Whitney: From tornado's wreckage, a ray of light

Judd and Michelle Alberty had many reasons to be thankful as they drifted off to sleep Tuesday night in Sioux Falls.

They met and fell in love while teaching at Laura Wilder Elementary, leading to their wedding this past July. They had purchased a new home and were ready to put their single-story house on South Glendale Avenue, not far from the Western Mall, on the market the next day.

Even when their power snapped off around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday night, following by ominous noises from a powerful storm, they had no idea that a tornado – the first to touch down in Sioux Falls in 30 years – threatened to destroy everything in an instant.

“I woke up when the power went out and heard something hit the house,” says Michelle, 37, who teaches second grade. “I decided to get up and check on things, so I walked out of the bedroom and into the hallway.”

More:Three EF-2 tornadoes caused damage across Sioux Falls on Tuesday night

By then Judd was awake and assessing the situation. Like most everyone else in the area, he received an alert on his cell phone that severe winds and heavy rain were pounding Sioux Falls and cover should be taken. He saw something about a tornado warning. But how often does a tornado strike an urban area?

“I went to the bedroom doorway, and I don’t know how to describe the sound I heard,” says Judd, 31, who teaches special education. “You know how they say it sounds like a train screaming by when a tornado strikes? That’s what I heard – and then a crash.”

Part of the roof had lifted off, creating enough wind pressure to send the ceiling crashing down on Michelle, pinning her underneath a mass of debris.

“All I saw there was a pile of stuff,” says Judd. “And no wife.”

Making a match

Michelle had taught at Laura Wilder in central Sioux Falls for about a decade when her friend on the school’s hiring committee told her about the new special education teacher.

“We just hired your future husband,” the friend said.

At first glance, they didn’t have a lot in common. Judd was six years younger and had attended Roosevelt High School, the son of former Sioux Falls School District school board president Kent Alberty. Michelle grew up a farm near the tiny town of Carter, about 20 miles west of Winner, but had become firmly entrenched in the Laura Wilder faculty.

Her friends and colleagues worked hard as matchmakers, pairing the two together on work committees and other assignments. Michelle’s assertive nature melded well with Judd’s easy-going approach.

Gradually, a casual friendship blossomed into something more.

“I got to see him love and care for other people’s children,” says Michelle. “He was very family-oriented, and I realized that the things that are important to us in our lives were the same. It probably took longer than it should have because I didn’t want to admit to my friends that they were right.”

Molly Wilson, an art teacher at Laura Wilder who lives about a block away from the Albertys, recalls inviting them up to a lake cabin in northern Minnesota in the summer of 2018.

“I was joking with them and said, ‘When we come up here next summer, you guys will be married,’” recalls Wilson. “That’s exactly how it turned out.”

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Keeping the faith

Even after the ceiling truss toppled upon her, pinning her to the floor amid the darkness, Michelle refused to panic. She knew Judd was nearby.

“I knew I was trapped, but I had a sense of calm,” she says. “I heard Judd yell for me, and I got my hand sort of out in the open so he could see it. There was pressure on my neck, but I knew I was going to get out of there alive. My husband was going to get me out.”

Judd had called 911 and was trying to remove the rubble at the same time, which finally tested his wife's patience.

“I told him, ‘You have to hang up and dig instead,’” says Michelle. “’You can’t talk to them and dig me out at the same time.’”

When Judd finally sorted through all the plywood, insulation and other materials to free his wife, they retreated to the bedroom to throw on clothes and plan their escape. The hallway to the front door was impassable, so Judd ripped out a screen in the bedroom and they crawled out a window, along with their dog, Watson.

In addition to calling 911, Judd had phoned Molly and her husband, Scott Kortemeyer, who live one block west on Hawthorne. Scott put on a headlamp and helped them maneuver through downed power lines, snapped tree trunks and torrential rain to the house where Molly was waiting.

“I could see that Michelle was injured,” she says. “We were worried about a concussion because she had abrasions on her face and a goose egg protruding from her forehead. The problem was that we got no response from the EMTs and the roads were blocked in all directions.”

Finding happiness

Judd and Michelle had their first date in the spring of 2018, and things moved quickly from there.

He proposed in November after dinner at MacKenzie River, when they drove to Falls Park and he persuaded her to leave the car for a short walk despite brisk temperatures.

“I didn’t have a great plan,” admits Judd. “But they had just put the Christmas lights up and we went to one of the viewing areas. I gave her the ring and asked her to marry me, which had a positive result.”

When they stopped to visit fellow teacher Becky Moser, working at a downtown store that night, it was clear that the Laura Wilder matchmaking efforts had been well-founded.

“They were super casual about everything, and then Michelle put that ring up to her face and we screamed and cried,” recalls Moser, who teaches kindergarten. “At that moment, she was the happiest that I ever seen her.”

More:Everything you need to know about the Sioux Falls tornadoes and the city’s recovery

They were married six weeks ago in Winner, with plans to move out of the Glendale Avenue house where Michelle had lived for more than a decade. Their offer was accepted for a house near 26th and Kiwanis, with a closing date in November.

It was an exciting time. They spent countless hours sprucing up the Glendale house to put on the market this week, hoping potential buyers would appreciate the close-knit nature of the neighborhood.

“It’s funny how things work out,” says Michelle. “You put all the hard work and energy into making something look good, and within seconds those plans can change.”

Into the darkness

Kent Alberty got a call from his son, Kyle, after midnight with bad news. Judd and Michelle’s house was battered by winds that reached 125 mph and the roof had caved in, injuring Michelle. They had managed to get out but he was heading there in his truck to see if he could help.

“I said, ‘You can’t do that without taking the old man along,’” recalls Kent, who served on the city's school board from 2007-2019. “And we did everything we’ve been taught not to do, which is drive into the worst parts of the storm.”

The neighborhood looked like a war zone, with large trees snapped like twigs and twisted metal blocking the roads. Darkness added to the danger. A few blocks away, the Avera sports dome was completely exposed, its inflated roof gone with the wind.

With no ambulance in sight, they got the truck close enough to transport Michelle to Sanford's emergency room, where it was revealed she had fractured vertebrae in her neck.

“The trauma team was very surprised I had walked myself into the ER,” says Michelle. “With the amount of time I spent climbing out of that window and walking around, it could have been very bad.”

More:Sioux Falls tornado aftermath: What you need to know to get help, donate and clean up

She underwent surgery that afternoon to fuse the vertebrae, and Thursday morning she was walking the hospital hallways and chatting with friends. Despite the destruction of their home, the prevailing opinion was that things could have gone much worse for Judd and Michelle.

“Seeing the inside of the house, if she had taken a couple more steps forward that night, we’d be having a very different conversation,” says Molly. “But she was so calm and collected the whole night. She said things like, 'I would like to see a doctor.'"

For Judd, who had told friends that things would start settling down after the wedding, the night remains a blur. There are hundreds of questions swirling around: Where are they going to live for the next few months? What does the insurance pay for? When do they return to work?

But when he saw his wife taking steps down the hospital corridor and thought about what the tornado could have taken away, his uncertainty gave way to relief.

Count the blessings

The day after a tornado ripped through the neighborhood with historic levels of fury, the damaged house on Glendale Avenue bustled with activity.

Kent and Kyle were joined by Michelle’s dad and brother to place a tarp on the roof before another thunderstorm rolled through that night. Molly, whose own house needed cleanup, helped sort through belongings such as a peacock decoration Michelle had gotten from her grandmother.

The crew expanded greatly that afternoon. Classes let out at Laura Wilder at 2:45 and by 3:15 the teachers arrived, parking and walking through tattered streets to help any way they could do to ease the burden on their friends and colleagues.

“It was amazing to see,” says Kent. “They show up at school every day and work together to help those kids and in doing so they become a family. To see that in action just reinforced what I had believed for a long time."

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At one point in the aftermath, Judd got a phone call and rushed into the house to the office closet, emerging with a small wooden box containing the flash drive with their wedding photos.

Despite the twist of fate that overhauled their lives, small glimpses of good fortune carried the day for the Albertys.

"They're just those kinds of people," says Becky. "They look for silver linings no matter what happens. They have their lives, their dog is OK, they rescued some belongings, they'll be able to start over. And people will be there to help."

When Judd and Michelle went to bed Tuesday night in Sioux Falls, they had many things to be thankful for. The last few days have added to the list.

Argus Leader Media columnist Stu Whitney can be reached at swhitney@argusleader.com. Follow him on Twitter @stuwhitney