Hometown Hero Day

I’m in Murfreesboro! This was posted over at Victoria-Weather already today, but since it involves my time in Murfreesboro, I figured I would just repost it here. Besides, I’m on vacation!

I’m in Murfreesboro, Tennessee today to attend the Arkansas State-Middle Tennessee State football game. I go to two games a year, randomly selected, but like the way we pick our cities and road trips here at V-W, though different, because it’s real, and I write about it for the Victoria Times.
The game was “Hometown Hero Day”, as first responders and other members of the community were being honored for their service to the Murfreesboro community. It’s always good to remember those every day heroes, but this day was dedicated to those that came to the rescue in mid-April of this year. On April 10th, good Friday, the south central saw a massive tornado outbreak, including an EF-4 twister in Murfreesboro.
I asked someone sitting next to me what part of town the storm went through, and he started listing off roads and parts of town, so I went with the standard, “I’m not from around here,” response. He did, however, mention a few roads that I recognized. I told him where I was staying and asked if it had been close to there. “Yeah, real close” he said.
I tried to find out more, but he obviously didn’t want to talk about it any more. When the heroes of Murfreesboro came on the field though, the reticent gentleman to my left really got into it. One of the members of the Murfreesboro PD especially gained his applause. It was obviously an important moment for the family to my left, making sure to show their appreciation, so I stayed quiet after that.
When I got back to my room a few hours ago, I decided to do a little digging. The twister in fact past just over a mile to the north of where I am staying. The huge twister moved through residential portions of the city and mercifully only killed 2 people. A storm with the strength that the Good Friday storm had, Murfreesboro certainly benefited from the bravery of their hometown heroes.