A significant tornado hit and heavily damaged my community where I work

It all started last night, quite literally.  I had been at work most of the day and was aware that we had an unusually high risk for tornadoes and damaging winds; so much that I had even considered calling out of work because I was very worried about it.  The worst storms were supposed to start around 9 pm so I would be home before that.  I got home around 8pm and started to prepare for the impending storm.  I just had a really bad gut feeling about it.  I had been watching the storms all day on my weather radar and there were tornadoes on the ground already and crossing over into the west end of our state.  The forecast had called for the potential of large damaging and long track tornadoes; basically, a worst-case scenario that you don't want to be in.  What really made my hair stand on end was the absolute calm before the storm hit.  No wind, no symphony of the usual frogs and cicadas.  Instead, it was dead silent, absolutely no sounds from the typically noisy forest at night.  And the air just had a heavy feeling to it, as well as high humidity.  When the thunderstorms rolled in, they made their presence known.  It got really loud with rain, wind and thunder, as well as constant lightning illuminating the now dark sky.  We were under a tornado watch until 3am, but I had tornado warnings all around me with confirmed tornadoes on the ground.  If you've never experienced a storm of this magnitude, you don't know or understand the sheer terror that comes with it.  There's a reason I stay weather aware; I know how devastating and terrifying tornadoes can be, let alone at night when you can't see them and are sleeping.  Also, I'm trying to prolong my life, not shorten it.  And if you don't have the fear of God in you, just come to the south under a tornado warning and you will.  I had already been praying before the storms hit.  The meteorologist I follow confirmed a large tornado on the ground twenty minutes before our National Weather Service did.  A huge debris ball showed up on radar and was being lofted up into the atmosphere over 30,000 feet and raining down on another community an hour and a half away.  This was a strong and damaging tornado, and it was hitting the town where I work.  Immediately I texted my friends and coworkers to make sure they were sheltering and aware.  I was so shocked and scared that it was going to kill people I love and care about and there was nothing I could do except pray.  I was also petrified that it was going to come where I live because it was growing bigger and stronger the longer it was on the ground.  I would estimate at one point it was probably twenty minutes away from where I live, horrifying, destructive and deadly.  It was like I was living in a real-life nightmare where I could die a horrible death or be very badly injured.  This tornado was shredding everything it touched.  One of my friends was sheltering in her closet and scared to death.  She could hear the roar and feel the ground rumbling from the power of the tornado.  She had run and hid in her closet after the tornado sirens had gone off.  We texted back and forth for a while in disbelief at what was happening.  As that tornado moved on to devastate the next town in its path, another one formed behind it.  And then, another one.  So now there were three very dangerous tornadoes on the ground.  The damage they left behind is unfathomable.  It looks like what you see in the movies, utter destruction and towns left scarred and decimated.  I was very fortunate that the tornado didn't damage the town where I live.  Unfortunately, it heavily damaged the town where I work and other towns around there.  I had heard from most of my friends except one, and I was praying that he was okay. I thought maybe he just didn't have good cell phone reception with all of the power outages.  Later today I did hear from him, thank God because I was worried.  Seeing images that my friends sent me of the tornado damage made me emotional and broke my heart for people that had lost everything in one night.  Their homes, their cars, their loved ones.  It made me breakdown and cry, no one deserves to go through something like that.  I'm hoping and praying that something good is going to come out of this.  I'm still so shocked that this happened.