Crazy Hail

Tuesday night. I am still smiling from a sweet wedding I shot this last weekend. The bride and groom were such a blessing and their families and sweet friends so fun to be around. Originally I was going to drive up Friday and stay in a hotel so when Saturday morning came along I would be rested and refreshed, then shoot the wedding and stay over in Ft. Worth and come home on Sunday morning. I decided last week that I needed to come home Saturday night because our church was taking part in We Are The Sermon Day (WATS Day) and I was one of the photographers for the many events that would be happening on Sunday. The reception finished at 10pm and I hit the road. Stopped for a water to take some much needed ibuprofen after lugging camera equipment, and headed out. When I called Rob he said that there were some bad thunderstorms out there, but he didn't know which way they were headed. He guessed they were headed towards me but didn't know for sure. I called my weather watching friend who was asking me why I was still awake after 10pm, she is a night owl so I knew she would be awake. Anyway the weather looked like it might hit a bit on the road home, but it didn't look too bad. So I forged ahead. I hit some rain outside of Eastland about 30 miles but thought this is o.k. Anyone who knows me knows that driving is not my favorite thing to do, driving in rain, still not my favorite thing, driving at night...again not my favorite. Combine the three and I am a bit out my comfort zone. I covered the drive in prayer and God gave me His peace through it.
I was driving through Eastland and was getting a bit sleepy, so I drove through a drive thru to get something to eat and drink. It was midnight at that point. As I was in the drive thru the trees were bent over half way, doors on gates were swinging, there was a serious storm a-brewing.
Got back on the road and within 5 minutes, still in Eastland the storm sirens started to sound. The radio went to the emergency broadcasting on a local station. The rain was so hard that I couldn't even see the lines in the road, then the hail started pummelling my van like I have never experienced. Most of the vehicles pulled off the side of I 20, I decided to pull up behind a truck rather than sitting in the middle of nowhere in the dark all by my lonesome. The rain and hail were so hard I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was like there were people standing outside every window with hoses on full blast shooting them straight at my windows. It was crazy. The cool part in all of this was I praying the whole time and as crazy and wild as the weather was going what was inside me was peace. I just kept praying and God kept me sane. The only thing I was worried about was being lifted in a tornado and all the wedding images being destroyed. But thanks be to God, everything was intact, I got back on the road after about 20 minutes, rain still hard, but I drove about 5 miles an hour with my hazards on, I just wanted to get out of dodge!
No hail damage on the van which totally amazes me. The hail was marble size where I was, but it was so plentiful that I just wasn't sure what damage it would do. 5 miles south of where I was there was baseball size hail. So I got home about 1:30 am and was never so glad to be in my warm bed next to my sweet husband.
Then after all of that WATS Day had to be rescheduled for my groups due to the rain. But I was glad to be home nonetheless.

Comments

Anonymous said…
We were travelling once as well coming back from Abilene and got hit by hail and had to pull over. It shattered the windshield in 4 places while we were in the car -- VERY LOUD! $6,500 damage later, we drove home. Alyssa was afraid of even a cloudy day for a while after that!

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