The Marion Tornado
Posted: Wednesday, July 15, 2009
by Maxine Headd
Tom was inside Kroger's doing some early afternoon shopping the day it happened. It was only a little after 1:00 p.m. and 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..
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, and held my baby close to me. But he went on. We passed several cars as we drove through town with the tornado 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 raging. It sounded like a heavy train was coming through our neighborhood. After a few minutes, the all clear sound, sounded and we knew we were going to be all right. The most that we actually got from the tornado was debris all through the yard. However two blocks from our home street, the story was different. Houses and businesses along with cars had been destroyed
We were really happy to be all right in the tornado that hit that day. Kroger's and the Shawnee apartments, banks, a social community for the elderly wasn't as lucky as we were. There was 11 dead that day from the Memorial Day storm. Cars were piled up on top of each other like they had been tossed like a little child. Homes, businesses, and cars all over the town were demolished. Several huge trees were demolished as well. We never want to see a storm like that in Marion again. The tornado left a wide path of destruction in its path. We had no electricity for three whole days, but all of us were just happy to be alive. We had to cook our food in the backyard on a pit for the next three days, but we were happy with that and thankful. I thank God that we were safe that day in Marion Illinois. I also thank God that my Mother-in-law was praying for us to get home safe to her.
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