I’ve sat down to blog about the events of April 27, 2011 a few times and I always come up short on words. How does one put this into words?
We woke up on Wednesday morning to images from Cullman where the first of the tornadoes came through. There was devastation and schools were closing across the state. I read reports from the Abc 33/40 weather blog and there was no doubt in mind that they were preparing us for a dire situation. There was no speculation, no maybe you should make plans to be in a safe place, only certainty.
Our basement is completely underground so we had several friends and family come over. We are so thankful that the storms missed us every time but in the midst of thanking God for our safety we are also heartbroken over the damage and severe loss over our great state. We stayed in the basement from the first tornado warning until the last. We watched on the news as storm cell after storm cell made its way across Alabama. Of course, we were taking necessary precautions but when we saw this tornado come through Tuscaloosa, live on the news, we were all at a loss for words.
Seeing something so destructive in a place so familiar was such an eerie feeling. Seeing communities completely destroyed by the tornado and taking precious lives with them and feeling completely helpless, its a feeling you can’t forget. Knowing that this storm that was ripping through our state had the potential to this cause kind of damage made us feel like sitting ducks. Would it come over our town? Would the next storm destroy our house? Or take out family? Or our friends? It was hard watching the first tornado rip through Tuscaloosa and then another and another, we sat numb watching others rip through other parts of our state. Sometimes two or three at once. There was a point in which the meteorologists were jumping from place to place on the map trying to warn two cities at once.
Video of downtown Birmingham and the tornado in the background was surreal.
Allen’s mother works at a hospital down town and she texted us this picture she took from her office window…
And the tornadoes kept coming, on into the night. We didn’t know the extent of the devastation until the next morning and even then it was beyond what we could have imagined. It is more than we can comprehend. But out of the rubble, out of the devastation our state has come together to help one another.
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Kat says
I can’t think of anything to write to describe how I feel. I’ll just say I’m glad you guys are ok.