'm glad that it came on when it did and it wasn't going to be out for another whole day, that would have been awful.

This really made me realize how bad the people in natural disasters feel, especially now with the people in Alabama. This was NOTHING like what they had to go through, but it was horrible for me. I was sick to my stomach last night I was so scared. I pray that everyone in Alabama stays strong through this and that they know that God has a plan.