One week later

Last Wednesday, April 27^th, hundreds of tornadoes ripped through my state of Alabama.  The first tornado siren got me out of bed that morning at 6 am, the news said there was a possible touchdown in Triana, which is where my sister lives and is just a few miles down the road from Preston and me.  My dad called to warn me (like he always does) so I sat there watching the tv until we got the all clear (dodged that one.)  Preston and I got dressed and went to work like normal but sirens continued to go off the entire morning – luckily the two of us are able to chat via IM all day while at work so we were able to talk about the weather and know that the other was safe.  About 11 am I told him that I thought he should go ahead and eat lunch while the weather looked clear for the next little while.  At 11:30, more sirens and the weather men said there was a wall cloud at the airport (5 miles from me and heading towards me) at the exact same time the tv was showing a funnel cloud rotation forming directly above Preston’s workplace in Research Park.  He was actually in the cafeteria and looked out the window and saw it.  Thank goodness the funnel cloud above him and the wall cloud coming for me both dissipated!  At this point, we started to make plans to leave work and head to Preston’s parents house to hide out in their storm shelter.  This is a picture I took in our neighborhood while on the way home (about 1:30 pm before most of the storms hit).

Our neighborhood was trying to flood, this was right outside our driveway

We ended up staying at home watching the weather until about 3:30 and once we saw that there was another tornado headed for us, we grabbed our cat and jumped in the car.  We are lucky we actually made it to his parents house because during this particular tornado, it missed us by just a few miles and it curved and hit Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant causing a massive power outage (which ended up lasting 6 days for most of the city).  We stayed in the shelter until 6 pm, dodging tornado after tornado (none hit us!!) and then figured we were clear for a while so we headed back home.  We were wrong about it being all clear.  On the way home, sirens started going again and by the time we got home and realized we had no power and no radio and no way of knowing where the tornadoes were so we started panicking.  We sat in the bathroom with our bicycle helmets on, candles lit, cat next to us for probably another few hours.  I was bracing myself the entire time, I just knew I was going to start feeling the house shake and the roof being blown off at some point (it never did, thank God!)  Finally about 8 pm when it was starting to get dark, we emerged from the bathroom and saw that the skies looked clear and that stars where trying to peak out.  We had no idea of the actual devastation at this point, still had no power and my cell phone was not working very well.  I was getting a few text messages from people, everyone was checking up on one other and then I heard that the power might be out for 5-7 days.  Preston lay awake for hours worrying about whether we’d be able to find food and if anyone would be taking debit/credit cards.

Day 1 - Got up at 6 AM to drive to downtown Huntsville to hear a press release from the mayors.   They didn’t have much to say except be patient and that they were going to enforce a dawn to dusk curfew for as long as the power was out.  We drove to Athens, AL afterwards to eat a hot lunch and to get groceries.  Somehow Athens still had electricity even though some of the town was hit by an F5 tornado.  I took some photos on my iphone but they did not come out very well and it doesn’t even begin to show the true damage.  That night Pres and I grilled the hotdogs and hamburgers from our freezer before the meat started to go bad.

Day 2 - Got up at 7 am and biked to Wal-Mart.  Yes, I am almost 30 weeks pregnant and I biked 4 miles to/from Wal-Mart hehe.  We wanted to get a radio and some water.  Turns out that the Wal-Mart management team is truly as incompetent as I’ve always known they were.  They had plenty of workers, they had generators up and running yet they were not letting people in until 2 pm, they were going to let 5 people in at a time and then they were going to close at 5 pm.  What sense does that make?  We waited around about an hour then went back home.  The lines to get gas were backed up down the highway, I think the wait was about an hour.  That night Jenny, Eric and my grandmother came over and we grilled chicken, potatoes and corn on the cob.  Overall, we had a great day, feeling guilty to be enjoying it though when so many people lost everything they had :(

Day 3 - Lowes was running on generators so we went shopping for some home improvement items and ended up working on the house all day.   Well, Preston worked more than I did, I mostly watched.  We had WONDERFUL weather.  Once again we grilled out corn on the cob and potatoes.

Day 4 - No church so we got to sleep late and then Preston boiled water outside using a burner and bricks to make some coffee.  I ended up reading and napping on the front porch some of the day and Preston’s family came over and grilled out with us- we had so much food it was crazy.  We commented how the power outage was the best we’ve eaten in a long time!

Enjoying the Sunday afternoon

The power came back on for us about 3 am Monday morning and my boss called to say back to work the next day.  Preston didn’t have to go back to work till Wednesday and his workplace sent out an email saying that everyone would still be paid for their time out of the office.  We have felt so extremely blessed throughout the last week for so many things- None of our family was hit by any tornadoes, we had no damage to our house, we had hot water the entire time power was out (thank goodness for gas water heaters), we enjoyed great weather, the time off and Preston still got paid.  Our hearts go out to all those that lost their homes, their family members or their pets though.  I wish that I would’ve been able to get out and do some volunteer work to help clean up all the mess, but being 8 months pregnant I am not able to really do anything.  I’ve always been scared of tornadoes but the outbreak last week gives life to a whole new kind of fear of tornadoes.  We were so close to the F5 that hit, it gives me chills to think about.  If I didn’t already know this, I know it for sure now – God is good.  Even in the storm.