By Carl Manning, American Red Cross

Even Red Crossers can feel the wrath of a tornado.

Take the case of Roger Norman, a board member for the past three years with the Red Cross Northwest Arkansas Chapter in Rogers, Arkansas.

Roger was asleep at home when he was awakened by the distant sounds of tornado sirens going off, but unlike in the past, they kept going and seemed to grow in intensity.

He looked outside and saw the heavy rain, heard the wind fiercely blowing, and saw utility lines on the ground and electrical transformers on the poles exploding.

“I never saw rain that hard and never seen straight-line winds like that,” he said. “It was terrifying. But instead of getting scared, you must realize that things are out of your control.”

He took shelter under the staircase inside his home and was on the phone talking to his father in Little Rock. While talking, he heard glass shattering but didn’t recall the sound of the large tree in his backyard falling on the roof.

“I thought we might be saying our last goodbyes,” he said.

After the storm moved on, Roger went outside and checked with the neighbors.

“We were all trying to take care of each other and checking on each other to make sure everyone was OK,” he said. “There was no time for sulking, we got to work cleaning up things.”

Roger said that from the Red Cross he had learned what to do during a tornado. He knew about where to shelter, as he did under the stairs, and what to do, like checking on neighbors the first chance he got.

“It’s important to reach out and help, and don’t let it get you down,” said Roger, who has a large tarp covering the section of his roof damaged by the fallen tree.

He said his father arrived shortly after the storm passed with his chainsaw to help cut away sections of the tree that were on the house, adding that learning how to operate a chainsaw is now on his to-do list.

“I’m so grateful to have the Red Cross and you never know how important it is until you need it,” Roger said.

Going outside to check on his house, Roger looked up at the tarp for several seconds before commenting, “Yes, it was bad but it could have been a whole lot worse.”