I was a proud member of the Class of 2011 that year. We had the biggest group of seniors in Smithville history that year: 69. When I say I went to a small school in a small town, there is no exaggeration. The elementary, middle, and high school were all on one campus. I only had about three weeks of school left until graduation, so I was completely focused on prom and getting the heck out of there on May 19.
April 27 began as normal as any other day. My friend picked me up and we made it to school around 7:45 a.m. The skies were so dark and the birds were back on the football field. Birds had been back and forth on the field for about two weeks at the time. It wasn’t just a handful either, but more like hundreds of them, moving slowly across the field.
I went into the cafeteria and grabbed a bacon and cheese biscuit, only to realize all the younger students were being escorted out of the building. I asked one of the lunch ladies what was going on and she replied that we were under a tornado warning.
I laughed at such a thing and told them the sirens had been going off practically every day for almost two weeks, and if a tornado hadn’t come by now, it wasn’t coming. They all laughed and agreed with me, and then I gathered my belongings and headed to the high school building.
It never really occurred to me that I was the only one outside. I was too busy watching the angry black cloud right behind our school. I felt scared, but at the same time I knew everything was going to be okay. Things like deadly tornados didn’t happen in real life, only in the movies.
I burst through the high school doors because I knew I was late for class, but I was surprised to see every student sitting in the hallway while the teachers watched over them. I was confused for a moment, but I slowly made my way down the hall and took a seat between two classmates. It began raining and debris was flying everywhere. I could see that one of my classmates was almost in tears, so I decided to comfort him. I’ll never forget the words I told him.
“Don’t worry, we live in Smithville, MS. We’re not even on the map! A tornado wouldn’t even know how to find us.”
Everything seemed to calm down after about 15 minutes, so classes began. After first period, all of my classes were at the Advanced Learning Center and Monroe County Vocational Center in Becker, MS. Even though I was so sure nothing was going to happen that day, I still couldn’t help but stare at the sky.
During Economics at the ALC, the biggest bolt of lightning struck the field right outside our window. It shocked us all because we’d never seen something like that happen before.
I was in my Robotics class at the VoTech around 1:30 when they decided to send us home. The county board said the weather was only getting worse and they didn’t want to take any chances. We all got on our school buses and headed back to our home schools. As soon as we hit Amory, the rain came and it just wouldn’t stop. The downpour was so hard to see through, but we made it back to school. We hurried off the bus and onto our buses to go home.
My sister and I arrived home around three o’clock, a whole thirty minutes before we would usually get home. We immediately turned on the news with our mom and watched as the weatherman told us what was happening. Around 3:20, everything was so… silent. I stood outside and listened, but I heard nothing. No crickets or birds chirping, no rustling of leaves from the wind. Nothing. It was so eerie.
Suddenly, we heard the weatherman yelling for everyone in Smithville to take cover immediately because there was a big tornado twenty minutes away. “Don’t wait nineteen minutes and then do it! DO IT NOW!”
My mother, sister, and I wasted no time heading out the door and to my great-uncle’s house next door. We grabbed him and headed into his storm shelter. I couldn’t help but watch as the sky grew darker and darker, and then the door was shut.
We could hear the wind blowing, but it didn’t sound like much was happening. We waited about ten minutes, and when we knew it was safe, my uncle slowly opened the shelter door. I was the first to follow him out. It didn’t look like much damage was done around my area. Small tree branches and leaves were everywhere, and our trash cans were all turned over. But other than that, there wasn’t any evidence that a tornado had come our way.
And then my phone blew up with tweets. Tweets from news sites, tweets from friends.
“Not a single building at Smithville High School left untouched.”
“My house is gone!”
“It was only ten seconds.”
I felt all the panic rise in me. I knew a tornado must have gone right through the heart of Smithville. I turned around to see my friend’s car pull into my yard. She asked me to go to Amory with her to make sure her mom was okay, so I said yes, told my mother where I was going, and then we left.
We tried to go into Smithville, but the traffic was backed up. We even attempted to take the backroads, but they were backed up as well. Finally, we parked a few miles away from the school and began walking.
I felt my heart shatter as we approached the school and saw all the damage. The gym was completely destroyed. All the buildings had their windows blown out. The roof had been torn off of one building and it looked as though it had been set back in a crooked manner.
Staring at the destruction in utter disbelief, all I could manage to do was cry. I cried because this wasn’t supposed to happen to a town like ours. I cried because I’d just been at this school only an hour and a half before and everything was fine. I cried thinking of how it could have been even worse.
The majority of phone lines were down in Smithville. They were down for so long, and it was so frustrating not being able to contact anyone to see if they were okay or tell them that you’re okay.
The sun came out towards the end of the day and there was a huge rainbow to accompany it. With all the sadness and destruction around me, I took comfort in that rainbow because of the story of Noah’s Ark in the Bible. God sent a rainbow to let them know He would never flood the Earth again. I took that as a sign that Smithville would never have to deal with such a killer tornado again.
Five years ago, the largest outbreak of tornados ever recorded, known as the 2011 Super Outbreak, was released upon the Southern, Midwestern, and Northeastern United States. This tornado outbreak was the deadliest and costliest outbreak in history, and it lasted for a little over three days. Three hundred and forty eight people were killed, with 317 of the fatalities alone happening on April 27. Mississippi and Alabama were two of the states hit the hardest that day. Unfortunately, my small hometown of Smithville, MS, was one of the towns to be destroyed as well.
Five years later, we’ve made a strong comeback. The school has been rebuilt and looks better than ever. Buildings and houses and churches in town have been built back as well. Everything has changed in this small town of barely 900, but we’re making it. We’ll never be the town we were before the EF5 destroyed what we knew. But I can honestly say that another five years from now, we’ll be even better and even stronger.
