March 1, 2007

[zinc02gt]

This is the first time I believe I've mentioned this on this forum. It's pretty emotional for me and I think you'll see why after reading.

Well, I've been a little busy in the past couple of days. I've been traveling back and forth between cities for odd end stuff and this slipped my mind (on here).
For those of you who don't know, I do this every year as a remembrance thing because, well, it was the single most life changing event in my life. I gave Courtney and Brent a call the other day to just catch up on things. Courtney started to cry over the phone a little...
Just grateful man. Just leaves me speechless everytime I think about it.

This is a quote from threads on a different forum.

yeah... I was in the hgihschool... i was dead in the center of it. the ceiling collapsed on top of me and my friends. the 8 people that died were iwthin 5-20 feet from me under the same ceiling. I broke my collar really bad (you still cant see it), broken ribs,and gashes all over my left side. it came from my left side. I( managed to pull myself out and was the first one out of the cieling.

I pulled my friend, Brent, up and the girl that we put in between us. I told her to go to the hospital and get help. Me and brent went across the rubble and helped lift people out. I had to stop after 2 people becuse I couldnt breathe anymore and my sholder felt like it was about to fall off. I didnt know what I looked like at the time and when I saw a girl that I was and still am really close with she completely flipped and I didnt realize why until later.

I got outside of the school after a few minutes and managed to find my step mom and brother. Brother went back to help and my step mom forced me to go to the hospital because I was cussing at the top of my lungs in pain...

Some guy, who I still dont know to this day, took me in his Dodge Ram to the hospital. He had 2 daughters in there too. I Looked in his vanity mirror and realized why so many people freaked out when they saw me... I had a flap of skin hanging from my head where the bone was exposed and my face was covered in blood and still gushing it.

they ran me into the ER and put me on morphine (great stuff by the way) and just stitched me up, did some X rays, and cleaned up my body. I had to have a few stitches in my left arm from a few pretty deep cuts that are now scars running down my arm...

that freight train sound is bullshit. you wanna know what it really sounds like? Imagine the loudest possible roar imaginable. its like hearing a jet take off beside you


thats why im terrified of bad weather

one year ago my life, along with MANY other peoples lives, was changed forever. A day that will live in infamy in this town. One day that Id like to forget, but will forever be haunted anbd tormented by. Sometimes asking myself what else was there that I cold have done, I dont know how to cope sometimes...

One year ago my high school was struck by a EF4 tornado. 1300 teenagers including myself were inside. The tornado killed 8 or my friends one of which was a lifelong friend. All within 15 feet of me. One was 5 feet across the hall. All of us under the same ceiling...

I dont know why I was chosen to still live sometimes. I dont know why I wasnt taken with my friends.

I just... Its hard to imagine... Its already been a year, but it feels like it was 2 months ago...

Sorry guys if you feel liek im wasting your time, this is just a way for me to kind of cope with it...

Here's where I was. I was under the ceiling here in the bottom right corner. Also, that's after it had been cut in half for the firefighters to pull people out. The classroom with that green showing (its the US) was the classroom I was in. We were in the hallways when it hit though.

 

[Nappers]

I can't imagine what you went through and won't try. I've been through a couple of earthquakes in Bay Area California but nothing what you went through (I Moved out in '88, just before the '89 big one).

One will never know why they were spared. I always thank the Good Lord for putting me on this earth and that I do according to his will.

Glad your with us and good that you keep in contact with the others. Remember your friends (call their families maybe), remember them for how they lived and how they effected your life through good memories.

Chin up and a toast to the fallen.

Aaron

 

[kronos]

Man, that is unbelievable. I don't know what to say other than I hope you find a way to heal the wounds you suffered. I've thanked GOD many times for giving me life, health and a wonderful, beautiful daughter. I hope GOD continues to watch over you.

 

[Matt]

DUDE that is horrible! I'm very glad you're here and survived to be a member of this forum!

God was looking out for you that day!

What you must have gone through would have been devastating.

God Bless you zinc02gt (I'm sorry but I don't know your name).

 

[dublifecrisis]

I've seen plenty of pictures like that on TV, in Newspapers etc, but to read your story and see the pictures really brings a whole different light. If it helps you to cope by bringing it on here then that's a good thing. God Bless.

 

[jmp09fg2]

Wow, pretty heavy stuff.

 

[Strick76]

I'm originally from Ozark and I was working over in Enterprise the day that happened. That was a very tragic day. My mother-in-law knows AJ's parents and has spoken with them many times since then. I'm sorry you had to go through that, but glad you made it. No one will ever forget that day.

 

[ScottB]

No matter your religion of choice and who/what you may believe in. But there was a purpose that day for what happened, and a purpose for your life and more importantly recollecting it. Dont try to figure it out, you wont, but be greatful for everyday since then and the friends/family that you helped and helped you too.

 

[Slava]

Wow

 

[zinc02gt]

I'm originally from Ozark and I was working over in Enterprise the day that happened. That was a very tragic day. My mother-in-law knows AJ's parents and has spoken with them many times since then. I'm sorry you had to go through that, but glad you made it. No one will ever forget that day.

That's pretty cool man. AJ and his family were lifelong friends of my family and I... Ryan was in my class and traded seats with Courtney to sit beside her friend who ended up leaving right before (her friend left)... Some cra) stuff man.

 

[richy]

Wow...thanks so much for sharing both your pain and the pics. You personalized a tragedy that otherwise would only be images shown on TV. Glad you're alive...you've received a gift from Him.

 

[tcollins33]

That is truly unbelievable. I've been sitting in my office looking at those pictures in amazement. Thank you for sharing your story with us. As someone else said, it really helps personalize something that we otherwise would have only seen on the news.

 

[zinc02gt]

My ugly mug was all over the news the day after lol. Kind of hard to miss a 6'6" redhead in a sling.

Brent, Courtney, and I did an interview for I think it was Dateline in my parents' living room in front of the fireplace. It was almost funny because Brent and I are both in slings and Courtney sits at like 5'2" (if that) little petitte girl, completely unharmed, then there's both of us in slings and all scratched/bruised up. My left arm took the hit while Brent right arm took the hit, pretty much like a shield.

I appreciate everyone's concern.

 

[WRAPT C5Z06]

God bless you and those that didn't make it. Wow, that looked to be veryyyyyyy scary. No warnings of the tornado?

 

[zinc02gt]

Yeah we had warnings. We were in the hallways for the better part of 2 hours. People were checking out left and right. According to my step mom, my step brother, real brother, and I were the next to be checked out when the power went out. My father and I were actually joking about how the weather was supposed to be bad the next day because I ahd washed the Monte Carlo SS the day before. I didn't know it was supposed to even rain until he mentioned it.

They were going to let us out at 1PM, but at 1PM they had a reported tornado touch down on the outskirts of the city, so they shut the school on lockdown. At 1:12 PM it hit the highschool. Lasted probably no more than 15-30 seconds. You kind of lose sense of time in situations like that so it's hard to say. At the time I had also lost my sense of smell, but not taste. All I could taste was concrete and dirt, but I couldn't smell anything untill I had climbed out. All you could smell was gasoline. There was a gas line somewhere and it had ruptured. I had taken my shirt off prior to the accident because it was so hot in the hallways. I always wear an udnershirt. I ended up finding my shirt on my visit up there. I still have it and it still smells strongly of gasoline.


My glasses were also knocked off my face when I was climbing out. I said to hell with them because I knew it'd be impossible to find them.

 

[cooksnj]

god bless you. you will figure out why you were chosen to live someday, maybe tom? maybe in forty years?

 

[Shane731]

Wow. What do you say to something like that? Words just seem so inadequate.

All I know is, God must have been watching out for you. No doubt about it. :dblthumb2: