Running Around Town

The Pip and I survived the storms and I hope you did too. Tornadoes touched down in surrounding areas but thankfully nothing hit close. In fact, I don't think it ever really rained hard until after I went to bed.

I left work a little after 4:00 on Monday and as I was driving home, I decided to stop by The Home Depot to see if they had a battery powered lantern. My parents have one of these and it emits a lot of light and I figured if the power were to go out I might need some light source that would be strong enough to read by. I don't have a good flashlight, just some cheap ones that quite honestly don't give off a lot of light; thus the decision to make a last minute run to Home Depot.

As luck would have it, they had one lantern left and it was the same one my parents had so I grabbed it up and headed for the batteries only to discover that all the D batteries had been bought and there were no more. So, after I bought the lantern (and some lawn bags that I also needed), I went next door to Staples and thankfully, they still had batteries.

The rest of the evening was really kind of uneventful. There was a moment of about an hour or so where I was concerned that a tornado might come close and of course, the sirens are never comforting. I stood outside talking to my neighbor Jeff at one point while the sirens were going off. We're super safe like that.

Thanks to the glory of Twitter, I was able to clear some shows from the DVR while keeping a check on all that was going on with the weather via Twitter. At 9:00 p.m., I was beyond excited to see that Channel 48 had dropped weather coverage and was showing The Blacklist. However, that wasn't long-lived as the weatherman broke in mid-way. Thankfully, there is On Demand and I can catch up on it later. It was shortly after this that I went to bed for the night.

Tuesday, I had the day off from work. I had a dental appointment, and appointment with a new doctor, and an appointment with the chiropractor. I started the morning at the vet. Pip and I left home around 7:00 a.m. She needed a nail trim and I wanted to get her weight so I could get her heartworm medicine for the month of May. She weighed 52.2 pounds. That's probably the biggest gain she's had in a while.

I went to my doctor appointments and in between ran some errands to the post office, Wal-Mart, Publix, Five Guys (for some lunch), and the mall when I needed to kill some time before my final appointment of the day. I finally made it home around 2:00 p.m. It was an extremely productive day and I'm glad I ended up taking the whole day off. Sometimes you just need a day to get things done like doctor appointments and post office runs.

When I got home, I had about an hour before I needed to call in for a conference call for work. After the call, I watched some TV and took a mini-nap. My weight training class was cancelled for the night because more storms were expected. So far, though, all tornado watches have been cancelled and we've only had one line of rain come through. I'm doubtful the evening is going to hold much excitement.

So, that's how my Monday and Tuesday went. Hope yours went well too and that you and yours are safe and sound!

The Start of the 2014 Tornado Season

I suppose I've been a wee bit lax on the blogging lately, or so says my Aunt Linda who told me at church yesterday that I needed to blog. So, here I am, putting pen to paper, or words to the computer screen as the case may be. What else is one to do when she is under the threat of severe storms and tornadoes? I have musings from the weekend to share with you; but, I've just now decided to share tornado stories instead because it just feels like the right thing to do. 

I shall first begin with my youth because growing up in Alabama, I've been dealing with tornadoes since I came into this world. I remember as a child when we were under the threat of a tornado warning that we would often be quarantined to the bathroom where, if I am remembering correctly, a mattress was sometimes pulled into the bathroom to be thrown on top of me and Justin should the tornado come close. There were also times when we took refuge at our church building and other times when we sought shelter from other church buildings in our community of Meridianville. 

I've heard more than my fair share of tornado sirens. One of the most memorable times was when I was no more than 12 years old and was at church camp, sound asleep when we were woken by a man with a thick country accent hollering out, "The SI-REENS are going off, The SI-REENS are going off, get to the shelter!" Y'all we were in the middle of nowhere and we were in our pajamas (likely a t-shirt and shorts) and probably bare feet, hiking down a muddy slippery hill in the pouring rain and lighting trying to get to the shelter at one of the buildings on the camp ground. The rest of the night was spent in a dirty spider web infested shelter with some people crying and everyone scared. Our youth minister at the time made us all a button that said "I survived the tornado retreat" and it had the year which was 1980 something. I want to say 1987, which would make me 10, but I honestly can't remember. It could have been 1991 for all I know. 

In November 1989, when I was 12, Huntsville was hit by a very bad tornado. It was a Wednesday night and I remember it like it was yesterday. The bad thing about this particular tornado was that a lot of people were driving home from work when it hit so there were people who were in cars instead of shelters and there were a lot of injuries and casualties and damage like I had never seen. The tornado hit on Airport Road in the Jones Valley area and I remember vividly being concerned about my Aunt Linda and Uncle Cecil who lived in that area of town. I was beyond relieved when I knew that they were okay. I remember this being the first time I had ever really been concerned that someone I know might be hurt by a tornado and was also the first time I remember being scared about the weather. I also remember that Marilyn Qualye (Dan's wife - he was Vice President at the time) came to town to survey the damage and the lover of politics in me just wanted to get a glimpse of the Veep's wife. 

There have been many more tornadoes since that November evening. One of the most memorable, and probably the one that most makes me laugh and I will never forget, happened the summer of 1994 when I was 17. I was living with my Aunt Linda and Uncle Cecil and my cousin Chris and his wife Amy (who was pregnant) and their daughter Alexandra were living there too. We were a big happy family. One night, my boyfriend Matthew was over and we were upstairs shooting pool and listening to music when the weather got bad. The next thing I know, Aunt Linda has come upstairs and gathered all of us to come and sit in her closet which was also under the stairs. She called Matthew's parents to let them know he would not be coming home any time soon. I don't remember how long we sat in the closet but I do remember us all being in there laughing and it's something I will never forget. 

Of course, there is also the tornado from 2010 that hit on my street which you can read about here. Then three years ago this past Sunday was the large tornado outbreak that caused us to be without power for a week. We've had a few other small incidents since then, but I think today has been the scariest since 2011. There have been lots of tornado outbreaks close by and apparently it is supposed to be like this for the rest of the night. So, please pray we will all stay safe and that the storms will pass over with little damage to our homes and our loved ones. Tornado season 2014 is upon us.

Like a Lion

I’m sure you have heard the old saying March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. Well, that lion certainly made a loud roar this year. We had a couple of tornadoes in the area on Friday. The chaos began Friday morning around 9:00 or so. Some of the same neighborhoods that were hit on April 27th of last year were hit again as well as other areas of North Alabama.

This time around I personally know three people whose homes were hit; one family’s house is basically gone, another one had the roof blown off and another one just sustained some minor damage. At least no lives were lost and that is always a positive in these types of situations.

Other area of the country were also hit and sustained much more damage than we did here in Alabama and many lives were lost in those states. We were very lucky this time around. Since we’ve had such a warm winter, I suspect that we will have a very turbulent spring. So, brace yourself, folks, the craziness is only beginning.

Also at the end of last week, two people I know died. The first was Walter Vinson who has been friends with my family for many years. We have a lot of fond memories with Walter and his wife Susan. He had Alzheimer’s and at the end didn’t even know Susan. What a terrible disease. Walter died on leap day, which I find to be interesting for no particular reason other than it only comes around every four years.

The second person to pass was the lovely Betty Tucker, who was best friends with my late grandmother. Betty’s funeral was three years to the day that my grandmother died, which I found to be very fascinating. I’m not sure if fascinating is the right word, but I’m having a hard time thinking of the word I want to use here. One of the items the family had displayed at the funeral was a poem that my grandmother had written back in 1975 for Betty Tucker and two of her other friends. It was a lovely expression of the friendship they shared. The Tuckers and my family have been friends for three generations now. Betty was one of the kindest and most wonderful people I knew and she will be missed here in this life.

Amongst all the sadness and post-storm chaos, Jackie and I managed to carve out some time for a shopping trip at Bridge Street. I bought some jeans and a shirt from White House Black Market and a sweater from Coldwater Creek, all three on sale. I also bought a new pair of brown shoes from Clark’s but they had to be ordered because they didn’t have my size. I hope they work out okay because they are meant to replace my beloved brown shoes, but will probably only pale in comparison. Hopefully they will work out okay.

Sunday evening we had a going away soiree for our interim minister who has been such a blessing to our congregation and to me in particular. He has brought us some wonderful and challenging lessons and I am so grateful he came our way. He will be missed.

It’s back to the grind again tomorrow. I don’t have anything overly exciting planned for the week, but with any luck I’ll surely be able to find something to tell you all about. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and that your week is off to a good start!

Tuscaloosa

It has now been two weeks since Alabama was hit by a series of tornadoes. I can’t believe that much time has already passed. But, as they say, time flies. I heard on the news this morning that the tornado count from Wednesday, April 27 is now at 28. A few smaller category tornadoes will probably be added to the count before it’s all said and done.

This past Saturday, my brother Justin and I went down to Tuscaloosa. I was supposed to have gone down the Saturday before, but since there was no power and Tuscaloosa had been hit worse than the Huntsville area, I decided it would be best to wait another week before going.

The reason for the trip was to pick up some dining room chairs that I bought from my sorority house. The Theta house is doing some remodeling and as a result is buying new furniture in some areas. They sold the old furniture and I bought a couple of the old dining rooms chairs to have mainly for sentimental reasons. I currently have no idea where I’m going to put them in my much loved yet small house.

I always take a lesser known exit off the interstate going into town so as to avoid a lot of the traffic on McFarland Boulevard. If you know me well then you know I’m not a big fan of lots of traffic and this particular exit is the one I used all through college so I’m rather partial to it I guess you could say. The road I take into town goes though Alberta City which was hit especially hard and as a result, we ended up having to turn around because the road was still closed.

The road we took in was Veteran’s Memorial which turns into 15th Street once it crosses McFarland; so, we were forced to see all the tornado damage in the heart of the city which was really something I wanted to avoid. 15th was closed as well; but Justin grabbed my phone and took some pictures around the intersection as we drove by. Over 30 people lost their lives in Tuscaloosa that day. This city as well as all other communities across Alabama is still healing. As mentioned in my last post, the pictures really don’t do it justice. The damage is so much more heartbreaking and devastating up close and in person. It’s really hard to put into words the absolute ruin we saw that was once a thriving part of a city we love.

These cars were apparently totaled in the storm.

You can't tell much from this photo, but they were all beat up pretty badly.

Cleaning Up

Last Monday morning, we woke with power. As mentioned in the last post, the power came on at my parents’ house about 3:00 a.m. on Monday morning. My dad and I got on our work clothes and headed into town. Our first stop was Mullins. Since we hadn’t had a hot breakfast in a long while, we stopped in for a hot biscuit and it was really good. We then made a quick stop by my house so I could close up my windows since the AC was back in action.

We then headed out to the Toney area of town where our friends Colene and Gary live. You may recall that upon reading the newspaper on Friday, we discovered that their house was hit by one of the tornadoes. My mom had called Colene the day before and asked if we could come out and help them do some clean up work and she said yes.

When we got there, Colene and Gary were not at home so we called them to see what needed to be done. Colene’s cell phone battery went dead during our conversation and so my dad and I just hung around to see if they would soon be home. While waiting, I made a couple of phone calls and my dad passed out cold drinks to the county workers who were cleaning up tree debris from the roads.

Gary and Colene soon pulled in and said there wasn’t much to be done except for trying to straighten up what was once Gary’s workshop. Colene and I walked through what was once their house to see if there was anything else she needed from inside. The county workers told us once they applied for assistance through FEMA, that FEMA would come in and bulldoze down the house and the bulldoze what was once the workshop out to the road to be picked up by the county. Can you imagine your house being bulldozed out to the curb? So sad! As we were walking through the house a group of four guys arrived; I don’t know who they were or who they were affiliated with, but they started helping us with the clean-up and straightening of what was left of the workshop. Not long after the four guys arrived, another group showed up to help; again, I don’t know who they were or how they ended up there. Then a group from Mastin Lake Church of Christ came to help and before the day was out another family that I go to church with, the Cothrens, came to help. Before the day was over, I think there were around 30 people helping to clean things up.

The National Guard came and dropped off some cases of water and the Sherriff’s department brought seven or eight really large tarps for us to cover everything with since we were scheduled for rain again. My dad and I left about 2:00 or so. All of us together were able to organize things into piles and get them covered up. There were still some things that needed to be tarped before we left, but the Cothrens agreed to get that done and told us to go on home – since we were both pretty tired, we agreed to do just that.

It was a long and very emotional day. The pictures you see on TV and in the newspaper are nothing compared to seeing the tragedy up close and in person. It's a very humbling experience to say the least. I already felt very blessed to still have my home and family and friends, but after spending the day at Gary and Colene’s, I was even more grateful for those blessings.

Some tree stumps pulled up by the roots at Juanez' house.

She lives next door to Gary and Colene.

The branches, etc. had already been cut off and carried away.

I thought this was intersting and hope you can see it okay.

This is a mop stuck in the ground. I am assuming the tornado caused this.

At what was once Gary's workshop before we left for the day.

Those are the Cothrens working.

After The Storm - Days Three and Four

Saturday morning, I got up about 6:30 or so and went home to my house to empty my fridge and freezer of all my food and condiments and throw them out. I cleaned the fridge and freezer with Clorox and threw away hundreds of dollars worth of food; again, only a small and insignificant complaint when so many people don’t even have a home any more. I am blessed to be able to afford to replace those items and so in the grand scheme of things, it’s not really that big of a deal.

What I was able to salvage from my fridge and freezer.

Sorry for the crooked picture.

After cleaning out the fridge and freezer, I swept and mopped the floors and opened a couple of windows to let in some fresh air. Then I gathered up a few things I needed and headed back to my parents’ house. I got there about the same time as my dad who had been out to Publix to get some sandwich and hamburger meat and a few other items like milk. Since Mr. Savis was kind enough to let us use a line off of his generator, we were able to plug in the main fridge and keep some things cool. My dad was also able to get some bags of ice, which was a blessing. He offered a couple to Mr. Savis who didn’t want any and so we gave one bag to a neighbor down the street and before he left the store, my dad gave a bag to a man in line behind him because Publix had run out.

I would like to take a moment to say what an EXCELLENT job Publix did during the power outage here in North Alabama. As you probably know if you have read this blog for any period of time, I LOVE Publix and do just about all of my shopping there. While the power was out, all the Publix stores were operational thanks to generators. They had plenty of food on the shelf. They brought in trucks of ice each day. They also had amble supplies of batteries, charcoal, propane, lighter fluid, flashlights, etc. If it weren’t for Publix, I don’t know what folks would have done. They did a great job!!

After taking a nap, we grilled out hamburgers at hot dogs and once again my brother and granddad came over to eat. The food was good, as always! Once my brother and granddad left for the night, we settled in for the evening, had our nightly Bible reading and prayer and played cards. I’m happy to report that I was once again the winner!

I got up around 6:00 on Sunday morning and went outside with The Tide to collect all the tree limbs and branches that had fallen in my parents’ backyard and took them out to the road. After a couple of hours work, I went inside to take a shower, listen to the 8:30 a.m. press conference and go to church. I went to church with my dad Sunday morning instead of driving across the county to Chase Park. Mother didn’t feel like going so we left her at home with the two dogs. Before we left, we tried to brew some hot coffee for the church folks, but the large coffee warmer kept flipping the generator and so I’m not sure how hot the coffee ended up being.

My dad had an excellent lesson – he really spoke from the heart, which I had encouraged him to do and I hope he challenged a lot of the folks in the pews. The lesson was about being content in whatever situation you find yourself in and it was obviously very appropriate for our current situation. After church, my grandparents stopped by to get some kerosene for their lamps and a bag of ice. I went home soon after that to get my work boots and some grungy clothes – we had plans to go out and work in the devastated areas on Monday and I needed some other clothes. I also grabbed some more Diet Cokes – there would have been a crisis for sure had I run out – and also got a pizza from Dominos. After days of grilling out, pizza was a welcome change, even if it wasn’t that good.

I then went over to my grandparents’ house to pick up their cell phone so we could charge it on the generator. I also stopped at Publix for something – can’t even remember what. I think it was eggs and Gatorade and a few other things. By the time I got home, Mr. Savis had turned off the generator for a while to let it cool down. I attempted an unsuccessful Sunday afternoon nap and when I got up, Mr. Savis was trying to start the generator back up – only there was a problem. He couldn’t get it to stay on. It would run for a few seconds and then shut off. My dad ended up going over there and so did a lawn boy who was working on one of the neighborhood yards. After an hour or so, the lawn boy got the generator to work. Something as wrong with the carburetor and the generator would have to go to the shop on Monday. This would be the last few hours with the generator for a while.

Working on the generator

I let my grandparents’ phone charge for a while and then took it back to them. On the way, I stopped off at Lowes to get some work gloves. I also noticed that Publix had an ice truck in the parking lot so I stopped there again and got some ice. My grandparents didn’t need any so we gave a bag to a couple of neighbors – one who was riding his bike down the street.

That evening, we listened to the radio while playing cards. This was the first night that we had listened while playing cards and it was the same night that various areas were getting power back on. The radio would tell us which areas were getting power and it seemed to be getting closer to us. I said, “It’s just like Santa Claus! It keeps getting closer and closer!” My house had gotten power around 8:00 that night, but because of the curfew, I stayed at my parents’ house instead of going home.

While playing cards and listening to the radio, we discovered that Osama bin Laden had been killed. I thought that to be a moment I would never forget – no power, playing cards by the coil oil light, and listening to the radio to find out about a big event in our nation’s history. Awesome! After the card game was over (can’t remember who won, but it wasn’t me), we listened to the radio a bit longer and then went to bed. About 4:15 in the morning, I woke up; I don’t know if it was because my dad was rummaging around or if I had to go to the bathroom or a combination of the two. At any rate, I noticed that there seemed to be street lights on outside and sure enough, I asked my dad if the power was on and it was. He had woken up because when the air conditioner came on, he got cold and he was getting up to adjust the thermostat. Our time without power had come to an end.

After The Storm - Day Two

On Friday morning, my dad and I both woke about 6:00 a.m. He went for a walk and while he was out, a friend, Wayne brought over his frozen food. My parents’ friends, the Reeds, had power in the small town of Somerville and also had an empty deep freeze and had told my dad to bring his food over to their freezer. So, Wayne had brought his food over so we could take it too. My dad put the remainder of his lawnmower gas in his car (both of his vehicles were low on gas) and we loaded up the frozen food and headed out to Somerville, 25 miles away. On the way, we listened to the 8:30 a.m. press conference which had become our primary source of information thanks to the radio station airing it each morning. Speaking of which, allow me to say what a great service WDRM 102.1 FM did in covering the storm and the press conferences and providing tons of information to those of us without power. I normally don’t listen to this station, as it is country music and I’m not a big fan, but I listened every day the power was out and am immensely grateful to the service they provided to the community.

We had heard that morning that some of the gas stations in Lacey’s Spring were opening and we were going to pass through that area on the way to Somerville. Sure enough, by the time we got to Lacey’s, there were long lines at the gas pumps. I managed to snap this picture with my phone. I’m not sure how well you can see, but the line was at least a mile long.

After having to call the Reeds a couple of times to get directions and turning around no less than three times, we finally arrived to drop off my parents’ frozen items. We loaded up the freezer and had to bring a few things back with us because there wasn’t room for it all. We headed back to town and had plans to stop by the store and pick up a few items. We were also in need of a battery operated radio and first stopped at a Wal-Mart in south Huntsville and discovered it was closed. The gas station there was open and there was a long line there as well. We then went to Publix on Bailey Cove Road and bought some snacks and dog food. The dog food was on sale in last week’s Publix ad and I had already planned on getting some. The downside is that all my coupons were at and are still at work and I couldn’t use the $1 off coupon I had planned to use. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not that big of a deal, but I did wish I had those with me on more than one occasion.

Our next stop was Target in Jones Valley; they had no radios and we bought nothing there. We then went to Publix in Hampton Cove and bought some little cakes from the bakery, some D batteries, a small flashlight, charcoal, and some other things and then we headed back to the house.

After we returned, I had a hot shower, my parents have a gas hot water heater and we were very blessed to have hot water the whole time the power was out, and then took a nap. That afternoon, it was time for grilling again. This time we had pork tenderloin, grilled corn, and grilled Texas Toast – it was all really good! We only had one big meal a day and only snacked at other times. So, needless to say, I was very thankful for that one big meal each day.

While we were out grilling, my parents’ neighbor, Mr. Savis, came over and told us he had an extra line on his generator and offered to let us plug in. Mother had mentioned to him earlier that her wheelchair needed to be charged and so he kindly came over and offered us his extra line. We were able to plug in the power strip I had bought at Lowe’s the day before and then were able to plug in my mom’s wheelchair, the fridge, and also some of our cell phones. It was truly a blessing. We were able to have some cold food and drinks and keep some of our frozen food frozen. Neighbors helping neighbors – that’s the theme these days and it has been very humbling and heartwarming.

While we were eating, my brother showed up and told us the lines at the gas stations close to us were not that long. We then decided to go and fill up our cars and also take the gas cans and fill them up for use in Mr. Savis’ generator. I went over and got Mr. Savis’ gas can and we all headed out. Before we left, The Huntsville Times was delivered, the first newspaper in a day and I was very excited because finally we could read and see what was going on right around us. I took the paper with me and while waiting in line for gas, began to read and discovered that the home of a lady I go to church with (Colene) was hit by one of the tornadoes and completely destroyed while she was inside with another lady I go to church with (Juanez) and also Colene’s grandson. The pictures in the newspaper were unbelievable; when you have no TV, you really have no idea of the total devastation that has occurred and so we were thankful to finally receive a newspaper so we would have some idea of the complete and total destruction that happened right here at home.

We only had to wait for gas for about 39 minutes and that went really quickly thanks to the Foo Fighters and the newspaper. The gas station was only taking check or cash and my dad had forgotten his check book. Luckily, I had brought mine and was able to write a check for the gas for all three vehicles and two gas cans. (Yes, my dad paid me back.) After we filled up, we headed back home and had our nightly Bible reading and waited for dark so that we could commence our nightly card game of Phase 10. I’m happy to report that I won on Friday night, and went to bed a winner!

Want to know how you can help the tornado victims of North Alabama? How about sending a gift card? Last year when Nashville was hit with flooding, Lindsay Ferrier collected unused gift cards through her blog, Suburban Turmoil. She had great success with this and was able to pass out envelopes of gift cards to people who lost their homes in the flood. I would like to do the same thing for the people of North Alabama. To people that lost their homes, a gift card would be a big help. Whether it’s for dinner at a restaurant or to a home improvement store or to a clothing store, it doesn’t matter. These people will be able to use any form of gift card you are willing to provide. If you have any unused gift cards laying around or want to purchase some gift cards to help, please email me and I will let you know how to send these to me so that we can help the people of North Alabama start to rebuild their lives. I will post updates as to how many gift cards I get and how many families we help. Thanks in advance and spread the word!

After The Storm – Day One

On Thursday morning, I woke up with the sun – about 5:30 a.m. – which isn’t all that unusual as that’s the time I normally get up for work anyway. I turned on my phone and checked Twitter to see if I could find out any information about the electricity or any other thing for that matter. I found out that the power would be out for two to four days. I started packing up a bag as I had decided to go stay with my parents so I would at least have some company for a few days if the power was really going to be out that long.

I took a bath with the hot water that remained in the hot water heater and got dressed. I then listened to the radio for a bit and discovered that a tornado had hit the power lines coming out of Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant which is the TVA facility that supplies power to the Huntsville area, and that was why it was going to take a few days for power to be restored. Around a million people were without power. I called my customer for work and let them know the situation and then talked to my parents and told them The Tide and I were headed their way. I grabbed a few snacks and some bread from the freezer and loaded up the car with all things human and dog. I was low on gas because I had planned to fill up on Thursday, which was my payday; so, I put the remainder of my lawnmower gas in the car before we headed over the mountain.

I then went across the street to Jeff’s house to let him know we were abandoning ship. He didn’t know the power was going to be out for such a long while and decided right then and there that he was going to go to Virginia to stay with his brother for a few days. I asked him if he had enough gas to get out of town because due to the power outage, the pumps were not working and you either had to go north to Tennessee or south of Cullman, AL, to get gas. He said he had enough to get to Chattanooga and so he was good to go. We said our goodbyes and parted ways.

The Tide and I arrived at my parents house and unloaded the car – some said it looked like we were moving in, but hey, we didn’t know how long we would be there. Not long after arriving, my dad and I headed down to Lowe’s with our cell phones and my iPod to see if we could find a plug to charge them up. My dad had ventured out the night before and noticed that Lowe’s had a generator and so that’s how we knew we could charge our devices there, provided we find a plug that is. We found one close to the restrooms and the employee break room; so, we plugged in and stood around waiting. After a while, I went and bought a power strip so we could plug all our devices in. I guess we must have been there for an hour or maybe close to two while waiting for things to charge. Obviously our devices were quite low on juice. We talked with the employees who thought it was humorous that we were there charging our phones. After our charging session at Lowe’s, we went up to check on my grandparents and discovered they had gone into the city to find some oxygen for my granddad; so, we went back to the house.

That afternoon, my dad grilled pork chops and rolls and cooked some potatoes in an iron skillet over the hot coals. It was good to get a hot meal in our bellies and it was quite good. Since we all had a lot of food in our freezers, we had to grill what we could so it would be used instead of throwing out. My brother and grandfather came over to eat and afterwards left to go back home. I had brought my Daily Bible with me and read the day’s passage out loud and my dad prayed for all those folks who were affected by the storms. We then decided to take a walk around the block before it got dark and took some left over pork chops to a lady up the street while on our walk. I’ll take this opportunity to also say that the Sherriff put a curfew in place from dusk to dawn and arrests would be made for anyone caught out after dark. This curfew worked well as very few arrests were made and very few burglaries reported, which speaks well of the community.

When it got dark, we lit the coil oil lamps and played a game of Phase 10. This became our nightly ritual while the power was out. My mom loves Phase 10 and no one will ever play with her. Since there wasn’t much else to do, Phase 10 it was. My parents tied and I finished in third place during this first night of competition. After the game, we went to bed, and on the way to bed, I was carrying a coil oil lamp and the globe wasn’t on tight and it fell off and broke into a million pieces. We had to keep The Tide and Scout away from the area while I cleaned up the broken pieces as best I could; and so ended day two.

Want to know how you can help the tornado victims of North Alabama? How about sending a gift card? Last year when Nashville was hit with flooding, Lindsay Ferrier collected unused gift cards through her blog, Suburban Turmoil. She had great success with this and was able to pass out envelopes of gift cards to people who lost their homes in the flood. I would like to do the same thing for the people of North Alabama. To people that lost their homes, a gift card would be a big help. Whether it’s for dinner at a restaurant or to a home improvement store or to a clothing store, it doesn’t matter. These people will be able to use any form of gift card you are willing to provide. If you have any unused gift cards laying around or want to purchase some gift cards to help, please email me and I will let you know how to send these to me so that we can help the people of North Alabama start to rebuild their lives. I will post updates as to how many gift cards I get and how many families we help. Thanks in advance and spread the word!

The Day of the Storm

Today is Wednesday, and it has now been one week since our beloved state was ravaged by a series of tornadoes. I’ve obviously been offline for the past week (I've stopped by Panera today to use their free WiFi - thanks Panera!) so I’ve got a lot of writing to do in order to catch you all up on the past week’s activities. Knowing how long-winded I can be when writing, the recap will definitely be more than one post; that is if I can remember everything that has taken place over the past week. So, let’s get started…

Last Wednesday, April 27, I wrote a brief post about the series of storms that we had experienced and were expecting to come that afternoon/evening. Not long after writing and posting that, I left work for the day and headed home. It wasn’t raining at all when I left and personally, I was a little leery about just how strong the coming storms were going to be. I have always felt that Huntsville is a tad bit over concerned when it comes to weather awareness and as a result, I often take weather warnings with a grain of salt. I’ve never been one to be overly afraid of thunderstorms or tornado warnings; after all, hunkering down in a bathroom or storm shelter is a way of life for an Alabamian, and especially a Huntsvillian. The most frightened I’ve ever been, in fact, was in January of last year when a tornado hit on my street. So, when coming home, I really wasn’t overly concerned and started thinking about what I would do with my evening since church had been cancelled as a result of the impending storms.

I arrived home about 4:15 or so and tried on some new clothes that had arrived on my front porch. While doing that, a lady from church, Pat, called to check on me and I chatted with her for a while. During my conversation with her, the tornado sirens went off for about the third time since I had been home. I then plopped down on the couch and began to watch the weather coverage. I also decided it would be wise to plug in my cell phones to charge. The lights were dimming and blinking and my power rarely goes off. In talking with my parents earlier in the day, I knew their power had been off since a little before noon and so I figured if the power was going to go out, I’d better have a way of communicating with people. Each time the lights blinked, the DirecTV receiver in my living room when out (the HD receiver is apparently more sensitive than the SD receivers) and so I moved to the bedroom to watch TV since that receiver wasn’t going out. Soon after moving into the bedroom, the weather man told everyone in the TV studio to go to the shelter there because a tornado was coming close to the studio. Since I live close to that studio, I started getting prepared to hunker down in the bathroom and it was only seconds later that the power went out and we were flying blind. This was about 5:00 or a little after.

Luckily, I had my iPod fully charged and was able to listen to the radio and knew where the tornadoes were. I alternated between sitting on the couch, standing outside and chatting with my neighbor Jeff, and sitting in the bathroom floor – each time the wind and rain picked up and certain areas were told to get in their safe place, The Tide and I would head back into the bathroom. I think it was rather confusing for her to say the least.

Finally about 7:30 all the storms had passed and the rain began to taper off. Around 8:00 when it was completely pitch black out and you couldn’t even see your hand in front of your face, I decided to go on to bed. I had started dozing off and didn’t want to fall asleep with candles lit and since there wasn’t much else to do when you can’t see anything, going to sleep was about the only option I had. I also wanted to conserve the battery power on my iPod and therefore couldn’t listen to the radio. I wouldn’t find out just how severe all the storms were until the next day.

Tornado Season Strikes Again

Yowza! What a day! Clearly, I’ve had no time to write again today because I’m late posting again. Sorry for the delay folks!

I woke up this morning to thunderstorms, lightning, and tornado warnings, which is really nothing new around these parts, especially in the springtime. It is, after all, tornado season. It is rather spooky though to wake to the madness and have to take a shower whilst all this is going on around you. I mean, when we were growing up our parents forbade us to take a shower while it was lightning outside so doing it now seems kind of rebellious – does anyone else feel this way?

The weather calmed down quite a bit in the time I was getting ready this morning and by the time I left for work, the skies were beginning to clear.

I knew a second wave of storms was on the way and so I headed out to run an errand before it got dreary again. I had to pop out to pick up some flowers for our administrative assistant – it is after all, administrative assistant’s day. Hope all you admins out there were given a nice treat or two.

I got back to work and in the safety of the office by the time the second wave of storms started coming around. We had some cake and presented our admin with her flowers and then went down to the cafeteria for lunch. Halfway through our lunch, the sirens went off and we were ushered into the hallway for safety. We stood around in the hallways chatting for about 20 minutes or so until the tornado warning was lifted and we were able to resume our lunch, or in my case, go back to my desk.

Once back at my desk, the weather seemed to get worse. Hail was pounding the metal roof above my head and the rain was coming down hard and the wind was blowing the roof and it sound as though it was denting the roof, but who knows for sure. Not long after I got back to my desk, one of my friends had to leave because her house had damage. Apparently a tree fell on it or maybe a tornado hit it and her poor little dog was MIA. She was pretty upset. I imagine I would be too if The Tide was no where to be found. My aunt also lives in this neighborhood and a lot of the house there are completely gone, but she only had minor damage. Tornadoes are so bizarre, aren’t they?

Now the weather is taking turns being sunny and dark and it’s raining the all the while. It’s been a very strange day to say the least. More storms are headed in this afternoon and these are supposed to be worse with micro cells which means lots of tornados, lightning and who knows what else. Church services have already been cancelled – you know it’s bad when folks don’t want to have church! I am about to head on out from work while I can, and then I’m going to hunker down at home and pray for safety the rest of the night.

If you’re in the area, stay safe this evening. Tornadoes love to hang around these parts for some reason. Hopefully none will come your way.

Tornado Photos

As promised, I took some photos of the tornado damage from last Thursday night. Here are some of the photos:

These first three photos are from the night of the tornado. I was able to brighten them up a little so you can see them better.

This is just down the road from my house. A large tree fell on this power line and beside this house.

This is where the tree in the above picture was split.

Emergency vehicles one road over from my house the night of the tornado.

The next photos are from Friday, the day after the tornado. They were taken in the afternoon after I got home from work. A lot of clean up had been done by this point. I was really impressed with the city of Huntsville. They did an excellent job removing debris from the roads and getting power back on to the residents that had been without.

Utility worker in front of my house working on the power lines.

Just down the road a few utility poles had been knocked down. Here the utility crews are working to get those back up.

A tree uprooted down the street from my house. So many of the large trees were torn into pieces or uprooted - very sad. You can really tell a difference in the skyline.

This house is just about eight or 10 houses down from me. A large tree fell into it. Also the house next door to this one sustained a lot of damage.

Another house down the street.

Another uprooted tree.

This tree managed to stay rooted in the ground, but a lot of the large limbs were torn off. This house is just down the street from Tony's house.

This brick wall was blown down. Isn't it strange that the columns managed to stay intact? Tornadoes are so bizarre. This is also close to Tony's house.

Here a tree fell onto this truck just a few streets over from my house.

This tornado could have been a lot worse. It was categorized as E-F2. Thankfully it didn't ever fully touch ground. Tony's house had some roof damage it turns out. He is missing some shingles and plans to call the insurance people today. But we are thankful that it wasn't any worse than that and that no one was seriously injured.

Here are some photos that someone took from downtown. Jackie sent these to me and someone she works with sent them to her. We are not sure who actually took them.

I Survived The Great Tornado of 2010!

I sure didn’t expect to be writing a post about tornadoes today, but life is sometimes full of surprises. Yesterday after work, I ran a few errands, picking up prescriptions and groceries, etc. It started raining right after I left Publix. The rain drops were unusually large. At times I thought it might be hailing out because of the sound of the rain, but I didn’t see any hail while driving; only the large rain drops. When I got home, about 10 minutes after five it did start hailing, but only for a few seconds. I was able to get all my groceries in to the house and let The Tide outside.

I turned on the TV, let The Tide back in and started to put away the groceries. Then the tornado sirens started going off and I honestly didn’t think much about it because they go off often. I looked at the TV and regular programming was on; there wasn’t even a watch or warning posted on the screen. Then the lights started flickering, and I knew something was wrong because that almost never happens. I hurried to get the cold items into the refrigerator and then the power went completely out, and that’s when I heard it.

I opened the front door and heard the loudest noise I have ever heard in my life. I know you have probably heard people say, “it sounded like a freight train,” and they were not exaggerating. The noise was so loud as the tornado tossed and tore anything in it’s path including the utility transformers, which I heard looked like fireworks when they exploded. I managed to grab Tide by the collar and drag her into the bathroom along with my phone, and some blankets. I called my parents’ house. I was hysterical! I don’t get scared in storms. I think a lot of people in this area overreact a lot of times when it’s storming out, but last night I was truly terrified. I asked my mom if there was a tornado and she said it was at Chapman Mountain and I said, no, it is HERE!

I got in the bathtub and The Tide laid beside it and we waited for the storm to pass. Minutes later, someone came into the house. It was Tony. He lives close by and it had hit a house at the corner of his street. He had tried to call, but couldn’t get through and came to check on us – me and The Tide that is, or maybe just me. He said it was over and so The Tide and I emerged from the bathroom unscathed, just shook up.

The tornado hit just down the road from my house. There is a whole lot of damage. I tried to take some pictures last night, but with the power out, it was pitch black and the camera wouldn’t cooperate, even on the night setting. My house and Tony’s house were both okay. The tornado literally went right between our two houses. It did hit the house of our secretary’s daughter and many other houses as well.

I plan to go out this afternoon and take some photos to share with you all. My buddy Adam, who lives close to both Tony and I, took the photo below of the tornado. This particular shot looks like it could be parallel with my house. I’m sure this was about the time I was hiding in the bathtub. I’m so thankful that no one was seriously hurt and that Tony and I didn’t have any damage to our homes. We were very lucky!

Thanks to everyone who called or sent a text to check on me last night! My phone hasn’t had that much action, ever! I really appreciate you all thinking of me.