Tornado Warnings

I had no idea the weather was going to be what it was this afternoon.

About 2:00pm, in the middle of teaching second grade, the office started to call students' names over the intercom for the entire school (which they never do because it is so disruptive).  They said that it was quite rainy and that teachers should have students get their things together so that it would be easy to release them to parents.  Since I didn't have any of my kids things as they were back in the classroom, I took them down to their homeroom, had them gather their things and took them back to music.

I started with 22 kids and was down to 13 kids within the next ten minutes.  We could hear thunder and lots of rain, but since I have no windows in the classroom, we couldn't see what was going on.  In Madi's room, she noticed hail coming down and watched the rain and lightning.  Soon the office told everyone to hold their students and not let them leave.  We then heard the tornado sirens going off.  We were asked to "duck and cover."  Many of the classrooms hunkered down in the bathrooms and hallways.  In my room, we sat against the wall, covering our necks and keeping the kids calm.  I unplugged all the electronics nearby and moved objects away from them that had sharp ends (pencils, things that could 'fly').  Though it seems funny now to think of trying to place sharp things away from them - as the tornado could easily pick them up and throw them - I simply wanted to get anything away from them that I could.

The students were so incredibly good.  They asked lots of questions.  One girl asked if it was a drill.  The second graders stayed so calm the entire 45 minutes we were sitting there.  I had them start the telephone game where a person on the end whispers something and sends it down the line.  Then the person on the other end says what they heard and we compare if it's the same or not.  This kept them busy for several minutes and eased their fears.  When they asked if they were going to die or if there was a tornado, I simply would share that they were in one of the safest rooms in the school and that while they were scared, we were doing everything we needed to do to protect ourselves.  They were completely satisfied with that answer and it was great to see them all so calm.

Turns out there were several tornados and lots of hail.  We were very fortunate to not have any touchdown in our city.

Madi finally got to come to me around 3:30pm.  I didn't have her sent to my room because I knew it was safer for her to stay where she was rather than walking in hallways that are lined with windows and risking there being a tornado.  She told me that one of her first thoughts was that she was so young and she had many years to live.  She hadn't lived her full life yet and she wasn't ready to die.  She said she was very scared.  I told her that it's completely normal to have those thoughts and to be scared in a situation like that.  And that I agreed with how she felt.

Jeremy called the girl's school and checked up on them.  They said that all of the kids were in the bathrooms with their teachers and that everybody was doing great.  When I picked the girls up, Miss Nicole told me that she and the other teacher had 14 two year olds in their tiny bathroom with the door shut.  She was able to do diaper changes with all of them and just rotated them around in a circle.  She said they were awesome.  And she spent most of her time for the forty five minutes sitting on the toilet reading to them and trying to keep them occupied.  Wow... can not even imagine what it was like keeping those little ones sitting that long in such a tiny space.  

Riley and her classmates all piled into their bathrooms with their teachers.  When I asked Riley about it later, she said "We just sat in the bathroom a while today."  She was very unaware that there was really bad weather or that she should be scared at all.  Took it all in stride.  The teachers obviously did a fantastic job keeping them calm.

I'm so thankful to know our entire family and our friends were kept safe during the storm.  What a blessing!