On December 31, 2010, the sirens began around 9:45 for a tornado warning in Phelps County. While most houses in Rolla were safe with families taking shelter, a few homes were not so fortunate. The lives of four women were taken during the storm, and approximately forty houses were affected across central Missouri.

“Wake up, there’s a tornado warning,” I heard my dad say as I opened my eyes.  He has always hurried to get everyone down to the basement since having his house completely destroyed nearly twenty years ago.

I will admit that I don’t exactly rush to get to shelter when a severe storm blows through Rolla. After being shaken from my sleep I lazily got out of bed to put in my contacts; I grabbed a sweatshirt, phone, book, pillow, and blanket. So long story short I was the last one down to the basement; not including the hiding cats, who in an unfortunate turn of events would perish.

When I finally made it down the stairs to our unfinished basement I found my family to have taken all the available furniture; so I took a spot on the soft, warm concrete. After an hour of being in the basement, my dad let us go back upstairs back to a normal Friday morning. I did not realize what damage had taken place in Rolla, I especially didn’t realize that houses were destroyed less than five miles from my house.

On January 3, 2011 my dad again woke me up, “Did you want to go help clean up houses that were damaged by the tornado.” Even though I would have gladly slept in an extra hour I got up to get warm winter clothes on, and loaded into the truck with my parents and sister.

“Do we know who’s house we are going to?” I asked.

“No, just whoever needs help,” my mom responded.

“Are a bunch of people there?” I questioned.

“We don’t know,” my dad answered.

I had no idea what to expect when we arrived, but after a short drive down Vichy road I found out. After parking the truck, the first thing I noticed was clothes, littering the trees, wrapped high in the branches. Getting out of the truck I looked to my left to see a house that had completely lost the top floor, and had the bottom floor was only a third intact. A pond directly beside the house was littered with debris; everything from furniture, to children’s toys, to a Cadillac. Yes, that’s right, a car was taken from one side of Kenny and Willene Allison’s house and dumped on the other side into their lake. The lake was drained that day in order to be able to remove it. Whenever we arrived they were taking catfish and transporting them to another pond in the area.

After assessing the damage, my family began to clean up the woods opposite the Allison’s house.

“Grab anything that is salvageable,” my parents told me.

As I began to walk through the brush I grabbed a piece of siding that was wrapped tightly around a tree trunk.

“They will clean that stuff up later, just grab things that can still be used,” my dad said.

Children’s books were littered everywhere, most of them badly damaged and frozen from the cold frosts. There were also toys; stuffed animals and a toy stroller ripped to pieces. Not only did the tornado destroy these people homes, but it ripped apart everything that they owned as well.

After finding a small amount of objects that were still usable a man walked up to us, “If any of you happen to find a plastic sealed envelope with two old keys in it could you bring them over to my house, I lost all the other keys to my gun cabinet that was in my house. So if you find them that would be very helpful, thank you,” the man said.  I later found out this was the owner of the farm house across the street.

After cleaning up the woods, my dad, sister and I decided to head down to another house right down the street that was completely taken by the tornado, besides the cement walls and basement, all that was left were piles of rubble. Walking up the driveway I noticed their mini-van that was overturned in the front yard. Men were on top of the house sorting through the second floor. My dad, sister, and I began to sort through a pile of insulation, and wood. A toddler’s small Spiderman shoe was the first thing that I found, the rest of the children’s clothes were mixed among pieces of a house that no longer existed. The family had been in the basement while the tornado passed over their house and was miraculously untouched.

Precious Moment’s dolls littered the concrete floor of the house; every one that I picked up had been broken and cracked. There were none that could be saved. As I was looking through these pieces a young man walked up to me and my sister.

“Are these your girls?” he asked my dad a couple feet away.

“Yes,” my dad responded.

“Well he is teaching you girls a really good thing. We really appreciate you coming out here to help us,” the man said. “My girlfriend was just here the night before this happened, we were very lucky. You never think about helping out until something happens to you. Now when they ask for those donations they will definitely get them from me,” he said walking back to a burn pile with more wood.

We spent more time helping out whoever was in most need after that, and soon went home so my dad could watch the Bears game.

It was true what the young man said though, for most people. This experience made me realize that unfortunate things can happen to people who are the most unsuspecting. So being there for people who are in need could possibly come back around to help myself someday when I am not as lucky.