The Murfreesboro Post from Murfreesboro, Tennessee • 4

murfreesboropostcom Sunday April! 9, 2009 LOCAL NEWS 'Angels pesfommg-Ulet The morning after, taken in the parking lot looking towards the traiL fa still in my This is the spot where I emerged from the river bank the day before. Thank God fair my survival. Pictures simply fail in every respect to capture what the devastation actually looks like. David Young your loved one died far more peacefully than you think. Inside the storm foe love of God is more intense than you can ever; ever imagine.

It is calm, peaceful, and overwhelmingly safe. Your loved one died in the loving aims of God, and I guarantee you feat they knew it Being in the eye makes you thankful to God. Grateful, feat is, until the back wall of the tornado hit me. The front of the tornado had been violent, but foe bade was even worse. Best I can teQ, the front of the tornado had picked up trees -and broken off large branches.

Now the back of the tornado began to dipp them all around me. Debris Was slamming Meanwhile, stuff Was dropping all around me. Two trees fell on me; I saw foe first one coming. I remember thinking it. was odd because it fell backwards away from foe river.

Most of foe debris was flying across foe river. The trunk was probably 5 or 6 inches in diameter; and it landed on my left leg, just above my ankle (which was curled up behind my bottom). I saw it hit me, but didnt fed anything. I think I was too pumped. Immediately afterwards, a second tree fell on me from above.

I didnt see this tree coming. When it landed, it was on top of my body, and must have hit my head, since later I would discover a deep gash above my left ear. I didnt fed any pain. Then, just as quickly as I saw foe tornado come over foe rise, I saw it cross foe river and leave. The back of it looked almost like a curtain; it was distinct For me, the storm was over.

I lay there a little while to make sure that there was no residual debris following it I couldnt see much because of the trees on top of me, but I just kept thinking, I survived! Im a survivor! We did it God! I remember giggling See Young, Page 14 band, my favorite running shorts, and a new rain jacket The rain jacket was important, because I had just bough! it in response to a near disaster that my buddy, Thad, and I had experienced backpacking a couple months before. We are winter backpackers, because we dont like heat We had gone up into the Smoky Mountains on a four-day backpacking trip bade in February. It rained foe whole way up the mountain on foe first day. We arrived at camp just as foe darkness came and as the temperature dropped to dangerous levels. A windstorm suddenly blew and all my raingear failed.

By foe time Thad managed to build a fire (against all odds), I was slipping into hypothermia in the freezing temperatures. I couldnt stop shivering, and for 10 minutes or so, I hovered as near to panic as Ive ever been. By foe next morning, I was mad at myself for being so ill prepared after years of winter backpacking. I was even angrier with myself for feeling panicked. When I got home, I decided to buy foe best raingear I could afford, but I also decided that, of all people, a minister ought not to panic, regardless of the circumstances.

I began to talk to God about trust, and I began to read about others who had survived extreme circumstances. So, even as I left my car for my four-mile run, I wore my new rain jacket dunking about die severe weather I had endured in the mountains a few months before. As I approached the trail I mumbled something to God about die possibility of rain: let it rain, God. Together, were strong. Be-, fore die hour was over; die jacket wouldnt make much difference, but the commitment to be a survivor helped me make just the right moves.

Through my commitment to be calm God probably saved my life. The first two miles of my run were uneventful. After several minutes, however, the sky began to look ominous, and it began to haiL I kept running, but I noticed that nobody else was anywhere near die green The hail continued to fall, but the hailstones were not that large, maybfe the size of dimes. When the lightning started, however, I grew cautious. I had been thinking about survival in extreme circumstances (Editors Note: North Boulevard Church of Christ minister David M.

Young survived an extraonfinuy direct experience with the Good Friday tornado and, in response to requests from friends and church mem-ben, wrote about it in what proved to be a 10-page document At The Murfreesboro Posts request be agreed to publication of this edited for length version. The compelling full version can be read at murfrcesboropostcom.) By DAVID M. YOUNG Angels performing ballet Unbelievable, I thought This cant be real. I was lying. on my side wrapped around a tree like a koala bear looking straight up into the eye of an F-4 tornado.

And the debris at the top of the funnel looked just like angels gracefully performing ballet How ironic. Those few seconds in the eye of the tornado may have been the most peaceful seconds of my life. It felt transcendental and sweet That is, until die back wall of the tornado slammed against me, hurling two-by-fours, trees, and sheet metal at 200 miles per hour Here I was caught on the trail in the middle of a tornado. It was Good Friday, and my mind was distracted. A minister for a large church in Murfreesboro, 1 was, thinking about the Easter program that had required so much preparation over foe last several months.

I should have been thinking about the Resurrection itself, but I confess that, instead, I was obsessing over the details of the upcoming service. What I needed, I decided to myself, was a good workout I hardly paid attention to the weather reports this Good Friday. The broadcasts since last night had indicated that storms were expected to blow across Middle Tennessee around lunchtime. Ive bear a runner all my life, I mostly run to manage my weight, to relieve stress, and to talk to God. was going to be a good run.

I drove to my favorite running spot, a paved green way th meanders four a half miles along foe Stones River wearing a headset, a white head- every day far two months. Here is my first test, I thought Lightning may strike near me, but I can beat it if I position myself in the right place. Im going to get a real test of my new survival skills, I thought Okay, Lord, lets test my commitment I was actually pumped. The first mile marker on the Stones River Greenway lies directly behind Thompson Lane a heavily traveled road in Murfreesboro lined with businesses, offices, an auto garage, gas stations, and apartments. When the lightning began to strike overhead, I left foe trail and climbed down die bank to within a few feet of the river, crouching beneath some bushes.

Suddenly, after four or five minutes, die rain and hail stopped. die silence was disturbing. The railroad runs pretty dose to the greenway at mile one, but my gut told me that the nimble I heard was not a train. At this point, I feel like I should confess that I was terrified, but the truth is that I wasnt really scared. Events were unfolding too quickly for me to fed much fear.

Besides, I had been talking to God for 40 minutes about my ability to survive in any circumstance. So, rather than fear, I felt this adrenaline rush and this intense sense of challenge my survival skills are going to be tested, I thought. God will take care of me, I said to myself. I can survive. And I really believed it I think I nervously giggled at die strangeness of the situation.

I never (Mice thought of death. The nimble was very loud by now, and I heard cars honking, metal screeching, and transfonn-ers exploding. Dude, I said jokingly to myself, youre in a tornado. This is even bigger than Backpacker Youre gonna be on Oprah. It sounds flippant now, but at die time, humor was my way of staying in control of my emotions, and it worked.

I heard the transformers exploding, I had five seconds to decide what to do. I quickly looked around at the options. Bundies of trees, die river, a small dock built by foe park service jutting out into the water Nothing else. The nearest tree of size was a few feet away. I quickly wrapped my arms around it at the base, laid on the ground, curled my body around the trunk, and looked up to mon- 1 ym.

-mliUfi. My tree next to the river. I have put an TT where I was. Of course, I was under all the debris, induding the fallen trees; wtikfi, miraculously, did not seriously hurt me. The asterisk marks the tree that feQ on my leg.

itor die situation. I psked God to forgive me of my sins, then, mumbled something like lets get it on! Within two seconds I saw foe first pieces erf debris flying over me. They were topping fee trees above the trail, coming from die direction of the parking lots. I was impressed by how much debris there was and how fast it was traveling It looked like it had been shot from a canon. Thai I heard foe cracking of wood; not a little bit, but the sound of an entire forest being split at once.

It is not a sound that you can ever forget wood from a whole forest viokndy exploding If you can imagine 10,000 baseball bats being wildly broken at the same time, you will know what I heard. I checked my grip cm die tree, and thought to myself, Here she is! Immediately afterwards, I saw the wall of the tornado top the crest of foe slope and slam into iobl The sound was amazing and the power incredible. Everything around me, induding die ground, was shaking I could fed my tree groaning as it was trying to leave foe ground. The whole forest heaved. Debris was crashing all around me.

Static electric ity made my hair stand on end. I saw what appeared to be a house fly right over my head, past the river and off into the wild. Though I had curled myself around the free, the tornado picked up my legs and extended my body into the wind. I suppose my adrenaline was waking properly, because I never lost grip of the free, even though my body was now off foe ground flapping in the wind like a flag. I never thought I'd lose my grip; I was determined feat I would not fail this test I wanted to make God proud of me.

I kept thinking that I needed to document foe experience in my mind so I could help others. I never closed my eyes, The front wall of the tornado was bad, but when it passed, I found myself in foe strangest wold Ive ever seen. I was in the eye of the tornado, and I knew it 1 dropped back to foe ground and instinctively curled around the tree again. A lot of debris was still shooting across the river, firing across my line of sight like meteors. But now 1 also saw debris spiraling inside the vortex of foe tornado.

Gose to me, it was traveling at lightning speed, racing around and around just like youd expect But farther up, along foe inside of foe funnel, foe debris was moving slowly, gracefully, almost playfully at foe top. It wasnt circling; it was dancing, tip and down more than from side to side. I dont know how far up I could see, but it seemed like miles. A strange light illuminated foe inside of foe tornado. It was totally surreal It was peaceful, calm, and, I hate to say it, incredibly happy.

I fended that angels were performing a ballet just for me at foe top of heavens ladder. So this is whats inside a tornado, I remember thinking. lb be in foe eye of foe tornado is unforgettable. I want to say to anyone who has lost a loved one to a tornado that, chances are..