Travis' Tornado Story

On May 6, 2003, my parents and I had just got home from my baseball practice. It was real windy. We went inside. We got a phone call and were told there was a tornado heading toward us. My mom told my dad to get the flag off the porch. I was scared I told them to get in the bathroom. Me and my mom went in the bathroom.My dad went to the porch and saw a tree go by.Then the house picked up and slamed down. My dad came to the bathroom. My dad told my mom to call for help and she called her brother. The tornado slammed down again then it got real quiet. It was hard to breathe because we were in the eye of the tornaado.

Then the tornado slamed down again and carried our house over a field about a 150 yards.Then it sucked us out. We landed in a field. My leg was wrapped in a chair and I landed on my arm. My mom was knocked out then she came back. It sucked my dad's shoes off and his wallet out of his pants. My dad picked me up. We saw our truck so we got in it and took off to the hospital. I broke my leg in two places and my arm. My mom and dad were not hurt. Our house was totally destroyed except for the roof and it landed in the lake behind our house. I had to stay in the hospital for three days. The governor of Ilinois came to where our house used to be and he signed my arm cast.

The tornado was an F4 and it traveled over 30 miles with the wind over 250 miles per hour. There was two people who were killed because of the tornado. One of them was a lady who was our neighbor who was thrown from her trailer into a pond and another was a man who lived up the road, a chimney fell on him while he was protecting his son.

Travis
10-years-old
Metropolis, Illinois

Note: On May 15, 2003, counties in Illinois hit by a strong tornado were declared federal disasters areas, making individuals, businesses and local governments eligible for federal disaster assistance. FEMA opened a Disaster Recovery Office in Metropolis. More than $4.5 million was distributed for disaster assistance.