After the Storm

It has been some week. I am sitting in a hotel room in Tennessee with my daughters and grandchildren, thankful to have made it through the worse storms in Alabama history. I have been through tornados before, but nothing like what happened on Wednesday.

The storm sirens were going off constantly by noon. We were told to go home at 12:30. The children were stuck at school, waiting for anxious parents to pick them up. I had only driven five minutes and there were already trees down on the highway. I spent the afternoon at my neighbor's house in her bathroom, coming out during the calm. We saw a funnel cloud, about half-mile wide, over the cotton field. It was eerily quiet, but it veered away from our direction. Later, when it calmed down once more I attempted to make it to my daughter's house. I made it ten minutes down the road, when there was yet another warning and the ominous storm clouds and flooded streets made me turn
around. By now we had no power and our cell phones weren't getting service, so I had no contact with my family. We listened to the battery-operated radio for all news reports and it sounded bad.

I woke up early and headed north. All of North Alabama was without power. TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) supplies our electricity and was hit especially hard, unprecedented in its history. Luckily, I was able to get gas at one of the few places that had gas. By mid-morning it was 20 miles of bumper-to-bumper traffic of people trying to find gas and supplies. Our county had several fatalities and dozens of injuries. My son-in-law works for the Sheriff's Department and had to work search and rescue. He came home soaked to the bone, saying that he'd never seen anything like it.  Still, Tuscaloosa and Birmingham were also hard hit and and I am just now seeing the pictures in the newspaper.
They are saying that it may be a week before power is restored. My younger daughter is expecting any day, so we decided to get a hotel room for a couple of days. We are so fortunate that we have a roof over our heads and everyone accounted for. Many others are not so fortunate.
Please keep the tornado victims in your prayers.