You may not know it, but the boys and myself are back home for a good last visit before baby #3 comes. This has ended up being good and bad. It was so good to get a visit in with family members, but bad because it has meant we were home for the devastating tornadoes that broke out this past week. My heart just aches not only for my home state of Alabama, but also for Tuscaloosa where I have a good many family members and also lived for 5 years of college.
We literally watched that mile-wide tornado live on TV approach and then plow through Tuscaloosa. Luckily, my grandmother was up at our house for a visit so that was a huge sigh of relief for us. We do know the damaging winds/tornado came very close to her house so it was a total God-thing that she decided to come up when she did. My other grandparents live in a different part of Tuscaloosa, so they were just fine, but no power, water, or phone.
We just keep sitting around in shock as we've been watching footage for most of the day for several days on end. It is awful. It is sad. It is heartbreaking and just so unbelievable that this happened to places I love. To say our city got lucky would an understatement. That monster tornado moved through Tuscaloosa, up through Birmingham, and was supposed to come straight up to us, but it did not. It turned and headed elsewhere. We took shelter in mom and dad's hallway and lost power, but we cannot complain about anything. We have a house, we have power, we have not sent in pictures to the local news of missing family members, and we have food. I'm not sure when I've ever felt more grateful and blessed, but also sad.
One important part of my trip was to go visit my Mamaw in North Alabama. I kissed my sweet boys good-bye and Dad and I took off this morning and drove up to see her at the nursing home. We took a round-about way to get there so we could see some of the damage in North Alabama. I honestly didn't really know that that much had happened in North Alabama.
My eyes were opened today:
This is Rainsville, and below is a Huddle House where many people died. I'm not a reporter, so I don't want to give numbers and not be accurate.
My eyes have never seen anything quite like this. It's a lot to take in and you start to feel kind of small on this earth.
We stopped at a Wal-Mart that had absolutely nothing in the freezer sections and people were buying carts full of water, bread, and hot dog buns. I felt so silly knowing I had a house, clothes, and family to go back to later that day.
We had a good visit with Mamaw and then headed to my Dad's small town of Flat Rock to go check on some family members and check out Mamaw's house because we had been told ALL the trees were down:
It was true. ALL the trees were down. One thing I always remember about Papaw and Mamaw's house was the shade on the back and front porches. The house looks so odd because it's just sitting in the middle of destruction with no shade to be found anymore.
After we left we drove up the road just a bit and found a Community Center that was open to feed, clothe, and house people who have lost everything, including family members. Let me just say, my Dad knows just about everyone around his hometown, so we easily moved throughout the shelter so Dad could go talk to different people.
These volunteers were serving some GOOD southern food! They had cornbread, greens, squash, and chicken! It looked and smelled so good. The director said they have been feeding over 1,000 people everyday. She said whenever they have a need like diapers or bread, it just appears because people are bringing in the things that they need to care for these people.
There were men grilling and working on the generators.
They had massive amounts of ice and were bringing in more by the truckful.
After we left the shelter, we headed towards home and came upon a large section of land that had been destroyed. You could see the massive hole in the middle of the mountains where the tornado had come over the mountain. Very creepy. I cannot imagine seeing that storm system thunder down the mountain toward you.
I think this was some of the worst areas that we saw all day.
We saw a lot of sadness today, but we also got to see the good side of people. People helping each other out and just taking care of their neighbors. That's what it's all about. I've never felt more blessed but also helpless to do anything to help people who have nothing, while I have everything. If you would like to donate, you can go to www.redcross.org
