Storm Diary II
After the storm that went through between about 4 and 5 PM on Wednesday, all of the neighbors in our cul-de-sac spilled out of our homes to take a look around and check on one another. We were all okay; no injuries. Nobody had power. Our cell phones weren't working; we couldn't get connections. The kids splashed through puddles and gasped over the damage in the wan late-afternoon sunlight.
Some people had been listening to the radio, but news was sparse. We knew that a tornado had hit Phil Campbell, AL, well to the west of us, and we knew about Tuscaloosa. There were rumors of damage to the TVA plant and to buildings along US Highway 72, a couple of miles south of us. I think somebody had heard that Tanner, in south Limestone county, had been hit hard. Some folks reported having seen a funnel cloud to the south. But there was no news coming out of east Limestone county yet, and we had NO idea what had happened just beyond the stand of trees at the end of the cul-de-sac.
I didn't want to open the refrigerator until the power came back, so it looked like peanut butter sandwiches for supper. Going out wasn't a serious option when we might get hit again at any moment. To make it less dreary, I broke out a can of chocolate frosting and we ate peanut butter and chocolate frosting sandwiches. With chips.
After supper, I set the kids up in the closet with a DVD on one of the laptops. I went to work assembling the kids' new desk, in the fading daylight. Sean, feeling restless, went to see if he could get a look at the area; specifically, he wanted to drive down to Highway 72 and see whether he could confirm some of the rumored damage there. He wasn't gone long. When he came back, he reported that he couldn't get very far in any direction; the police had closed the roads leading away from our subdivision.
"You should go take a look at East Limestone Road," he told me. "It's a mess, you won't believe it."
So that's what we did. We all went, carrying flashlights in the dusk and walking through the neighborhood east of us, down East Limestone Road to the VFD. We carried Cora on our backs. In the early night we couldn't see much, but we could certainly tell that a tornado had been through the area. Trees were not just down but snapped off; siding was wrapped around trees; power lines snaked across the road -- all dead. We heard that the man who owned a horse farm a little ways down had lost both barns and had a tree through his roof, but that the horses were all safe. That later turned out to be true.
So we didn't know much at that point. We knew a tornado had hit along East Limestone Road, just south of us, and it was a mess.
We walked home. We charged our phones in our cars, but I didn't start my engine because I'd forgotten to put gas in my car that day when I was out, and I was below 1/4 tank. We put the kids to bed by flashlight, in their own beds. All the warnings had ended at 8 pm, after all, and the sky was clear enough to see stars by then.
That was the end of Wednesday.
Some people had been listening to the radio, but news was sparse. We knew that a tornado had hit Phil Campbell, AL, well to the west of us, and we knew about Tuscaloosa. There were rumors of damage to the TVA plant and to buildings along US Highway 72, a couple of miles south of us. I think somebody had heard that Tanner, in south Limestone county, had been hit hard. Some folks reported having seen a funnel cloud to the south. But there was no news coming out of east Limestone county yet, and we had NO idea what had happened just beyond the stand of trees at the end of the cul-de-sac.
I didn't want to open the refrigerator until the power came back, so it looked like peanut butter sandwiches for supper. Going out wasn't a serious option when we might get hit again at any moment. To make it less dreary, I broke out a can of chocolate frosting and we ate peanut butter and chocolate frosting sandwiches. With chips.
After supper, I set the kids up in the closet with a DVD on one of the laptops. I went to work assembling the kids' new desk, in the fading daylight. Sean, feeling restless, went to see if he could get a look at the area; specifically, he wanted to drive down to Highway 72 and see whether he could confirm some of the rumored damage there. He wasn't gone long. When he came back, he reported that he couldn't get very far in any direction; the police had closed the roads leading away from our subdivision.
"You should go take a look at East Limestone Road," he told me. "It's a mess, you won't believe it."
So that's what we did. We all went, carrying flashlights in the dusk and walking through the neighborhood east of us, down East Limestone Road to the VFD. We carried Cora on our backs. In the early night we couldn't see much, but we could certainly tell that a tornado had been through the area. Trees were not just down but snapped off; siding was wrapped around trees; power lines snaked across the road -- all dead. We heard that the man who owned a horse farm a little ways down had lost both barns and had a tree through his roof, but that the horses were all safe. That later turned out to be true.
So we didn't know much at that point. We knew a tornado had hit along East Limestone Road, just south of us, and it was a mess.
We walked home. We charged our phones in our cars, but I didn't start my engine because I'd forgotten to put gas in my car that day when I was out, and I was below 1/4 tank. We put the kids to bed by flashlight, in their own beds. All the warnings had ended at 8 pm, after all, and the sky was clear enough to see stars by then.
That was the end of Wednesday.