A week ago today U.S. reporters and newsmen were gearing up for the “story of the year”--the royal wedding. Then, on Wednesday the “story of the year” became the devastating tornadoes in Alabama and the southeast. Late last night the “story of the year” became the killing of Osama Ben Laden. How quickly the world events can change!
Last night after dinner we treated the entire family to an hour of TV so we could all watch one of our favorite shows, “The Amazing Race”.
My engineer-type husband did some wizardry with the generator power and set up a mini-sub-station on my kitchen floor to make this happen. After the families went home, we kept the TV hooked up and we were able to get the news about Osama Ben Laden, but we finished listening to the broadcast on our battery-operated radio to save generator fuel.
Bonny called about 9 PM to tell us that their power had just been restored. Much glee.
For us, today is the fifth day after the storms, and 5 ½ days without power. The authorities are now telling us that the tornado that came through our area was a EF5 level (210 mph winds) when it went through Hackelburg, but when it reached our area in East Limestone it was an EF4, with winds of “only” 190 mph. The path was ¾ mile wide. So far there have been 250 deaths in the state, but only four of those were in Limestone County.
We are expecting (hoping for) garbage pickup tomorrow, so this morning we dumped all of the refrigerator “staples” like mustard, ketsup, salsa, jelly, etc. and disinfected the refrigerator in anticipation of getting power back eventually. I have been 5 days without a cup of tea, so I took my cup and a tea bag over to Barry’s house where they have a propane burner on their patio, and I was happy to find that Tabatha had already boiled some water for her instant coffee. I walked back to my house with my cup of tea. Slowly…very slowly…we are doing fairly normal things.
Most of the schools in Madison and Limestone Counties will still be out for another couple of days, but ABS will open again tomorrow, beginning at 9 PM. They plan start the day with chapel, and I imagine it will be a very difficult day with the children so upset, but they have to start somewhere. Slowly they are restoring some power in Madison County, and a few places in Limestone County, but those who have power are urged to conserve electricity and leave their air conditioners turned off. Yesterday’s newspaper listed only 14 restaurants in all of Huntsville that were open for business. There are more restaurants open in Athens, since the city of Athens was west of the major damage area.
Many of the colleges and universities in the affected areas of the state have decided to just end the semester an allow the students to walk away with the grades they had earned before last Wednesday. There is no really good solution.
Many have asked how Olen’s parents are doing. They are managing fairly well. We check on them several times each day and try to make sure they have one really good meal each day, and plenty of cereal and fruit to snack on the other times. We have a generator at their house keeping their refrigerator and freezer working, but other than that, they are “in the dark” like the rest of us. Pap sits on the front porch and reads using the daylight we have. We took them to Cracker Barrel for the noon meal today. The line was not too terribly long, but we went early.
On the drive home we had to come through the area of really bad damage. Crews from Georgia and Tennessee and other states are helping out by working on putting up new power poles and stringing wires. While we were driving down McCulley Mill Road, Olen stopped and picked up something that turned out to be a photo album full of 4 x 6 photos of a wedding that took place on April 12, 2003. We brought the album home and I removed 40 damp (but still usable) photos from the album and have them drying on my buffet. I understand that there is a Facebook page where people are matching up lost and found items. There may be updates on this part of the story.
It is warm today…in the mid-eighties. We are beginning to miss our air conditioning, but I have only to look ¼ mile down the road from me to remember that being a little warm and uncomfortable is a really a very small thing!
It did not rain yesterday, but tonight we are supposed to get rain, with some storms tonight and tomorrow. There could be a few high winds, and thunder and lightening in these storms, but no severe weather. Still, this could be a traumatizing event, especially for the children.
Last night after dinner we treated the entire family to an hour of TV so we could all watch one of our favorite shows, “The Amazing Race”.
My engineer-type husband did some wizardry with the generator power and set up a mini-sub-station on my kitchen floor to make this happen. After the families went home, we kept the TV hooked up and we were able to get the news about Osama Ben Laden, but we finished listening to the broadcast on our battery-operated radio to save generator fuel.Bonny called about 9 PM to tell us that their power had just been restored. Much glee.
For us, today is the fifth day after the storms, and 5 ½ days without power. The authorities are now telling us that the tornado that came through our area was a EF5 level (210 mph winds) when it went through Hackelburg, but when it reached our area in East Limestone it was an EF4, with winds of “only” 190 mph. The path was ¾ mile wide. So far there have been 250 deaths in the state, but only four of those were in Limestone County.
We are expecting (hoping for) garbage pickup tomorrow, so this morning we dumped all of the refrigerator “staples” like mustard, ketsup, salsa, jelly, etc. and disinfected the refrigerator in anticipation of getting power back eventually. I have been 5 days without a cup of tea, so I took my cup and a tea bag over to Barry’s house where they have a propane burner on their patio, and I was happy to find that Tabatha had already boiled some water for her instant coffee. I walked back to my house with my cup of tea. Slowly…very slowly…we are doing fairly normal things.
Most of the schools in Madison and Limestone Counties will still be out for another couple of days, but ABS will open again tomorrow, beginning at 9 PM. They plan start the day with chapel, and I imagine it will be a very difficult day with the children so upset, but they have to start somewhere. Slowly they are restoring some power in Madison County, and a few places in Limestone County, but those who have power are urged to conserve electricity and leave their air conditioners turned off. Yesterday’s newspaper listed only 14 restaurants in all of Huntsville that were open for business. There are more restaurants open in Athens, since the city of Athens was west of the major damage area.
Many of the colleges and universities in the affected areas of the state have decided to just end the semester an allow the students to walk away with the grades they had earned before last Wednesday. There is no really good solution.
Many have asked how Olen’s parents are doing. They are managing fairly well. We check on them several times each day and try to make sure they have one really good meal each day, and plenty of cereal and fruit to snack on the other times. We have a generator at their house keeping their refrigerator and freezer working, but other than that, they are “in the dark” like the rest of us. Pap sits on the front porch and reads using the daylight we have. We took them to Cracker Barrel for the noon meal today. The line was not too terribly long, but we went early.
On the drive home we had to come through the area of really bad damage. Crews from Georgia and Tennessee and other states are helping out by working on putting up new power poles and stringing wires. While we were driving down McCulley Mill Road, Olen stopped and picked up something that turned out to be a photo album full of 4 x 6 photos of a wedding that took place on April 12, 2003. We brought the album home and I removed 40 damp (but still usable) photos from the album and have them drying on my buffet. I understand that there is a Facebook page where people are matching up lost and found items. There may be updates on this part of the story.
It is warm today…in the mid-eighties. We are beginning to miss our air conditioning, but I have only to look ¼ mile down the road from me to remember that being a little warm and uncomfortable is a really a very small thing!
It did not rain yesterday, but tonight we are supposed to get rain, with some storms tonight and tomorrow. There could be a few high winds, and thunder and lightening in these storms, but no severe weather. Still, this could be a traumatizing event, especially for the children.
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