by Maxine Headd

Created on: June 03, 2008   Last Updated: June 13, 2008

The Marion Tornado

Tom was inside Kroger's grocery doing some early afternoon shopping the day it happened. It was only a little after 1:00 p.m. I was in the car with my six months old baby girl and three very young boys. We were waiting for Tom to come out of the store with the groceries, so that we could go home. Suddenly, I noticed something in the sky that really looked weird; it was up above the roof line high above Kroger's parking lot. At first, I looked at it, and I thought how weird that cloud looks. Then after a minute, I laid my six months old daughter down in the seat of the car. I went to the back of our car to get a better look at what I was seeing..

Using my feet, I leapt up to the back of the trunk of the car to get a good look at what I was seeing. I noticed that over the top of Kroger's grocery store, all I could see was a great big white cloud that looked suspended from the sky. But as I got a better look at it, it looked more like an ice cream cone. It was all white; there were no black spaces in it at all. I thought I had never seen anything like that at all. Then I suddenly knew what I was looking at. It was a Tornado, and it was definitely coming our way.

I saw a grocer boy, standing by the door of Kroger smoking, and I yelled at him Tornado, Tornado. He looked surprised for a minute, took a very quick look, and then ran back inside the store. At that very minute, Tom was coming out of the store. I yelled at him Tornado, Tom, Tornado, and he ran faster to get to the car. He got inside the car and didn't say anything; he just began to pull the car out of the parking lot. "Tom," "Tom, you are going to get us killed," I said, as I sat very still, and held my baby close to me. But he went on. We passed several cars as we drove through town with the Tornado seeming to come along right behind us. During our trip home, the Tornado turned black, as it picked up debris from the yards and buildings. The Tornado was demolishing everything in its path as it went. It did not seem like we were ever going to reach home.

My mother-in-law was standing at the door to our house, and the sirens were sounding their alarm all through the town. She said, she had seen, and heard the storm warnings being broadcasted. She had been praying hard for us to get back home with her before the storm hit us. We got inside the living room, and started to turn over a heavy couch and two large chairs as we waited for the storm to hit. The sounds of the Tornado outside were

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