Our Unplanned Adventure

When we woke up on Thursday morning after the tornadoes the power was still off.  At this point we were starting to hear rumblings that it might be days before it was returned although we really didn't believe that at all.  I don't remember what we did for breakfast or for lunch but I know that we were cooking all of our meals on my parents grille.  Charlie had joined us during a break in the storms the night before.  He went out Thursday morning to check on the damage and later came back with more clothes for himself as well as anything he could salvage from his fridge.  We also went down and got what we could out of our fridge and stuck the food in coolers.

With no sight of power on the horizon the guys headed off for a round of golf that afternoon.  After Charlotte's nap Mom, C, and I got in the golf cart and caught up with them and watched them finish their last few holes.  Charlotte thought it was just the best thing to be watching Daddy, Papa, Char-Char, and Dude Mike golf.

It was, all in all, a pretty fine day.  It was discovered that Mom and Dad's conventional water heater still had some hot water in it so the guys took really quick showers in hot water although Mom took a cold shower so as not to waste any water and I just waited because I also didn't want to take their water.  We listened to the radio most of the time to hear updates and whenever we could get information on our phones we looked at it, but our batteries were running down.

On Thursday night we grilled most of what we had left from our freezers.  It was, honestly, a pretty decent meal with hamburgers and a pasta dish I had frozen as well as some other items.  We were still doing ok although we knew that we didn't really have any "real" food left and would be eating a smattering of dry goods or refrigerate only items that were still good in our freezers in the day to come.

Jason let me sleep late on Friday which was good because I was nearing my point of exhaustion and a mental breakdown -- pregnancy hormones aren't doing me any favors these days!  But they had a fun morning while I slept and took Charlotte out to the nearest sand trap!  We had decided to cancel our trip to the beach the next weekend because we already knew that going away again wouldn't be a great experience for any of us.  And so Jason, Papa, Memma, and Char Char introduced Charlotte to sand for the first time!  She definitely had a blast!

The guys played golf again that afternoon and Mom and Charlotte went and met them on the golf cart while I did some necessary tasks.  I spent C's nap time deep cleaning our fridge and freezer...I figured, no better time than when all the food had to be thrown away anyway and I wasn't wasting any power!  At least that task is done for a while!  Our fridge and freezer have never looked better!

I also had to find some place to board Luca since we had made the decision that we were going to leave town for a few days.  After going up to our normal vet I found that they were opening every day from 4:30 to 5 to take previously scheduled pet boardings and so I just went up there with Luca and they were so sweet to let him stay with them over the weekend. I'm not sure what we would have done if they hadn't taken him!

By the time I got back and the guys got back we had made plans to head to Atlanta and first thing Saturday morning Jason, Charlotte, and I headed out of town.  Our food had basically all been eaten and with a little one and a pregnant Momma we really needed to get somewhere that we could get decent meals.  We got to Atlanta and put C down for a nap and Mom, Dad, and Charlie came after golf.  We spent the evening relaxing at the hotel and ate at the hotel restaurant because we were all too tired to make the effort to really go out.

On Sunday we got up and took Charlotte to the indoor pool at the hotel.  We had made the mistake of telling her that we would go to the pool in Atlanta and she thought that meant as soon as we got into town but she very patiently waited until Sunday to go.  She hasn't changed much since last summer -- she's still fearless and really didn't want any of us holding her even though we didn't have floaties or any type of float!  She's now dying to get the pool here and is so excited that it opens tomorrow!

On Friday, once we got the hotel reservation secured, Jason and Charlie set out to get us tickets to the Braves on Sunday.  With the spotty cell service that we had (it was honestly really like we were pioneers because we had no power and our only reliable connection to the outside world was a battery powered radio!) they could never get through but we immediately got tickets as soon as we got into town on Saturday.  So after the pool we set out for the ball park.

Charlotte went to a game when she was 3 months old and has since learned to do the chop so she was really excited to go to the game.  We found out on Saturday that it was also Bark in the Park day so there were going to be dogs everywhere which we knew would only make the day even better in her eyes!  We weren't mistaken! She did great and loved the game!  She missed a nap to stay for the entire game and only started getting tired near the end when she laid her head down on my chest but she was a trooper and never got fussy or anything.  As opposed to her mother who was about to have a serious marital spat if the game had gone into extra inning's! :)  Thankfully, God is wise and in control and the Braves won in the 9th to save us from that drama!

Given the choice between nacho's, pizza, and a hot dog, C chose nacho's and thoroughly enjoyed them!

We had big plans to go to a big dinner out on Sunday night but were totally exhausted after the game and chose to eat at Maggiano's across the street.  You could tell Charlotte was tired by that time though so as soon as Jason and I finished eating we headed back to the hotel and put C down.

That night did turn out to be interesting as we were watching royal wedding coverage that night on tv (still bummed that I had to miss the live event!) when all of a sudden we got news that the President was making a special speech.  After delay after delay the news finally leaked on Twitter and we watched as the President announced that Osama Bin Laden had been killed.  It seems that Obama had made the final call to apprehend OBL on Friday after leaving his tour of Tuscaloosa.  It's been rumored that Saban took care of that -- we wouldn't put it past him! :)

We also got other great news around midnight that the power was back on in our neighborhood so as soon as we got up on Monday we all packed up and headed home.  We were very lucky to have been spared any type of damage or injuries but it was still a very stressful and emotional five days.  Honestly, we're all still kind of reeling from it and still making adjustments to try and recover.  But we were very glad to be going home!

Twisters

I woke up in the early morning on Wednesday, April 27th to Jason moving the computer out of our room.  He said that the storms had started to get bad and he was going to watch to make sure we were ok.  The next thing I knew he was waking me up to tell me he was leaving for work so I didn't think that they were very bad.  But by the time I got up they had delayed schools for two hours meaning that Charlotte didn't have school that day at all.  I had a physical therapy appointment at 10 so Dad stayed home to keep Charlotte and met me in the parking lot with her at 11.  The sky looked pretty bad but Jason had told me that things wouldn't get really bad until 2 or 3 so I stopped by Chick Fil A and got us some lunch and went home.

By the time we got home I heard a tornado siren blaring and so I checked with Jason and he said that we were still ok.  I sat Charlotte in her high chair with her nuggets, fries, and Chick-Fil-A sauce and turned on the tv's.  I was pretty frantic since I was home by myself.  Although I've always kind of poked at Jason for having weather radar software on our computer I couldn't have been more thankful for it that day.  I had the radar pulled up on the computer and the tv's blasting the news but still didn't feel really comfortable.  I rolled C's chair into the den so I could see and watch the tv as well as the computer and ate lunch really quickly.  I quickly grew pretty scared and kept calling Jason for updates.  My stomach started to hurt when I saw video of a wall cloud with a possible tornado right over my parents office (where they both were) and the area near Jason's work kept being mentioned as a possible tornado location also.

Jason told me that we would probably be fine in our closet and didn't need to get under the stairs because the tornado's were probably not going to hit us.  He was monitoring all of this from his phone in the hallway at work because they had been put into their safe place as well.  I was sometimes giving him (and my parents) more information than they had because I had the tv and internet handy.  I threw our comforter and pillows in our closet and sat Charlotte down with some stuffed animals and the iPad playing Wonder Pets.  For the first of many times in the next week I was so thankful for last year's Mother's Day gift of the iPad because it kept Charlotte entertained, quiet, and oblivious to what was going on around her.

It's hard even writing about it now, three weeks later, because remembering it takes me right back to that place where I was so scared.  I was in charge of Charlotte and I was terrified that we were about to get hit.  I have always hated that we are kind of at the end of our neighborhood with no houses really between us and the west.  For some reason I've always felt like houses between us and oncoming tornados would slow their progress and damage.  In hindsight I now know that that is utterly false, if anything those extra houses held the tornado pick up momentum, but at that point I still thought that and was pretty scared to be the only one in charge.

When the tornados got close to our house and we were told to take cover I made sure that Charlotte, Luca, and I were all in the closet.  The tv was blaring so that I could hear it through the wall and I was also streaming it live on my computer.  I remember holding Charlotte's little hand in mine and pulling the comforter over our legs and just praying that we would be ok.  A few minutes later Jason let me know that it had gone north of us and that it was safe to come out.  He said that the line was dead for an hour or two and that it would be ok to take C upstairs and put her into bed.  Again, I'm so thankful that I can implicitly trust Jason with weather news because he always watches it like a hawk.  Being able to trust him and go put Charlotte down for a nap helped make a stressful day a little more normal.

I decided to go ahead and take a shower since I hadn't gotten up early for one that morning because of PT.  Again, in hindsight, a very fortuitous decision that helped me feel a little more normal for a little while longer due to the power outage and loss of hot water that occurred that night.  Jason came home from work in the break in the storms.  When he got home I was sitting at the kitchen table going over my to-do list and schedule.  He immediately pulled up lots of news and the radar on his computer with the tv on in the den.  But he soon came in to where I was and set the computer down where we could both watch the live tower-cam video of the tornado hitting the city of Cullman.  It was surreal to watch and heartbreaking.  We knew lots of people in Cullman and were familiar with the downtown.  As we watched it wreak destruction on the city it started to sink in that this might be a very bad day.

Honestly, Jason had been talking about this day for over a week and about how it was setting up to be a monster day for tornados.  His weather forum buddies couldn't decide if it was going to set up perfectly for storms or if it would all fall apart.  But, in his opinion, this was the worst day he'd ever seen set up.  If any of you have weather nuts for husband's though you know that a lot of times they cry wolf.  Weather is unpredictible and can change on a dime and a lot of times that Jason has said in the past that things were going to be bad, it was going to snow, etc, the weather hasn't shown up.  So I wasn't really expecting it to be as bad as he said.

But when he came home early and we saw the footage from Cullman I started to get convinced.  Like I said earlier, our home is not surrounded by houses on the west and I am always antsy about tornados so I wanted to go to my parents who live nearby and have a basement.  As soon as Charlotte woke up from her nap we packed up enough to get us through the night (since we were anticipating the storms lasting until 9 or 10) and headed down to their house.  At the last second Jason threw in his hand crank radio and hand crank flashlight although he says that he definitely didn't think he would even come close to needing them.

Not long after we got to their house the sirens started again and we decided that we would all be safest staying in the basement for the next little while.  We carried down our computers and phones along with a blanket and pillows and some drinks.  Jason brought down his radio and Dad brought down the box with the battery powered tv that Mom bought all of us probably five years ago.  We got Charlotte set up again and were a happy little nest for a little while with one of us on an iPad and all other four on our own laptops.
 

Throughout the next hour or so the guys would go up occasionally to look outside and we were all keeping up with the weather ourselves.  Around 4:30 or a little later Jason told Mom and I to pull up ABC 33/40 on our computers.  He said that there was a tornado getting close to Tuscaloosa.  We did and all three of us watched in horror as we watched the tornado demolish the city that we love.  While it was hard watching the storm hit Cullman earlier in the afternoon, watching the tornado take out a sizable chunk of Tuscaloosa was horrifying and heartbreaking.  Not only did we know a few people who were there, we had six cousins in town as well as too many friends to count.  We know Tuscaloosa's layout by heart and as it came through we knew exactly what it was hitting.  Even watching it on their feed we couldn't imagine the damage that was occurring right then and the lives that were being lost and totally decimated.

Not long after the feed from Tuscaloosa was lost (or perhaps in the middle of it, my timing isn't perfect now) we lost power.  We got the flashlights out and Mom lit some candles before we realized that we were pretty much out of danger and could go upstairs and use the remaining daylight.  I never really thought that we would lose power and once it went off I couldn't imagine that it would be off for long.  I was so sure that it was a short fluke in our neighborhood that I even tweeted the local power company to let them know that our area was out in case they were trying to identify the area's where they needed to send workers.

I think that in some ways the power going out was a saving grace.  We were spared a lot of images of the damage nearby and far away other than what we could pull up on our phones and while we saw a lot on our phones our service quickly turned horrible and the ability to download photos and videos was very slow and trying.  I think if we had been able to see all of that right away without hearing filtered versions of it on the radio first that it might have been more than I, at least, could take.  As it was, we cooked a big dinner on the grille with food that would spoil immediately and eventually went to bed.

We were so very lucky on April 27th.  We had no property damage -- even the condo in Tuscaloosa had no damage.  We were all safe.  Our family in Tuscaloosa was safe and although we eventually heard of a number of friends who had very close calls and lost everything, they were safe as well.  At the end of the day all that we had lost was power which is a need that you can live without if prepared and most of our modern forms of communication which you can definitely live without.  I am so thankful that more wasn't lost to us but I am still heartbroken at all of the lives that were changed forever on this day.

In most areas it will be easy to move on.  I would guess that most of the country has already forgotten that we had major damage on April 27th in Alabama.  In our city things are back to normal -- grocery stores are fully stocked, there are no lines for gas, and other than a few incidental outages we all have power.  But there are lots of people still digging out.  Still searching through rubble for valuables.  Still working each and every day to try and put together a semblance of the life that they had on April 26th.  And for those people the task of rebuilding still stretches in front of them in an endless road.

I think most people in Alabama and throughout the South were changed on April 27th.  I know that I will make sure and keep a good stock of flashlights and batteries on hand from now on.  If we ever get to build a house we will definitely have a storm shelter installed as well as a generator.  And honestly, the cost of getting a generator installed in our home now doesn't seem as outrageous and unnecessary as I would have thought.  I will pay much more attention to Jason when he tells me that severe weather is on the horizon and I will constantly pray that a day like that will never happen again.

And for many cities, they will never look the same.  It's been said that it will probably take at least six months for the destruction in Tuscaloosa to be fully cleaned up and I would guess that it will take years and years before things are rebuilt fully in the damaged areas.  Hackleburg, AL was basically wiped off the map.  Businesses are gone.  People are without any possessions.  Families lost their loved ones who will never be replaced.  Please pray for everyone affected by these storms.  Pray for healing and help and love and understanding in the days and weeks and months and years to come.  The damage will run deep and will take a very long time to recover from.

Aftermath

**Updated ways to help on May 4th.

We were so lucky in the storms last week.  We had no property damage.  No one got hurt.  And all of our loved ones are still safe.  However, the storms affected the entire state and we felt their effects as well.

We lost power around 5:15 pm last Wednesday, April 27th.  We were some of half a million people in the state to lose power and while we assumed the power would be restored quickly, the reports that we soon began getting suggested that we might not get power for close to a week.  Our power was finally restored around midnight (or so we were told) on Sunday, May 1st.

Our area was almost 100% without power for roughly 100 hours before some areas started getting power back.  This meant that by Friday everything in our fridge's and freezer's was basically spoiled.  We were left with only snack type foods in the pantry.  And with the threat that we needed to conserve water or we might lose it too we made the decision to cut bait and take a quick trip to Atlanta.  (I'll post more about our entire experience along with pictures once I get there sequentially.)

The drive to Atlanta was startling.  We had been cocooned at Mom and Dad's house virtually untouched from the storm except for the lack of power.  The guys played golf on an empty course on Thursday and Friday.  Mom and Dad's hot water heater was very well insulated so even on Friday evening there was still hot water even if we were taking super quick showers so that other's could partake also.  But as we started leaving town we began to see areas on the highway where the tornado hit.

Area's like the area near Bridgeport where we saw downed trees on power lines for a mile and then saw huge swaths of trees split from a tornado.  We later drove through Ringgold, Georgia and were totally shocked to see the interstate exit totally flattened.  Tree's were stripped of bark; signs were bent in two; and building upon building were leveled.  This damage was caused by the tornado that we watched via towercam come through Cullman Wednesday afternoon.  Our last brush with the storms was in Adairsville, Georgia where we saw every tree snapped in half for roughly half a mile.  That path was cut from the Tuscaloosa tornado -- it was still causing destruction so many miles away.

After seeing that destruction it made it a little easier to imagine the devastation throughout our state, although I've been told you can't really imagine it until you see it.  My heart breaks for these towns that lost everything (Phil Campbell being one) and those that just lost major areas of their city (Cullman and Tuscaloosa being two).  Our state has been dealt a major blow and over half of the counties in Alabama have been declared a Federal Disaster Area.

I know that there are a lot of people out there who have heard about these tornado's and want to help.  There is a lot that you can do if you live here or if you don't.  I'm going to list a few that I know of in case you want to help support our rebuilding efforts.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  All of the items listed below have someone that I know either directly or indirectly involved with them or are a reliable organization.  There are many other ways to help if you just get in contact with those in the state.

- UA Greek Relief - to date the Greek community at The University of Alabama has provided roughly a third of the hot meals being donated across Tuscaloosa.  The fraternity men and sorority women have banded together to help their community in ways that are so admirable.  You can donate financially or through goods.  Follow them on facebook or Twitter to get up to date need requests.

- Send baby goods through Diapers.com - Two women in Birmingham have set up "registries" on Diapers.com where items can be purchased and shipped to them and they will deliver them to victims as they are delivered (with free shipping!).  Go to Diapers.com and check out the registries of Brooke Rhind and Kate Fix.  Baby goods are desperately needed in the area.  Can you imagine not having diapers, wipes, or formula for your babies?  I can't.  These parents need help!

- UA Acts of Kindness Fund - This fund has been set up to help students and employees of the University recover financially from the tornado.  Click here to go to the donation page or here to find out more about the fund.

- Donate to the United Way - Text 'TORNADO' to 50555 to give $10 to the United Way of Central Alabama for tornado relief.

- Leslie Lambert is taking item donations and is updating her blog with more up to date items that are needed in town.  Email her if you want to send her a physical item donation and check out her blog to know what is needed in Tuscaloosa.

- Buy a Sweet Home Alabama shirt - UA alum and North Alabama resident Maggie Crisler has designed these Sweet Home Alabama shirts and is selling them and donating the profits to the Red Cross for Alabama tornado relief.

- Buy a Sports Illustrated Alabama cover in an auction to benefit tornado relief

- My friend Hilary has two programs going on in her store, Mint Julep Monograms, to benefit tornado victims.  You can purchase an Alabama/Auburn kitchen towel as part of her "Toomer's for Tuscaloosa" fundraiser.  Or you can purchase a gift certificate to benefit the Manna House in Huntsville, Alabama who is providing relief to families who are in need right now.  Hilary makes great products and it's wonderful that part of the proceeds are going to support those in need.

- And something that only requires a few mouse clicks from you but directly benefits those in need, is that Ree (The Pioneer Woman) is donating twenty five cents for every comment received on her Quarters post.  In addition, on Friday she will choose four charities that people post in the comment and donate $500 to each of those charities!  This is something that won't cost you anything but a few minutes of your time so please check it out!

- Buy Brad Paisley's new single Old Alabama and he will donate all artist royalties to the Red Cross for tornado relief.

- Erin Cobb's sweet sister recently announced that she will donate 50% of her store proceeds from Sifted Vintage to tornado relief via Project Help Alabama.  Also, use coupon code "Alabama" for 25% off.

- Via Erin Cobb's Ten on Tuesday (on Wednesday) post I also found out about Kids4AL and their first project called "Boxes of Hope" which gives children across the nation a chance to send small items to children in Alabama who have been victims of the tornadoes.

- Judith March has made two dresses and is selling them with Toomer's for Tuscaloosa and 100% of the proceeds will be donated.  Check out her blog post to see the dresses and then check out her website (later, I think) to purchase the dresses.

- Via Magnolias Marriage and Manhattan, Erin Gregory is donating 50% of her art sale proceeds from her Etsy shop to Project Blessings to help tornado victims.

In addition to all of this, our area needs prayer.  Prayer for the men and women that are working around the clock to try and restore power and water and other functions to our state.  Prayer for those who still have family members and friends missing and those that are searching for these missing persons.  Prayer for those who lost everything.  Prayers for those that haven't been able to get back to their house yet to see what's left.  Prayers for those who have lost loved ones.  Prayers for those leading our areas that they are guided in the correct direction in how to best recover our area.  Just prayers.  If you can't help with a financial or physical donation, I ask that you pray for everyone that has been affected and will be dealing with the effects of the tornados for days, months, and years to come.  Please help get the word out about the devastation across the South and support us with your prayers.  Without God's help we won't be able to recover.

Things are getting back to normal where we live.  We have power and hot water although Jason still hasn't been able to return to work due to lack of power at his office -- we are hoping that he can go back tomorrow.  While the grocery stores are still packed and some items - like ketchup - are scarce on the shelves, the items that are essential are in the stores.  And while you see tree's down in the neighborhoods near us, none of them are in houses.  But there are many communities across the state who are still dealing with the immediate effects of these storms and will be dealing with them for a good while longer.  April 27, 2011 is a date that will not be easily forgotten in my mind and in the state of Alabama.

Tragedy

**I wrote this around 9pm on 4/27/11 before we realized that we'd be out of power for maybe a week and needed to conserve all of the power we could -- even on our computer's so that we could charge our phones.  We, of course, lost our internet and router's when the power went out and had only very spotty service on our phones.  I've finally gotten a way to post this, so these are my first thoughts on the storms.  We didn't even really know the magnitude at this point.

Growing up in Alabama you are used to tornado’s.  I vividly remember the tornado in ’89 and everything about that day.  I wore a blue striped dress with three colored hearts on it that Mom had made me.  I walked home from school that day from kindergarten and had to pull up my sleeves because I was so hot.  When I got home Mom, Charlie, and I piled into the tub in our bathroom in the middle of the house with the Sears Wish Book and we heard the tornado go over our house before heading on to do a great amount of damage in Huntsville.

Another instance occurred one day in college I was driving home after finals when I got a pretty frantic call saying that there was a tornado about to cross I-65 ahead of me while I was on my way home from finals.  So I detoured to Jason’s apartment in Birmingham to be safe.  We were so worried about a tornado coming and the fact that he lived on the top floor of his apartment building that we went downstairs and tried to introduce ourselves to his neighbors that lived below him but they weren’t home so we just rode it out and, thankfully, the tornado went around us.

Becoming a parent makes things even scarier.  Today was the second day that I was by myself at home when tornado’s broke out.  Last fall we had a day of tornado’s and I could see one go over the mountain next to us from the windows in our bedroom and was terrified.  Knowing that you are the sole person responsible for your child in severe weather is a very sobering thought.  Not only do you have to keep them under control and not panicked but you’ve got to keep yourself under control so that they don’t lose it.

Since Jason knows all about weather and is very passionate about keeping up with it I knew that today was going to be bad.  But the storms were a whole lot worse from the get go and I was even more terrified because I was by myself.  Last night I woke up to Jason leaving our room with the laptop open looking at the radar.  He said that it was getting bad but I knew that he was on top of it so I quickly went back to sleep.  Same thing with this morning before he left for work.  But when the storms started around 11:30 or so this morning I was by myself and Charlotte was my responsibility.

I can’t remember ever being so scared.  I knew that there was a tornado just north of where Jason and my parents were and that there were funnel clouds right on top of their locations.  The weathermen were saying that we needed to be taking precautions and the look of the weather outside was horrible -- the wind was blowing harder than I’ve ever seen and was so loud.  So I threw our comforter and pillows into our closet and got Charlotte situated with Wonder Pets on the iPad.  I pulled Luca in with me and, after turning the tv up as loud as I could so I could hear it through the walls and getting the laptop going, I closed the doors and we huddled back there waiting to get an all clear from Jason.  

Thankfully it was a false alarm and the tornado went way north of us and we were fine.  The storms finally slacked up and we got a break for a while.  I put Charlotte down for a nap and grabbed a shower.  Jason got home with a little bit of time before nap was over and immediately pulled up his radar software and the ABC 33/40 streaming site.  (James Spann is, by far, the best weatherman I’ve ever had and we still turn to him when there are storms coming from the south.)  We watched in horror as the Cullman tower cam caught the huge tornado (estimated initially at between 1/4 and 1/2 mile wide) as it went through downtown Cullman.

After getting Charlotte up we made the decision to head down to Mom and Dad’s.  They have a basement so I felt like we’d be safer there and since they have everything for Charlotte that we do we felt like we would be me comfortable there.  Not long after we arrived things picked back up and we felt like we needed to move downstairs.  Their cable was out (or off and on) before the storms came through but definitely went out when the storms rolled in.  

We spread out a blanket and got set up downstairs.  Charlotte was set with the iPad going again.  Dad was working trying to get things set up but Jason, Mom, and I were all on different computers watching streaming video online.  It was actually perfectly cozy down there.  We had power, we had multiple radars and internet so we knew what was going on, we had drinks and snacks -- pretty much everything we needed.  

Jason was still watching the 33/40 streaming coverage as well as local coverage and told Mom and I that we should pull it up to see the tornado in Tuscaloosa.  At first the video didn’t look as bad as what we watched go through Cullman but that quickly changed.  My stomach started to hurt as we watched the debris get picked up and were able to track it just a few blocks south of campus.  But even after watching that video I couldn’t have imagined the damage that it was inflicting.  

Our power went out a little while later and the weather got less severe directly where we were so we headed upstairs where we could take advantage of the subdued light.  At that point we started being able to get tweets again and started hearing that our entire county was out of power because of a broken line coming from the power plant.  We later heard that most of North Alabama was out of power -- more than 330,000 people.  (On Saturday, when I'm posting this 500,000 people are still without power in N AL and there were, at one point, a million across the state without power.)  At this point we have no idea when we’ll get power back and no expectations to get it back before tomorrow at the earliest.  (Again, it's Saturday now and the expectation is that we MIGHT get power back next Tuesday, 5/3.)

We also started seeing tweets from Tuscaloosa.  I was terrified earlier in the day but these images and videos just made me feel even worse.  To see pictures of 15th street with nothing standing.  Pictures from 15th street looking towards campus with nothing but leveled debris between it and DCH hospital.  Video of the tornado going through town.  Reports of storm spotters who had been pulling bodies from debris and people still trapped.  

We immediately started touching base with our family in town and they, thankfully, were all safe but all said how scared they were.  The community thankfully was probably spared at least some loss of life because classes were still going on (or had just been canceled) so a lot of students were probably still on campus which got spared a direct hit by a block or two.  But thinking about those students in their apartment complexes just off of campus -- I can’t imagine that feeling.  

At this point we’ve put Charlotte to bed in a pack and play.  We have windows open to try and get some air circulating and are subsisting on candles and flashlights to get some light.  We all basically ran our phones down so the guys have manually opened the garage doors and are charging the phones in the cars right now.  We are, blessedly, unharmed.  We haven’t been to our house since the major storms but there is no major damage here.

We are shell shocked at the damage that we’ve seen second hand.  My heart is broken for Tuscaloosa and the other communities hit.  I’ve seen the most damage pictures from Tuscaloosa but also know that there are a lot of communities in North Alabama that were also devastatingly hit.  It’s hard to understand why something like this would happen.  Lives that are forever changed because of these storms today.  But I do trust that my God is great and that he has a plan.  I just pray that he spreads his mercy and grace to all those dealing with loss from this.  

I’m guessing that Tuscaloosa will never look the same, but I know that with lots of prayers and help from others she will recover and move forward to making something better.  Please join me in praying for all of those facing tragic and painful loss today after these storms.  I’m sure other states were hit also, but I know that Alabama was devastated by these storms all across the state.  I pray that a day like this doesn’t ever happen again.