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SPEAKER: I was brushing my teeth and the sirens were roaring, and I knew I still had enough time at that point to get to safety. Finished brushing my teeth and the sirens stopped. I thought the sirens stopped because it was all clear.

In reality, the sirens stopped because the tornado took the sirens out. So I put the toothbrush back in the cup and wiped my mouth. And it doesn't sound like a freight train. It sounds like a 747 taking off as you're standing on the service road at the end of the runway.

The house was vibrating like a reed, a hum that did not stop. And at that point, I knew this was not the typical windstorm or thunderstorm moving through. So I was headed down the upstairs hallway. Got to the top of the steps as debris began hitting me in the head.

And I picked up a little speed and began moving faster down the hallway toward the kitchen, trying to round up the dogs as the front door blew open and the glass broke and the stuff was flying all over and grabbed the dogs and made it under the kitchen table. And by that time, it was all over.

My house suffered some severe damage from the tornado, and I've been camping at the cafe for the last week. Quite comfortable. Great view. Moved in a small mattress for the time being.

We have the piano here. So I can tinkle on the piano if I want. Now that we have heat back, again, it's far more comfortable than it was.

So I really haven't had to do much to make it homey. We have a couple stuffed chairs here now which have come from the house and have some of my instruments here, guitars, and so forth. Friends have discovered that they can still stop by and I always have the coffee on. So it is just like home.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

I learned to juggle a number of years ago, standing over a couch with tennis balls so that when I drop the tennis balls, at least they would fall on the couch and I didn't have to chase them all over the house. And I'm learning to do the same thing, juggling the two spaces, the two disaster areas.

And you do as much as you can. When you get tired you sit down and fall asleep. My house is at a point that I'm really not that concerned about doing emergency repairs because there are no emergency repairs that would be enough. The house is basically in need of demolition.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

It's been going all right. Slowly fill out this form and discover you have to go talk to this person who tells you first you must talk to this person who's on the other end of town. And luckily, now we can get from one end of town to the other.

Last week to get three blocks was an hour trip when you needed to get your grandmother's dresser out of the rain. It was an incredible inconvenience to have to drive 3 miles around town and be stopped at all of the checkpoints and have your ID checked and given a pass to get through here.

And I hate to use the word ordeal, but yes, it's been somewhat of an ordeal trying to get all of those things done. What I would like to do at this point is reconstruct the house. I would like to build a new old house.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

There's nowhere truly that I want to go. I have the business in town which I enjoy. I like my lot, I like my neighbors. I have my things here.

My father is still alive. He'll be 90 years old next month, and he doesn't want to go anywhere. So I'll stick around the area and take care of him. As I was talking about rebuilding the house, he said, well, as long as you're going to rebuild, maybe you could just put a room on there for me maybe, we'll see.

[MUSIC PLAYING]