I was on the edge of sleep when the first thunderclap sounded. I turned to look at the clock to see what time it was and noticed that the usually bright red numbers on my clock were not illuminated. Damn, power must be off, I thought to myself.

I threw off the bedcovers and made my way into the kitchen to see if I could find any candles or a flashlight that might actually work. Ha, yeah right, as if I would find such a creature in this house. Rummaging through the drawers with the aid of my lighter I finally found a few used candles and got one lit. Turning to look at the wall clock, which thankfully ran on batteries, I noticed that it was just after 2am. I had only turned the light off a half-hour ago after finally finishing the book I had been reading.

I set the candle down on the table and made my way down the 3 steps leading from the kitchen down to the entranceway and opened the door.

When I had gone to bed the stars had been out and it was a nice calm night, but now there were none to be seen. Only flashes of lightning in the dark sky now. It really was fascinating to watch. There were forks of lightning as well as sheet lightning making the sky illuminate as bright as day. The wind had picked up as well and it had started to rain and it was making the trees bend.

Suddenly, the wind stopped. Even the rain had ceased to make any noise and then all of a sudden there was a huge flash of lightning and the loudest thunder I had ever heard. The storm was right on top of us now and it almost sounded as though something had been hit close by, I could smell the sulfur in the air.

I quickly closed the door and ran to the bedrooms to get the boys up. This didn't seem like an ordinary summer storm. Even the cat and dog were acting strange and went to hide under the kitchen table. They had never done that during a storm before.

I finally managed to get the boys up and dressed and gathered them all together in the kitchen. I grabbed my purse as well and as we waited we no longer had any use for the candle as the house was illuminated with constant lightning. It was like it was daytime outside. The rain increased in volume and the wind became even stronger bending the trees in front of house until the tips were almost touching the ground. It was time to find a safe spot in the house.

The boys and I went to the basement, to the laundry room and huddled in the corner. This part of the house was below ground and had concrete block walls so I figured we would be okay. We could hear the wind pick up even more and the windows started to rattle in their frames. Needless to say it was a little scary.

I don't know how long we were down there before we realized that the storm had started to move on, but it seemed like forever. I told the boys to stay put while I went upstairs to take a look.

Opening the front door I was shocked at all the debris laying in our front yard. Parts of the driveway had been washed out as well and I knew that we would have a lot of work to do in the morning. It was still raining but the thunder had abated and we only got the odd flash of lightning. Turning back inside and closing the door, I called down to the boys that they could come back up again.

They were still a bit nervous so I hauled out the trusty old camp stove and made us all some hot chocolate to calm us down. Good thing I always have a jug of water handy. Once we finished, I let the boys go back to bed while I stayed up a bit longer just in case the storm decided to come back. Lucky for us it didn't and I too headed back to bed. By now it was after 4am and I was more than ready.

*****

The next morning we clearly got to see what destruction had been wrought during the night. We still had no power, so I went out to the car to listen to the radio in there and I wasn't surprised to hear that a tornado had passed through our area. The main path was just to the south of us, which meant that we had been on the edge of it. Lucky for us!!!!

It was 4 days before we got our power restored, but for others it would be much longer. We were the lucky ones. All we had was a mess outside to clean up but for others they had a lot more. We lost a few shingles and had to replace our well. That was what was hit with the main surge of the storm and what I had smelled.

We found out later that had the power been on, our house probably would have burned to the ground. The lightning had traveled from the well outside to the power box inside through the electrical wires. It had become so hot that it had welded the box to the concrete wall. They had to chisel it off before they could replace it. Again, lucky us!!!

They still talk about that summer storm. It was the worst one to hit the area in over 50 years. That was 5 yrs ago.

The end