Granddaughter saw tornado

[Confused2764]

On May 30, 2008 my 6 year old and my 1 year old granddaughters were victims of a tornado along with their parents. My daughter works for a 24hour childcare facility and they were with her when it happened. The facility was behind the complex where my daughter lived along with the kids father. On that specific day there were watches and warning so we knew it was going to storm. Around 9:30 my daughter told me the last child had left and she went to lock up the facility and wait for her boyfriend to get there which he nornally walked because they literally lived right behind the daycare. Around 9:45 my daughter went to the door to see if she saw him coming and she said she looked at the sky and it was green. Within a minute or so the winds kin of picked up then stopped, she saw him from a distance and all of a sudden, no rain, and a tornado dropped from the sky. She heard him screaming for them; she grabbed the kids and ran into the office and as soon as she did that the tornado hit the daycare, shattering all windows, the door of the office rumbled and she said the kids were crying and screaming and the 6 year old looked at her and asked her if they were going to die. The kids father finally was able to get to them and all four got to their apartment which had also been hit. They were then ordered to evacuate the complex due to gas leaks and go to a school that was across the street. During this time my daughter alled me from her cell and all I could hear was 6 year old crying. The 1 year old ws kind of in shock because she really did not know what wa going on. All of a sudden my daughter screamed and said "I gotta go" and hung up. I tried to call back but go no answer. After about 15 minutes she called back and said another tornado had hit and someone had broken a window to the school so everyone could get in and the tornado hit the school. To winde this up, now when it rains my babies are so scared. When it thunders both of them will sleep with their parents. My 6 year old is pretty smart so any time she hears of a storm coming she will watch the news so she can see the radar to see if it will be Marion County. She use to ALWAYS want to stay at my house on the weekends but now if she thinks its going to rain she does not want to come. She told me she never wasnts to be away just in case another tornado comes, she wants her, her sister, mommy and daddy to be together because the first time her daddy was not there. She remembers seeing him caught in the gust of wind and screaming for them right before the tornado hit and that really scared her. My question is, should the 6 year old get counseling. We have tried to make her understand that everytime it rains thats not going to happen and I think she is aware of that, but still really really scared.


This discussion is related to Child is terrified of storms/ 5 year old.

[tiredbuthappy]

i would definitely suggest counceling. such a traumatic event could be harmful psychologically to anyone, especially a child.
she may know that rains don't mean tornado, but fears are irrational. ever have a phobia? i have. even as an adult, i could try to rationalize and understand all i wanted- it still didn't help the phobia. of course hers is more of a post traumatic stress situation. i just mention phobia because i can understand how a person can be aware of something, but still terrified.

[RockRose]

What have you done with her so far,  to help her process this?  Sometimes,  writing and drawing is very helpful.  She could compose a "something scary happened" book that has her drawings,  and writing,  and she could even go take pictures with a camera to put in her book.  The book could also include a family picture with everyone in it,  smiling,  at the tornado "ruins" site.  If you're religious she could even write a prayer about tornadoes and include that.  When she feels fearful thoughts she can add to the book.  This is often very helpful just to express both the positive (all the family members are fine) and the negative (it was scary there for awhile not knowing eveyrone would be fine).  You could write a letter to her about how you were praying during this time,  and memory of another tornado you've lived through (or similar disaster) so you know how for awhile it's scary.

So far, her reaction doesn't seem abnormal.  She was horrified - and that takes time.  But seeking counseling might not be a bad idea if she continues to not be able to recover.

[RockRose]

And I agree with tired, too.  This is how phobias start - they start with an event,  and somehow in our network of brains,  that fear webs its way around into a bunch of unrelated things until a whole section of the brain is dealing with a fearful event.  So counseling - to stop this from spreading - is probably a good idea.

[Confused2764]

Thank you both for that information. My daughter has looked into counseling, but nothing has been schuduled yet because they are still trying to recover from loosing everything they owned but the clothes on their backs. RockRose, the idea about starting a book is great. That might be something to kind of help her. Her father has sat and talked with her to let her know that will not always happen. I think it's this bad because of the fact that she saw it, and her father being caught in the wind, then the tornado hit the building they were in, then it hit the school where they were told to go, so initially she was thinking that the tornado was chasing them because it hit all of the places that they were. We have had warnings and watches since and a few weeks ago she said to me "Nana, God was cleaning up some mess in our apartments because it was a lot of bad stuff going on and he didn't like it", I really did not know what to say, but I told her that God also protected them and everyone else from getting hurt, because there were no death just minor injuries.