The tornadoes that ravaged through North Alabama on April 27th have definitely left their mark on the residents here.
"It was a quiet evening when my husband turned off the last lamp in our family room. We had just tucked our children into their beds after saying prayers. It had been a long day and we were all tired. Having heard the forecast for the following several days the feeling of apprehension gave way to peaceful sleep as we surrendered our thoughts to the Only One who could give us a peaceful nights' rest and before long it was early morning. Suddenly I awoke with a thought that I needed to check the weather. It was about 5:45am. No sooner did I wake my husband than I received a call from a concerned friend telling us we had but a few moments to get out of our house. She said, "Maybe 15-20 minutes at most." With no basement, no solid structure and just paper thin walls we knew we had to leave! In a few minutes we heard a loud noise and we were all dashing for our truck, praying. As we stepped out the back door, water was flying horizontally and we were suddenly soaking wet. As we drove down our long drive, a 45' maple tree fell on our vehicle...and then rolled off. Little did we know, we were driving straight into the tornado(s). Praying, we just drove as fast as we could and then another tree fell in front of us, then other trees were falling all around us. Things were flying sideways in the air and we were being pushed off the road by the winds. We couldn't see anything until it was hitting the truck. Nothing was clear and we kept hearing the loud sound and things hitting the truck. Just a lot of things flying around and water and limbs and pieces of debris that came from somewhere. Nothing looked familiar. This was all in about 2-3 minutes. We finally made it to our neighbor. (about equivalent to a couple blocks away). Stepping out of the truck, some of the kids slipped and fell down. Wind and water beating on us. Quickly picking them up, we dashed into our neighbors' under ground shelter and pushed the door shut. The noise outside the door was so loud and we just prayed and prayed. Everyone was scared and cold and shaking. Then, no one said anything as we just listened for what seemed like forever until the loud sound died down, but in the distance we could hear the thunder and lightning as is came nearer. It sounded like there was another storm coming so we waited and it sounded close. A loud sound came again and we stayed put inside the shelter, praying and waiting. After a while, it seemed to calm down. We looked out the door and saw the dark sky that held the powerful force we just witnessed, as it headed to the next town. We knew that God had cupped His hand of protection directly over us. We just praised God!!
After waiting for about 30-40 minutes, we ventured out. It seemed calm, but the wind was still blowing. We tried to drive back to our house, but there were so many trees, large branches and debris on the road, it took us a while to get back to it. One of the walls was damaged, but it was fine other than that. The power was out everywhere. The cell phones weren't operating and we couldn't reach anyone. We had no idea that this tornado had already struck elsewhere or that it was as severe as it was. For some time, we had friends trying to reach us by phone with no success. Finally, someone got through and said, "Are you all alright? We are on our way out to you, right now!" As we made it back to our house, we were amazed at all the destruction we saw. Our neighbors' had damage, barns were torn to pieces, homes destroyed, trees were down all over and all the chicken house destruction. You couldn't even see the road we were driving on.
Friends were trying desperately to get to us, but were not able because every road leading to our place was devastated and blocked.(we live very far out in the country). Cell phones were in and out, and we couldn't complete a sentence as we tried to talk. Finally, one of them got through on my husbands' cell and said they found a road that was passable. As we waited, we looked around and began picking up things that had been thrown around from the tornadoes. We don't have any trees next to our house, so that made it safer for our home, but everything else was here and there and our neighbors' things were out in our pasture. Trees were down. Broken right in two. The forest in front of our house looked like someone had taken a pair of hedge clippers and cut the trees off half-way up. They're just snapped off and we don't know where the tops went. They're gone. Now, they're bare tree trunks about 20' tall. We have a top of a tree just laying out in the pasture...where did that come from? It's not even the same kind of tree as the forest. We found a picture of a children's birthday party that was evidently taken in a restaurant down in Tuscaloosa. It was out in our pasture, half torn up. It was a solemn feeling as we walked around, looking at our area and taking in what had just happened.
When our friends were finally able to make it to our house, we all just thanked the Lord again for his provision. They were safe. We were safe. We all were safe. Later that day, we went to our friends home in town. They have a sturdy brick home with a basement, but on the way this is what we had to drive through to get onto the main road. And the main road was 20 times worse, but I couldn't take pictures. I was driving. We were in terrifying awe over what we saw then. It was so much worse. These pictures are only of our immediate area and roads. Just to get out, we had to drive over 30-35 power lines, in and out of large trees and into ditches. These photos don't really show as much as it was. I could only take a few pictures. Please continue to pray for our community. Hopefully I will be able to post more soon. May God bless you as you remember us in prayer!
