May 1, Sunday--A day of worship and thanksgiving

It is Day #5 after the storm, but more importantly, it is the Lord’s Day and a day of worship and giving thanks. The bright, blue skies and sunshine of Friday and Saturday have turned into overcast skies with rain forecast for later today, tomorrow, and the next day. I am sure the people who are attempting to save what is left of their houses are rushing to get tarps on their roofs.

The news of this morning gave us notices of several changes. Still no power. We have lower water pressure due to the power system, and Limestone County residents have been asked to conserve water. The good signs are that some telephone land lines are working, if you happen to have one of the old-style telephones that doesn‘t require electricity. FEMA representatives are now in our area making assessments. We have been told that there are 4,000 workers concentrating on restoring power to parts of north Alabama. We understand that the dusk-to-dawn curfew has been changed to 9 PM to 5 AM, giving us a little longer time to get home from a hot shower or a hot meal.

The National Guard is no longer supervising our roads, so we can get in and out of our area without showing proof of residency. This may be because we have had two good-weather days for the residents to comb through the debris and move out whatever items are salvageable, so there is nothing of any value left for the National Guard to protect.

The National Weather Service is studying the storms and currently their thinking is that there were seven major tornadoes in Alabama. The one that went through our area has been categorized as an EF4; the one in Hackelburg was EF5. This could change as they study the storm paths further.

Someone picked up Mom and Pap and took them to worship at Hays Mill this morning. They have power at their church building. Our worship service was scheduled for 9:00, with an abbreviated service. However, we had a large crowd, and met in the dark with the doors open to the outside. Apparently it is possible to have a worship service with no lights, no air conditioning, no public address system, and no powerpoint! We sang “Count Your Blessings”, observed the Lord’s Supper, and heard a brief, appropriate, and inspiring lesson from Greg. .

It was good to see the students, especially the ones from Tuscaloosa. Nearly everyone in the congregation has had damage to their property, or at least trees down. Only one or two families have any power at their house, so we can’t be much help to each other. Individual Christians from Tennessee brought supplies to share with those affected by the tornadoes, and we were encouraged to take home supplies with us when we left the building.

Our young people were extremely upset over the loss of Marcus Smith. Marcus was a Christian, and a student at the University of Alabama. He has been missing and assumed dead since he has not been heard of since the tornadoes hit Tuscaloosa on Wednesday. There has been some confusion as to whether his body has been found or not. It has been reported that there were four students at the university with that name, and two of the four have been missing since the storms hit. Marcus’ girlfriend, Katie, grew up with our young people who attend worship services with us.

But, there is always a little good news. This morning Susan (who is currently on tour in Israel), asked Steve (who is also on that tour) to call our son-in-law, Norm, to tell him to get a message to Olen to tell Shirley that a replacement vehicle is currently being driven to Limestone County from Tennessee for Shirley! That message came halfway around the world and through several hands, but was joyous news to Shirley.

After the worship service we treated ourselves to a meal at the Sweet Pepper’s Deli, which had power. After lunch we decided to go to a fiftieth anniversary reception that was scheduled for this afternoon. We figured not too many people would be able to make it, and wanted to make sure we were there to mark the occasion. We were pleased with the turnout. As we left the reception, we drove past Athens State University where the flags were at half-staff in honor of those in the state who have perished in the tornadoes.

Our dinner plan is to again go to Barbara Jo and Norm’s house, since they are the only ones in the family with power. Daryl is preparing some of his famous “Smokin’Chief” brisket for our sandwiches. I was assigned to get the buns and cheese. This required a stop at Publix on the way home from the reception. Unfortunately, as you can see, the bread aisle was nearly bare, with no buns at all. (Everyone must be grilling the meat they have that is thawing!) However, kudos to Publix! They had set up a charging station right as you enter the store where people could go and charge their cell phones for free. They had completely rearranged the store so the charcoal, paper plates, potato chips, paper towels, cans of tuna, and other basic supplies were on the end caps of the aisles and easy to locate.

Bonny went to Wal-Mart to try to locate buns. There was no air conditioning, and there were no frozen foods or chilled items at all. An employee told her that the store was operating on a generator, and they were conserving power by turning off the air conditioning and storage cases in the cold areas to conserve power so they could stay open.

We plan to eat dinner at Barbara Jo and Norm’s house and watch “The Amazing Race” before calling it a day. While I am there, I will use some of their power to make this post. It is warm today, so we will be sleeping with the windows open again. Pray for those who are suffering and grieving.

Tomorrow is another day.

Saturday, April 30--The New Normal

Saturday April 30--Adjusting to the “New Normal”

Originally my calendar for today was full. We had six grandchildren involved in soccer games, two grandsons scheduled to play baseball, and were involved in the support for a local road race. All had been cancelled, of course.

By this time all of the items in the house that were on battery backup had quit on us. We have almost (almost!) stopped walking into a room and instinctively flipping the light switch without thinking. We are now thinking that cereal or a granola bar is a tasty breakfast, and our news comes to us from a local radio station through a battery radio. Occasionally, when we have the generator on we hook the power up to the TV and get some news and updates. A few of the restaurants have begun to cook food and give it away to keep it from spoiling. The local authorities have asked the school officials to keep schools closed until at least Wednesday, in hopes of having some power restored by that time.

Communication is still a major problem. With no power there is no way to get messages out to the public. We have no e-mail or Facebook posts or even phone trees to let parents know if school will be in or out on Monday. The same is true when it comes to giving information about worship services for Sunday. However, as the day progressed, we were blessed with sporadic cell phone coverage. That is a good sign. Brad told us that our worship service would be a brief service at 9 AM tomorrow. No evening service due to the curfews.
Destruction is everywhere in our area. I don't even remember where I took this picture!

We started our day by checking on Shirley, who seemed to have enough help at the time. Then we went to Daniel and Rebecca’s house, which was located in a subdivision less than a mile from our house. However, their subdivision was totally demolished in the storm. We had not heard about Daniel and Rebecca’s grief until late yesterday, so we went to help them today. The agent who had sold all of the houses in the subdivision had set up a tent and was directing people to the houses of their friends, providing food and water to workers, helping direct traffic, and providing whatever assistance she could give. Daniel and Rebecca and baby Preston were not home when the storms hit, which was very fortunate since the tornado literally tore their house in half, separating the kitchen area from the rest of the house. They had gone through whatever they could salvage yesterday, and today were trying to locate important papers. We helped them look, but did not come up with anything of use.

As we returned to Shirley’s house we spotted part of the WAFF weather radar system that had blown away during the tornado. Part of it was in someone’s yard less than a mile from our house. We talked to several ladies, and they told us that part of it had been located in a tree just down the road from our house, and part of it at East Limestone High School, a couple of miles east of us. At least we know now where it ended up!

We returned to Shirley’s area, and by early afternoon they were finishing up the last of the salvageable items, burning old papers, wood, and some furniture. The volunteer fire department came by again and supplied us with sandwiches, chips, drinks, and bananas. The bananas were a big hit…something different, and fresh. The next time the volunteer fire department comes by our house and asks for a donation, they can count us in! There are so many people out helping others that it is amazing. No one who is working has to stop and hunt up food. Often small wagons deliver it to your site, and they are constantly grilling hamburgers at the volunteer fire station and giving them out to anyone who needs food.

Local police and the National Guard are stationed at the end of our road checking us each time we enter storm-damage area. It is so nice to have them protecting our property and the property of others. We would love to have our power back on, but we are so thankful that we are safe and have no damage to speak of that we can hardly complain.

I will get a hot shower and shampoo my hair at Barbara Jo and Norm’s house in a little while. What a treat that will be! Hopefully, I can post this while I am there enjoying their electricity!

Friday April 29--The day of acceptance

Shirley found her checkbook!

We found your umbrella, Shirley!

Shirley's clock stopped at 4:25.


Shirley posed beside the toilet she "rode out the storm" with.

View of Shirley's next door neighbor's house.

Shirley is in the market for a new car.

Tabatha serving lunch to the family.

Total destruction everywhere.


We found some photos and Shirley's certificate she got after taking the hot air balloon ride in Turkey.

Friday April 29
Friday was the day of acceptance. There is nothing we can do about the situation as it is, so it is time to get down to accepting and working through it. Of course there was no school on Friday, either. Still no power, of course, so what we can do is extremely limited. There are no newspapers in the area that are able to print, and we have extremely limited exposure to news other than local reports of storm damage and people requesting help. Did that much-publicized “Royal Wedding” actually take place???

We started the day at Shirley’s house…or where Shirley’s house used to be. The destruction was total, but Shirley is a survivor and has a wonderful attitude. Several others showed up to help her sort through things and see if she could salvage anything. Someone found her mother’s ring, her Bible, some of her china that had not been broken, and more things than we thought we would find that could be saved and used. Shirley even posed with the toilet she “rode” out the storm with! Incidentally, Susan, if you are reading this, you might begin to look for another car for Shrley! We think she will be in the market soon.

People are so generous in times of tragedy. About noon some ladies came by pulling a wagon. They had made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, had bags of chips, cold water bottles, and they were going through the worst-hit neighborhoods giving out food to the workers. Those of us at Shirley’s really appreciated their generosity.

We had a few exciting moments at Shirley’s when we would find some object we thought might have been lost. We had some moments of humor such as when Anthony found Shirley’s umbrella…perfect except for no fabric on it. My meltdown came when I found Shirley’s notes she used when she talked to my Salt Shaker girls three years ago about “How to Serve God Regardless of My Situation in Life”. I found the notes and looked around me to see Sarah and Olivia, who were there to listen to Shirley’s talk that day…and now the same girls were helping her pick through her belongings at her destroyed house.

Daryl cooked chicken during the day. They took some chicken to Shirley and the family she is staying with, and we all went to Barbara Jo and Norm’s house again to eat Daryl’s delicious chicken for dinner…being careful to be home by curfew.

The National Guard has moved into our area. If we leave the disaster area ,we have to show our driver’s license with our address on it to get back into our area. When we returned from Barbara Jo’s house this evening we asked how long they will be checking identifications at the end of our road. He said they would be there all night, which is comforting in the pitch black darkness of our area.

We hooked our generator up to our TV for a little while tonight and they showed several photos of Shirley’s house and car when covering the damage in the East Limestone area. The news pointed out something we had not thought of prior to this time. The tornado that leveled things in our area missed the Brown’s Ferry Nuclear Plant by just one mile! I dare not think about what that could have meant.

I hope to continue to post updates on what is going on in our family as it relates to the current tragedy.

April 28--The Day of Realization

Thursday, April 28
Thursday morning was the day of realization. Our battery-powered radio provided a little information. Our portion of Limestone County was out of power, and the entire county of Madison was without power. (Madison County is the largest county in the state of Alabama.) The bad news was that a main trunk line from TVA had been compromised. They were predicting that we would probably be powerless for 4-5 days.

What does that mean? It has more ramifications than just no lights. We have no telephone service and no dependable cell phone coverage as cell towers are down or compromised. No TV, no hot water, no comforting hot showers, no clean clothes.

All traffic lights are non-functioning. We are under a dusk-to-dawn curfew. No stores have power (although a few managed to get some power from a generator), and the lines for gasoline or groceries are never-ending. With no power, the only purchases that can be made are on a cash-only basis, and no ATMs work. Some gas stations ran out of gasoline or rationed their supply. There are no generators to be bought anywhere, and no fuel available for them, if you happen to have one. Cooking must be done on an outdoor grill…until you run out of charcoal. There is plenty of wood available to build a fire to cook on, but with the seven inches of rain that accompanied the storms, the wood is too wet to burn.

There is no power to run refrigerators or freezers, so the food in them must be destroyed. No internet. No Facebook. No way to read the travel blogs I had been hoping to keep up with this week. No ice. No cold drinks. No hot tea.

We were fortunate enough to have a generator, which we set in the driveway between our house and Barry’s. We are managing to keep the freezers going, and grilled and ate the items that began to thaw.

Early Thursday we made the same drive around our area to see if anyone needed help. This time the destruction was unbelievable. There was major damage a quarter or a mile from our house and many of the country roads were impassable with so many trees uprooted and over the roads. Since we have no phone service, news only reaches us by word-of-mouth. We heard that our dear friend, Shirley (whose property had been fine when we drove out around noon on Wednesday) had lost everything in the late-afternoon tornado. We located Shirley at her niece’s house. She was bunged up and had stitches in her arm, but had survived the tornado by hanging on to her bathroom toilet as she and the toilet were transported out of the bathroom and to another location. Unbelievable!

The WAFF radar tower anf what is left of the Bethel Church of Christ.

We spent the afternoon straightening trees in our yard and picking up debris left by the tornado. Several papers that ended up on our property were interesting…one child’s math homework (30 problems in multiplication, but he had only done five of them. “The tornado took my homework” is the new excuse replacing “the dog ate my homework”, I guess.) We also found pages from a Bible (Heb. 11-13 and I John 2-4), someone’s triage evaluation, a page from a Bible dictionary, and a page from a history textbook. We found half of a LP record from the artist Jimmy Reed. Ironically, one song listed was, “Take Out Some Insurance”. We found a page from an April-May day planner from 2003. Whoever it belonged to got a perm on April 25, went to Nashville with Kim on April 26, visited Sonny after his hernia surgery on May 5, and went to Weight Watchers on May 20. I hope my day planner never gets in the wrong hands! Of course we found plenty of shingles, insulation, wallpaper, parts of window blinds, sheet metal, etc.

Barbara Jo and her family have electricity. She spent the day cooking meals for their friends who suffered storm damage or lost their homes. Norm spent his day helping people in need, and delivering the food Barbara Jo cooked. She kept her washer and dryer running as she washed clothes for people with no power or people who had pulled clothing out of a house that had been hit by the tornado. She fed our family Thursday evening and shared her shower with us. We had to be back home for the dusk-to-dawn curfew, but enjoyed the few moments of hot food and power. We ate, charged our computers and cell phones, and came home.

We went to bed as very thankful people. It had finally sunk in what had really happened and how extremely fortunate and blessed we were to have our entire family safe with hardly any property damage, while being so close to total destruction.

April 27---The day of horror

The radio and TV stations here are overwhelmed with requests from people in other areas of the country who want information about the safety and well-being of their friends and relatives in this area after the tornadoes. Since we are not able to get phone or internet service, we decided it is best to set up a blog where we can update our situation for those of you who are interested in how our family is doing. This is not intended to be a scientific report of damages, and I make no claim to accuracy. This is just a report for those who love us to let them know how our family is doing. Please feel free to share the information about this blog with anyone who might be interested. We will continue to update our posts until things return to semi-normal, which looks like it will be a while. We can not be contacted by telephone currently, but are able to write the blog on the laptop when it is charged, and go to Barbara Jo and Norm’s house periodically to contact the internet and post the information.


Wednesday, April 27
Wednesday was a day of horror.
I’ve lived in Alabama since 1967, and never seen a day like Wednesday, April 27, 2011. I was living in the area at the time of the April 3, 1974 “Night of the Killer Tornadoes”, and I took refuge in our basement while Olen drove through the outskirts of the 1988 “Airport Road Tornado” in Huntsville.

This was different. For days, the local weathermen had been warning us of a system due to hit the north Alabama area on Tuesday night and Wednesday. We had heard this before…even a couple of weeks before, and those storms had not turned out to be as bad as predicted. Since both Barry and his wife, Tabatha, have degrees in meteorology, they kept us updated on the predicted weather, reminding us that somehow this predicted system was different. However, storm tracks change. We were “weather aware”, but not in a panic mode.

The exact times of these events may be off by a little because memories get blurred when you are totally traumatized, but the best I can remember, this a chronology of the events of the day. Our area was put under a tornado watch around 2 AM on Wednesday, followed by a tornado warning for Limestone County at 4:30 AM. When our weather radio went off and the sirens sounded, we got up from bed and dressed for the day. I checked e-mail and learned that Barry had been up monitoring the weather since they issued the watch. The particular tornado that the 4:30 warning was issued for was headed for the southern part of our county, so we did not take cover. It was still early but we ate breakfast and got ready for the events of the day.

The grandchildren went on to school, hoping to get to stay long enough to “count” the school day since the children had missed so many school days due to the snow and ice of last winter. However, that did not happen. Schools in the area went into a panic mid-morning, and many school administrators made poor judgments in an attempt to keep the children long enough to “count the day”. Many schools decided to dismiss at 12:30 or 1:00. Our grandchildren were dismissed at 10:30, which was cutting it thin, but got them home before they were in danger. Students in other schools were not as lucky. Many students were out in the storm headed home, and other schools went into “lockdown mode”, requiring students to remain at school until the threat was over.

The sirens sounded again around 11:00, as a tornado was sighted heading directly for our area. Olen’s parents called when the sky became inky black. I called Bonny and made sure she and her children were on the way to her neighbor, Joan’s, house where there was a basement. I ran to the storm shelter located between Barry and Tabatha’s house and our house, and helped get the children in the shelter while Olen drove around the corner and picked up his parents. We managed to get Mom and Pap in the shelter before the storm hit, and Norm and Barbara Jo and their girls made it from their house. All 14 of us crawled into the shelter and closed the door.

That storm may have been a tornado, but our area had mostly straight-line winds. When we got out of the shelter a few minutes later we had several small trees blown over, one broken, and several large branches down. There was debris all over our joint property, but no major damage in our immediate area. However, we had no power. We ate cereal and peanut butter crackers for lunch, but the weather radio still warned us that “the strongest part of the system still to come”. That hardly seemed possible since the wind and rain had cooled the air somewhat.

We decided to drive around the area and see if any of our friends or neighbors had damage or needed help. We heard that Gary and Debby’s house was damaged, so we called Debby. She told us that they had lost trees, but her house was ok. When we drove down the road in front of her house we noticed that their lovely tree-lined driveway and indeed bare, and there were two huge trees uprooted, one leaning on the corner of their house. We drove past the subdivision where Shirley lives, and saw a couple of uprooted trees. We saw quite a bit of evidence that a tornado had gone over us, probably not quite touching the ground, but close enough to grab the tops of trees and twist them out of the ground by the roots. We made a few photos and went home.

Our electricity was back on! We checked e-mail and found that the elders had already cancelled the Bible Study for that night, due to more dangerous weather heading our way. We were still hopeful that the worst was over, but we were deceived. Barry warned us that truly the worst was still to come. We began watching the local TV, which was broadcasting weather information wall-to-wall. We began to hear reports of major damage in areas like Tuscaloosa and Birmingham and some reports from damage in other areas of north Alabama.

Suddenly the radar began to light up with storms heading our way. The siren sounded once more and Limestone County was in the projected path of a tornado again. In fact, they used the term “training” to indicate that one super cell area after another was heading our way. Once again Olen drove to pick up his parents, I talked to Bonny, and then ran to the storm shelter in Barry’s backyard. Once again, Barbara Jo, Norm, and their girls showed up looking like a herd of deer in headlights. Emily had baked chocolate chip cookies between the storms, which was popular. After we had the children and Olen’s parents safely in the shelter, the rest of us stood outside the shelter and looked south…in the direction of the tornado. Barry had his laptop, and the local TV stations were describing the tornado as “massive and on the ground”. As we looked up in the sky we saw debris swirling above us as the sky to the south darkened. Just one mile south of our property we could see a tower with a huge radar dome on it that was used by our local channel 48 for weather radar.

The tornado was headed directly for that tower! There was a camera on the dome, and the pictures were frightening. Quickly we headed for the tornado shelter and closed the hatch and latched it. Using Barry’s laptop, we watched the horrible pictures of the tornado heading directly for us…and only a mile away. Then the power went off and we lost our signal at the moment the tornado hit the tower. We heard the roaring sound, hail on the roof above us, followed by howling wind and extremely heavy rain. When it sounded like the storm had let up a little, Barry looked out, and reported that our houses were still standing.

Barry also reported, “The WAFF radar dome is gone from the tower!” The storm had blown the huge dome off the tower and (we found out later) demolished the Bethel Church of Christ beside the tower.

I managed to get a call out on my cell phone and left a message for Lucy that we were safe. We contacted Bonny, and their family was safe.

Several of the adults could get the radar on their phones and they reminded us that there were other storms following that one. We stayed in the shelter. From time to time we could tell that yet another storm with a possible tornado was headed our way. Bonny called Olen’s cell phone. Bonny had brought a little girl home from school with her since the child’s mother could not get there in time to pick her up. Bonny had gotten a call from the little girl’s family telling Bonny that the child’s house had been badly damaged or destroyed in the storm.

The sirens kept sounding, and since there was no power in the area, policemen drove up and down the county roads with their sirens sounding to warn everyone to take cover. This routine of sirens, police warnings, roaring storms, torrential rains and hail with destructive winds continued for hours with one storm following another until 7:30 when we were finally able to safely exit the storm shelter.

We were all traumatized by the events of the day, but could look to the west and see the sunset. The horrible events of the day were finally over. However the total damage was only beginning to be discovered. Somehow Barry learned that our neighbors only a quarter of a mile away had major damage, so Olen and Barry walked to their house in total darkness to check on them. They had damage, but were ok. That was so close to us!

Of course we had no power and as darkness closed in we all went home and went to bed, but the sounds of ambulances on the roads near us were a clue to the total destruction in our area. At first we wondered how we would ever get to sleep, but found that we were totally exhausted and emotionally drained, so we slept hard.