Alabama Tornadoes

Last Wednesday (at 5:30 in the morning) Misha and I woke up to the sound of the tornado sirens going off, which is not unusual.  We decide to go ahead and get up because there is no going back to sleep anyway.  Once we are up, the house is dark and the storm is strong.  Misha takes a look out of the window just in time to see blue sparks and flames flying - which was a transformer blowing.  We snatch up the kitty and a blanket and head for the basement.  Clarification - this sounds as if it were very drawn out, but it was only a matter of 30 seconds between the time we get out of bed to when we head for the basement.  Although we are up on the mountain, we do not take tornado sirens lightly!

The storm lasted for no more than 20 minutes.  After it died down, we emerged out of the basement and went to take a look outside.  Others in the neighborhood were doing the same. 

(Cute picture!) Misha and Bugira looking out the window to make sure it was okay to go outside.  Bugira was very concerned.  She is excellent for neighborhood watch. 

We had a large pecan limb fall on our roof and slide down by our front door, but we quickly realized that we were beyond lucky. 

Neighbors on all four sides of us had HUGE trees down.  Three out of those four had the trees fall on their homes.  Luckily, no one was injured.  That's a piece of our roof in the above picture, in case you were wondering.  Power lines were ripped and were all over the place.  This is a picture of our next door neighbor's house/car.  Our yard borders their yard - and is now separated by this downed live power line laying over her car.         

  

The strange thing is that we lost power for most of Wednesday, then got it back that afternoon.  Our power comes from THIS line!  Most of our neighborhood didn't get power back until YESTERDAY - seven days after the storms.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the utility companies - they are doing an amazing job restoring power.  There are road crews everywhere working day and night.  I'm just trying to emphasize the scope of these storms!

After talking with neighbors, we learned that this was only the beginning of these storms.  There were more waves of storms coming that were supposed to be record-breaking...and that they were.  Although we did not have any trees down, there were three large trees uprooted/cracked that were leaning towards our house. 

Can you see the crack at the base of this tree?

With more storms coming, we decided not to stay at our house...not even in the basement.  After packing, moving the boat, and trying to secure our house as best we could, we both went to work for a couple hours (after the roads were somewhat cleared) only to leave early because the storms were coming fast.  We went to stay with Larissa & Vitaly (my Russian teacher and her husband).  

 

We rode out wave after wave of storms bracing for them to hit.  It never got bad at their house though...we never even lost power!  We were glued to the weather reports.  There were white and purple images on the radar screen because their technology couldn't even pick up how bad and fast these winds were!   The weather forecasters and televisors did a phenomenal job and saved hundreds if not thousands of peoples lives.  They even had to take cover at one point, but they are to be commended!!!

We did survive the night and were alive and well (except for my nerves were shot)!  That morning, we had to go check on our house.  Really, we did not know if we still had one.  We were fully anticipating that trees were smashed through our house.  

Thank the good Lord that our house was unharmed and those trees were still holding on!  Here are some pictures from our street and neighborhood all from the first round of storms that morning:

Most roads were totally blocked for a few days:

Power lines were down everywhere:

Do you see the mailbox?  Does that give you a good comparison as to how massive these trees are?

Yup, that's a car under there

Our neighbors brand new suburban was totaled.  I didn't get the best picture of it b/c most of the damage was on the other side, but it was totally smashed in with windows broken.

I actually got to go inside this house:

This is the room where their children were sleeping and the tree fell and all caved in. 

These are some of the logs that they moved off of their house:

Although things were pretty rough in Bluff Park, it is no comparison to other tornado-ravaged areas.  There were hundreds of tornadoes reported in Alabama on just that one day.  You can see a video of the main 1 1/2 mile wide twister here.  This was filmed in Tuscaloosa (where the University of Alabama is - about an hour from our house).  This twister was actually headed straight for where we live.  Thank the good Lord above that it turned north about fifteen minutes before it was supposed to hit.  The area where it hit is less than 10 miles from our house.  Here are some pictures from those areas:

This one is specifically from Pleasant Grove, AL. The tornado that went through here was the same one that went through Tuscaloosa and was actually headed for where we live, but then turned north.

If you feel led to donate, their are so many organizations out there to give to.  Start with a church...and  Red Cross is a good one too.  You can give anything - time, blood, money, energy, effort, materials...and most importantly - prayer.  Please remember and pray for these people.  They have lost everything.  Many lost their families and loved ones.  The only thing they have left is their life and faith.  Help them rebuild.