Tornado

Tom Stedham left D&G Grocery alive, but his van was heavily damaged. See his story below,
Journalist caught in eye of storm at D&G Grocery on Bear Creek Road
By Thomas Stedham
Special to The Gazette
I was trying to flee the tornado in my van. I made it as far as D&G Grocery Store.
My girlfriend and I ran inside with probably a dozen others. We could hear the "freight-train" sound as the funnel raced toward the store. The building began to shake, as if an angry giant was trying to tear it apart. My girlfriend screamed. I pushed her and a grandmother with a grandchild into a comer and huddled over them.
The roof collapsed and part of it fell into the store, slamming into me. Then the wind sucked it all right back out. I tried to look up but couldn't see through the wind and flying debris.
Words honestly cannot describe the sound or explain what it was like to be in that comer, feeling my t-shirt flapping as the incredible wind tried to suck me and everybody else up through the hole. I'm a soldier, and have been for more than 10 years. My first thought was, "I've got to protect these people."
My second thought was, "I'm going to die, right here, right now." I truly believed I was dead and your life really does flash through your eyes.
I thought of the children I would never have. I thought of the friends I would never see again. I would never take another picture, never lift weights at Gold's Gym again; never see my best friend's one-year-old son grow up. All these things and more flashed through my mind in those few terrible seconds.
I'm not a religious man. In the Army, we have a saying, 'There are no atheists in foxholes." There aren't too many inside stores being ripped apart by tornadoes, either, let me tell you. I didn't ask to be spared, but when it was over, I joined everyone else in thanking God for sparing my life.
Everyone was okay so I tried to go home and check on my roommate and her five-year-old daughter.
My first sight upon leaving the store was my van, windshields and windows blown out, with a car jammed up against it. I ran the half-mile or so to my trailer through blinding rain, hoping my home and my friends were still there.
Incredible devastation was all around me. It was too overwhelming to take in as I ran, dodging power lines and destroyed mobile homes.
My trailer park didn't have any damage, so after seeing to my roommate I changed into dry clothes and ran back to help others.
I passed an area where perhaps twelve trailers had been; it was all gone. Nothing could be remotely recognized as having been a home. Two of my friends live in Bear Creek Trailer Park, just down the road. My girlfriend and I ran over there to see if they were okay.
Nothing prepared me for what I saw. Where I had been was bad, but the backside of Bear Creek was simply gone. I can't describe it with enough words.
They always say, "It looked like a war zone," but that's not true. I was in the Gulf War and in Bosnia, and those were luxury areas compared to what Bear Creek looked like. Twenty or thirty trailers, probably more, were utterly and completely flattened and blown across a huge field.
When emergency crews arrived, we went from pile of rubble to pile of rubble, sorting through the mess, trying to find people. Everyone by now has read the stories of the dead and injured, so I won't go into that again. The losses are too great and the pain too much.
What I will say is that I thank God for sparing my life while 11 around me lost theirs. I pray for those who lost loved ones, and I ask everyone to join me in doing the same.
Tom Stedham is a photojoumalist in the Army Reserve who lives in the Bear Creek area. He was inside D&G Grocery store on Bear Creek Road when the tornado struck.