Lives spared from another disaster

Published 9:55 am Monday, December 19, 2022

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At the news of an oncoming storm, most react in one of two ways.

Some are in the, “It’s never as bad as they say,” category and others prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

Thankfully, during an overnight storm that brought about hail, at least 2.85 inches of rain and a possible tornado on Tuesday and Wednesday, Adams County and Concordia Parish survived yet another storm that could’ve been a lot worse.

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Just a few weeks before, near the end of November, we braced ourselves for a storm that turned out to be uneventful for the area as bands of bad weather seemingly split before hitting Adams County and striking hard in nearby Wilkinson and Amite counties.

Now imagine if we had let that outcome influence the way we responded to Tuesday evening’s weather threat, treating it as though nothing was going to happen. At about 2 a.m., tornado sirens sounded from the Sibley area and into town.

A trailer full of eight people, from ages 2 to 59, off of Cranfield Road were alerted of the threat and young children, teens and adults piled into a closet with a mattress over their heads. The entire house appears to have been lifted from its place and spun at a slight angle and put back down again. Massive trees were uprooted in the yard. All eight not only survived, but they didn’t have a scratch on them.

This is another moment where we can all let out a sigh of relief and hopefully run to this family’s aid to help them replace their lost belongings. It can also serve as a reminder of why we don’t flirt with disaster and take these events seriously.

Our hearts and prayers go out to those who were impacted by this storm. At the same time, we say thanks to God for his protection. Things really could have been a lot worse.