I can tell you the exact day. It gives me chills thinking about it. The event has it's own wikipedia page.
20 years ago I was working at a residential school for trouble boys. I was in my early 20s. The school wasn't hell on earth but it was close some days. These were kids that nobody wanted and it was our job to give them the skills to stay out of jail. In four years I think I had one success out of the 100s of kids I saw. Just like many of you I didn't feel like an adult. I paid bills, owned a car, ran the dorm, etc. But I felt like the "big kid" most of the time.
That memorial day in 95. No school. Many of the staff stuck around for the kids and the picnic. We had a great pickup game of football. It was a pretty good day. Not too many fights and no major injuries. I left around 4:30 to join some friends for dinner.
My mother called at my friend's house and told me the police were at the school. She had 3 police scanners on 24/7. I was confused. The school was 30 miles away. No way the local police band went that far. She then clarified it was the state police and something really bad had happened. I tried calling the school. Fast busy. I started to get nervous, hopped in the car and drove back.
I turned the last corner into chaos. What had been a road was a mass of fallen trees and the main campus was inaccessible from the road. What little emergency service there was hadn't organize yet and people were literally climbing over fallen trees and around live, downed wires. I ran into another staff and he told me about the tornado. We tried but it was impossible to get to the school at the time.
Our dorm was across town so I headed that way. Our dorm was "the little kids". 14 & 15 year olds but maturity wise probably about 6. The power was out and they didn't know anything. The dorm leader had everyone in the living room and was reading stories.
I ended up running the place for 3 days. We had no sleep, no night staff, no more day staff. It was 5 adults, 22 kids and little food.
On day 2 a counselor stopped by and finally told us what had happened. 3 students (the article says 2 students because the 3rd was a sweet, elderly, mentally handicap man that lived at the school) were dead and a staff member was seriously injured.
After the counselor left I was making breakfast with one of our kids helping. He looked at me and said "What's going happen now?". I smiled at him and lied "Everything's going to be alright."