~SamuraiMatt423

Well on March 1st 2007 our town was struck with by a natural disaster! The high school here is the one everyone has been seeing on all the major news networks. 8 students and 1 teacher are dead. Though I graduated last year the pain of loosing this school and those students and teacher was alot to be trust upon me and real fast too.

I was @ the local junior college for my class I had that day. While in this class we were given the word to head into the halls. We did and waited awhile. Nothing happened and thanks to the wonders of the internet I was able to track that storm and gave an all clear. Most of the students left then. I went with some friends over to another building where I saw the head of the Orientation team I am on. She said she needed my help to put the finishing touches on a project for a trip. Since I was in charge of the project I stayed. My friends went to a house on the other part of town.

We turned on the TV and watched our whole region in AL go red with tornado warnings! Yet we kept on working on the project. We were given an evacuation order.....we stayed b/c it had to be done! It was the last chace for tis project to be done!

I looked up about 30 min later and saw a tornado warning in Samson ( small town SW of E-town.) The path was projected right through the center of town! I said that gives us about 10 min to prepare. Well about five minutes later The map was updated and the tornado was about 1 1/2 miles away from our location! Everyone went for interior rooms, I grabbed my camera and rushed outside! ( yeah pretty stupid) I was able to record the wall cloud in the distance. it passed by and a huge wind hit me! I rushed back to the building, and ran to the door on the other side.

I went back indoors to the safe room. A radio was playing and it said that Enterprise High School had just been hit!!!!! Hearing this I grabbed my cell phone a friend had borrowed and told everyone goodbye and booked it to the high school! I got close and looked for the science wing..........GONE! I saw some buildings damaged and others gone. I drove around and couldn't get closer due to damage. I saw Hueys heading to the school and decided that I wasn't needed there. So I did what I could to turn people away from ground zero. Just then a text from my sister who was in the high school came through. It said I am ok don't worry! I called my step mom and told her and she had already recieved a call from her.

I headed home...that was next to impossible! Roads were blocked in all directions! I later found myself where the storm had done damage to a neighborhood alot of my friends live in. After a long drive through the damaged zones I managed to get to my house that was about 2 miles from the high school. My step mom was scared and freaking out.

Later we got news to come pick up my sis @ the church across from the high school was reletively untouched! We tried to get there but Dothan police that came up and formed road blocks said the only way in was on foot. So we walked/ran there. I turned the final corner to see the other side of the school than what I had seen earlier. I was in shock! The new gym, 3rd and 4th hall were gone as well! I went further in and saw the path of the storm......TOTAL DESTRUCTION! The news couldn't show what damage was done to the surounding neighborhoods! NOT ONE TREE WAS LEFT UNTOUCHED! What wass once a thick tree line was nothing but broken trees. And for the most part it was clear the fallen trees were a great distance from where they grew! Blue parking lot outside of the new gym was a wreck. almost all cars destroyed. Helicopters were in the practice field near new gym.

I will continue the rest later. I am just overwhelmed right now. TOO much has happened....the rest for another post!

Matt Thompson

Pray for the families of all the victims!