“We were the first ones back in the neighborhood and it looked like a bomb had exploded. It looked like everybody was probably dead. When he pulled up to our now destroyed lot I was like why are you stopping? Where are we?… I didn’t even recognize where we were – all the exterior walls were gone, the front of the house was completely gone, the thing that finally made me recognize where we were was our tree.”

“The emotional shock definitely continues. I know a lot of people that still have a very hard time during storm season. There’s definitely a lingering trauma that will probably never leave.”

“So our storm shelter which I would absolutely not have rebuilt without. We did not have one before which is why we ended up leaving. It is basically a metal box in our garage but even with an F5 tornado if the house comes down the box isn’t going anywhere – essentially the debris will help keep everything closed and I don’t think I have ever heard of one of them being sucked out of the ground.”