So, the Dexter Tornado

It's been quite a while since the tornado ripped through Dexter, yet I still hear about it. People still come into Classic Pizza and are like "we're so glad you guys are still running!" Wes comments most of the time, "people think we were flattened." Well, no. If that were the case, I would be dead.

I was working March 15, when the tornado went through our town. Wes, Dewey, Owen, Tyler and Gary were there with me.

A woman came in to get her pizzas, and she was freaking out. "There's a tornado that's going to go through Hudson Mills!" she informed us. I wasn't really phased. I asked her name, took her money, and gave her her pizzas. She was out the door lickety split. I guess pizzas were more important than her well-being. I dunno. Whatever.

Rumors came with each person that got their pizzas. At one point I was asked, "Are you guys still open?" over the phone. Yes, yes we were.

Tornado sirens could be heard, at least at two different times, but we didn't make any move to pack into the walk-in or evacuate. I don't think any of us believed that an actual tornado would exist.

Then it started hailing. That threw us off for a wee bit, but not too long. I was still taking phone calls, Wes and Dewey were still slapping out pizzas, and then topping them and putting them through the oven. Pretty sure Owen was still working in the back and Tyler was hanging around. Gary pulled in right when the hail started, if I remember correctly.

Wes claims that he stepped outside after it was done hailing, and saw how dead it was outside. "That's not good," he commented (or at least says he commented) and came right back inside.

Everything else happened all at once.

I was talking on the phone, assuring a customer that we were still in business. I think I had just asked to confirm the name to the number when the power went out. Dumbfounded, I stared at the phone for a bit before setting it back in its cradle.

"There goes the roof!" Owen shouted. I didn't actually see it go. I took Owen's word for it.

The door flew open. I'm not sure if it was because of the man that dive-bombed into our waiting area or if it flew open of its own accord, but a father that was waiting with his two young girls was trying to pull it closed. Pretty sure I heard a "don't worry about it" in there somewhere.

Tyler jumped clean onto the counter and shouts at the customers to get into the back, into the walk-in. The girls were corralled under the counter and through our work space.

I really don't remember what I was doing. I'm pretty sure I was standing slack-mouthed by the phone counter. I eventually followed the father at his two kids into the walk-in, probably when the tornado was going straight over our heads. I don't remember the sound it made, after all. That's the only thing I can guess.

We got out of the walk-in when it started getting a little smokey. Water was leaking through the roof and into the walk-in, coating some of the exposed wires in there. I think Tyler was out the door to attend to his younger sibling before I was even out of the walk-in. He left pretty damn quickly.

Afterwards, I got to explore. I was getting rained on in the hallway with the walk-in. A lot of our roof was taken off by the tornado.

The drop-tile ceiling eventually dropped down, water logged, onto the floor. Exploring further, we discovered that we lost a part of our awning over the windows and our Classic Pizza sign.

You can kind of see it where it's laying on the ground in the picture above.

We stared out the windows to get a scope of what had happened, but they were pretty full of debris, and we had a hard time getting the full picture. I pulled out my phone and took pictures of everything that I could.

Then Owen and Dewey started exploring outside. It was still raining at this point, so I didn't go out with them, but stayed inside.

Wes tried to get a hold of Ralph and his mom. Apparently she was calling Wes at the same time to learn if he was okay from the tornado. She lives somewhere down south. In Mississippi, I think?

When it stopped raining, I decided I might as well follow Owen and Dewey around, as well as survey the damage.

A power line had fallen on Dewey's car, and the peripheral branches of a tree onto Owen's car. My car, the gray one right in front there, wasn't touched except for a part of the roof scraping along the side.

That there is a piece of our roof hanging from a power line cord. 

 If I'm not mistaken, I do believe a little pole barn was supposed to be covering that stuff there in the picture above.

Across the street is where the laundry mat is supposed to be. I think all that was left of that was a couple washer/dryer machines.

The picture above includes the back of the Classic Pizza building. That's either our roof against the other building or the Dexter Mill's pole barn.

One Friday, I was sandwiched between another vehicle, a barrier wall, and that trash bin. I had troubles getting out and dented the rear bumper of the car. Here it has a tree on top of it, the same one that more or less fell on Owen's car.

After we were done exploring, I asked Wes if I could bring home a couple of the pizzas sitting out. No one was going to get them, after all, and my family had (jokingly) asked if I could bring home dinner. He let me take my choice, so I took Moorman's pizzas. I had just talked to her brother on the phone before the tornado hit. 

Getting home was the tricky part. The police already had so many roads closed off, and they were directing all traffic in one direction. I really, really did not want to wait in line. Although it took me quite a few U-turns, I eventually followed fourth to Dexter-Ann Arbor to Dan Hoey to Baker and all the way down to Jackson. A fire engine went screaming past me on Baker and turned onto Shield, so I skipped that road altogether, worried about what I would find on the other end. On Jackson I saw Emily going in the direction of town, so I called her. Well, at least I tried to warn her.

Once on Dancer, I had to wade the car through a floor (that part of the road always floods) and took that all the way home. I had to dodge another couple puddles, but the damage wasn't too bad. I returned home to find an empty and powerless house; everyone had gone out to survey the damage. Mom, Joe and Ben were all home when everything went down. Joe took a video of the tornado forming and heading down Dexter-Pinkney (from where it nearly took out my friend's house). Dad was one his way home from work when it hit. He got to hear the progress as a newsman reported live time. I got to live the tornado.

Dexter-Pinkney was down forever. When the opened up half of the road, I went out of my way and took a ride down the road. I was utterly shocked at the destruction. Where there used to be a plethora of woods was ... gone. Open. Huge trunks of trees snapped off a few feet off the ground. I'll have to go down the road again and take pictures or something. I couldn't even figure out where I was, because I drive by sight and not so much by road names and whatnot.

I still have people asking me about the tornado, especially when they learn that I was at Classic Pizza at the time. Yeah. I'm alive, okay? We still make pizzas.

So that's my recap of the tornado. Don't ask me about it any more.