Super Tuesday Tornadoes in Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi

February 5 started out as an exciting day; everybody knew it was the anticipated political Super bowl, Super Tuesday. Not near as many knew it was my wife's birthday. Even less knew that February 5 would be the day of successive tornadoes and thunderstorms that raked Memphis, Tenn., and its neighboring states.

My wife, Stephany, and I headed home after classes at the University of Mississippi about 5:30 in the afternoon wanting to enjoy a quiet evening celebrating her 24th birthday. It had rained most of the day, but the unusually warm weather had made up for that. Unfortunately, more was to come: thunderstorms, hail, tornadoes, and power outages.

On the way home we could not help but notice the heaviness in the sky. Like tension in a room after an argument, the clouds seemed stressed and ready to attack Oxford, our little, southern town. Everyone on the road raced to their homes to avoid the coming storms.

The threat increased when we arrived to our upstairs apartment, to the point that we could not even afford to cook our dinner. The local news flagged a warning of tornadoes, and we needed to find shelter. Thunderstorms and torrential rain bombarded the sky as we ran to our neighbors' apartment on the first floor. We had shelter, but there was still a storm coming.

Stephany looked nervous. On her birthday, she was worrying about her family as the news showed the plots of tornadoes across a red map of Tennessee and Mississippi. The tornadoes had arrived. Even more unnerving was the fact that one tornado was heading our way.

The wind sounded like a screaming beast under the brutal beating of rain. There had been reports of hail the size of tennis balls in some counties close by, and we were stuck inside a small apartment with nothing to do but wait it out. This gave a sense of what it must feel like in a bunker. Memphis had already suffered severe damage at the Hickory Ridge mall in one Memphis' most popular neighborhoods. There were already reports of hospitalization and looting.

Finally, the roar of tornado winds came by. The lights flickered out, but the sky was bright with lightning. The tornado had demanded our respect, and we just waited for it to pass. The howling winds were aggressive towards us, but the tornado moved northward.

The lights came back on, and we had survived the tornado's judgment. We were relieved and thankful. Unfortunately, not everybody shared our sentiment. The Caterpillar warehouse north Oxford was severely damaged by tornado winds. Even more awful were the more than forty accounts of death reported throughout the affected area, and all of the property damage including Union University in southern Tennessee, which only has 20% of its property left.

Sixty-seven tornadoes touched down on February 5th in the southeastern United States. In Oxford, we faced one of those tornadoes, and we are very thankful for not being harmed. I'm not sure if Stephany had a happy birthday after all, but we feel like we won Super Tuesday.