tornado track

I promise not all my blog posts will be about our tornado. But this was something I felt was worthy of being shared, especially to our family members who don't live close by. This is the view of the tracks of the 4/27/11 tornado through Tuscaloosa.

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/16may_groundtracks/

video of the storm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ohIVzIZLuQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player
This is a link to one video of the tornado as it was coming through Tuscaloosa. It missed the school where I work and where Cadham goes to school by less than 1/4 of a mile.

After the storm....

In the wake of the tornados that cut a deep path through our state, now is probably as good a time as any to update our much-neglected blog. All things considered we are wonderfully well. Our home was not damaged and we are alive and well, as are our loved ones. Our town, however, will be forever changed after the devestation. Entire neighborhoods have been reduced to little more than rubble and dust. There is no way for the television to do justice to what happened. Areas that were once vibrant and full of residential life, lush trees and landscape are now nothing more than a horizon....snapped off trees and telephone poles for miles and miles.

Wednesday morning, April 27th Will and I woke at 5 am to an incredibly loud thunderstorm. Winds were high and the thunder and lighting was incredibly impressive. We turned on the weather and by the time we got our bearings, the worst had passed through. This storm brought down some significant trees in our neighborhood and went on to cause some damage in other parts of town due to straightline winds. Birmingham and areas very close to Elizabeth and Alan were incredibly damaged, recent talk is saying the storm had evolved to an F2 tornado by the time it got to them. We had known that bad weather was coming on Wednesday but had been cautioned that the afternoon storms were going to be much worse than what had happened in the morning. Schools was cancelled but Will and I both reported for work. By 3:30 I was sent home as the tornado sirens started to go off warning of a possible tornado passing well north of where we were. We were not in danger at that point but meteorologists had spotted two new thunderstorms crossing the state line from Mississippi that looked very serious.

Will was already home when I got home- he had come home at lunch to relieve Amanda as she had been watching Cadham that morning while we were both at work since Cadham's school had been cancelled. When I got home the focus was on the Cullman area, which is close to Mom and Dad at the lake. Tornados had hit that area very hard and caused lots of damage. The map of the state of Alabama was amazing on TV. There were literally storm systems everywhere. The reporters could hardly keep up with all the tornados that were popping up. At about 3:45 I started cleaning out the closet under our stairs as a safe place. In more recent storms we have gone to our bedroom closet but the closer the storm was getting to Tuscaloosa, the worse the news was getting. At about 4:10 Will and I got Cadham out of his bed where he was napping and took him to our bedroom closet. We weren't there 2 minutes before Will came in and said this was the real deal and we needed to be under the stairs. We all piled into this tiny closet under our staircase and of course we had Max in there too. We brought our laptop in playing a video for Cadham so he was happy and unaware of what was going on. We had packed a bag with Cadham's medication, snacks, blankets, etc in case we became trapped. Elizabeth was texting us the whole time telling us the path of the tornado as it rolled through. Will was watching live feed on his tablet (like an iPad) but lost feed eventually. As the tornado crossed into town it was on a path directly for our house. However, it turned as it came up 15th street and shifted away. We could hear the wind outside and at one point it became extremely quiet , which was frightening as well. I remember thinking that based on the size of the tornado, if it passed directly over us, we could easily not survive. But, we were able to tell after a while that we were probably safe. It made a slight shift back in our direction as it passed through the Alberta area of town but thankfully for us stayed away.

This is hiding place #1 (our master bedroom closet)

Hiding Place #2 (under the stairs closet)

Will and I are sitting facing each other. Cadham is in my lap and Max is in his lap.

As we came outside the house- we didn't come out of our closet until Elizabeth and Amanda both texted that it was past us- all you could hear in the background were distant sirens of car alarms, ambulances, police cars, and firetrucks. Cell phone service quickly deteriorated, espcially with my provider. TV cable was not working either. We had been able to find out that Thomas and his girlfriend Jessica were both safe, which is amazing since they were 2 streets over from one of the hardest hit areas. Lots of our friends were without power but most were ok. We did find out as the night went on that some of our friends who lived in The Highlands neighborhood had homes that were devastated. So many of the areas were also inhabited by students in off-campus housing and also so so many people who were in low income areas like Rosedale, Alberta, and Holt. The stories we have heard are numerous and each one so heartbreaking. Our hospital treated over 600 patients in the 4 hours after the tornado.

It still doesn't feel as real as it should to us. We are not able to get into some of the worst areas so we have only seen pictures of some. Other areas have opened up for thru traffic and the damage there is immense. Those who have been to the worst areas say that there is no way to comprehend the loss incurred. We have lost lives, homes, schools, infrastructure, and industry. However, there is a widespread volunteer effort in our community. One FEMA worker told someone that more had been done in 1 week in Tuscaloosa than in 6 months after Katrina. I would love to give our communuity credit for that and I do feel some credit is deserved but we were more able to mobilize for assistance than those in Katrina.

I would just like to ask our family to keeps our community in your thoughts and prayers. I think Tuscaloosa (and the state of Alabama as a whole) has an incredible opportunity to more forward from this as stronger and more united, and most of all thankful, and more aware than ever of the rich blessings in our lives and our good fortune. We will use this as fuel to help us make time in our lives for those who were not as lucky.

This was taken weeks before the storm but I felt like it was a more upbeat note to end on.