I Survived the Super Tuesday Tornadoes & Columbia Gulf Plant Explosion

On a quiet Super Tuesday night, suddenly time stood still for the residents of a small Trousdale County Community, as a savage storm blew through their area. Terrified from the storm residents began to seek shelter in basements, storm cellars or whatever was available to offer protection from the savage winds, which beat at their homes. Suddenly, the night sky became bright as day as a Columbia Gulf Pumping Station in the area exploded into flames. Homes shook from the force of the explosion and flames ripped their way to almost 400 feet in the sky. Time seemed to freeze and speed up simultaneously as residents of this small community made decisions in seconds of whether to evacuate the area or to stand firm in their country homes refusing to surrender to the storm that pounded them or the fire that threatened to burn away their homes.

None of them had any way of knowing, that as they sat trembling or ran to their vehicles to leave the area, the storm was raging on, bearing down on the city of Lafayette just to their north. In this small community, lives were lost, homes destroyed, a fire was raging, and the storm that had devastated them was now bearing down on their friends, neighbors, and families in the neighboring community. I was one of these residents. As we scrambled from the basement less than half a mile from the site of the explosion, we had no idea about how terrible the devastation truly was. The only thought that crossed my mind was getting my family to safety. I tried desperately to reach my family in Lafayette, as we made our way from the path of the storm. As we rushed away, others were rushing in. Some trying to help the ones who had been hit most severely from the force of the tornado that rushed through the area, others just curious about the devastation at hand. For a few moments, when the Gulf plant first exploded, it seemed as if the whole world must be on fire. The light from the blazes could be seen for up to sixty miles from the fire, and people everywhere wondered exactly what was transpiring in our small community.

The next morning, the news hit home. The city of Lafayette had sustained a massive hit from the tornado, leaving almost 200 homes completely destroyed, many dead, and countless people with no homes to return to. The news in Trousdale and Sumner Counties was somber as well, all of them had homes destroyed, all of them had lives lost, and all of them were waking with no power in their homes and businesses. As we attempted to return to our home the next day, our stomachs seemingly filled with lead, we wondered if we truly had a home to return to. What would greet us when we arrived? We thanked god, that our family was intact in the morning light, as so many in our community were awaking to news of their loved ones lost to the terrible storm. We wondered at the destruction that the tornado had left in it's wake, as we made our way through the debris to our home, and thanked god that we had survived what the night before had seemed like the world burning.