Update
For those not on facebook, and know what happened in Alabama yesterday: I am alive and ok. The area I live in escaped the storms. Others were not so lucky.
For those who do not know what happened: #1, you're living under a rock. #2, you should know that possibly the worst tornado outbreak in history happened yesterday. At last count, there were 207 *confirmed* deaths in Alabama alone - 294 total in the Southeast US. You can go to cnn.com for details and pictures if you want, but here are the details:
Over 150 reported tornado touchdowns in the space of 6 hours. One (likely) F5 tornado touched down east of Brandon, Mississippi and stayed on the ground through Alabama - hitting Tuscaloosa, downtown Birmingham, Gadsden, and moving on into Georgia...Tennessee...North Carolina. That's 5 states people. One tornado. ONE. On the ground for over 6 hours leaving a mile and a half wide path of devastation.
President Obama declared the state a disaster area. That hasn't been done in the US since Katrina. The damage is widespread, possibly more than Katrina did.
For comparison, the Super Outbreak of 1974 - arguably the worst April in the recorded history of United States weather, offers up these statistics..in an 18 hour period of storms:
148 confirmed tornadoes in 13 states and Canada.
Damaged areas 900 square miles in a total combined path of destruction 2,600 miles long.
Claimed 319 lives (77 in Alabama).
Sported:
Confirmed tornadoes (total, and various strengths)
Total F0 F1 F2 F3 F4 F5
148 19 33 32 34 24 6
Entire cities are just...gone. People's bodies have been found up to 80 miles away from their homes. A bank, including their vault, was leveled to the ground. My cousin's in-laws' neighborhood has not one single house left standing.
If you are a blood donor, please. Find a donation facility and give.
If you give to charity, please. Look up the Red Cross or United Way (even though I hate the United Way) and donate.
If you are religious, pray.
If you are not religious, send us good thoughts and feelings.
There are hundreds of thousands of people without power. Hundreds of lives lost - we won't have a final total until sometime in the next weeks, when the rubble has been searched and all the bodies found.
One example, and if this doesn't break your heart, nothing will. A 5 year old girl who was lost, after hours of searching involving teams of rescuers, airplanes, and helicopters, ended tonight when her body was found crushed beneath a sofa - near, but not in, where her home had stood.
Tens of thousands of people no longer have a home. And I don't mean trailers or mobile homes. I mean actual, well built, brick and wood houses. Many of which had storm cellars or basements.
People, this is a heartbreaking, major devastation event that happens once in a lifetime - if you're lucky. Everytime I pull up the news I start crying - part in thankfulness that I'm ok, and part in sorrow for all the people suffering, or the families of the dead.
Help however you can.
For those who do not know what happened: #1, you're living under a rock. #2, you should know that possibly the worst tornado outbreak in history happened yesterday. At last count, there were 207 *confirmed* deaths in Alabama alone - 294 total in the Southeast US. You can go to cnn.com for details and pictures if you want, but here are the details:
Over 150 reported tornado touchdowns in the space of 6 hours. One (likely) F5 tornado touched down east of Brandon, Mississippi and stayed on the ground through Alabama - hitting Tuscaloosa, downtown Birmingham, Gadsden, and moving on into Georgia...Tennessee...North Carolina. That's 5 states people. One tornado. ONE. On the ground for over 6 hours leaving a mile and a half wide path of devastation.
President Obama declared the state a disaster area. That hasn't been done in the US since Katrina. The damage is widespread, possibly more than Katrina did.
For comparison, the Super Outbreak of 1974 - arguably the worst April in the recorded history of United States weather, offers up these statistics..in an 18 hour period of storms:
148 confirmed tornadoes in 13 states and Canada.
Damaged areas 900 square miles in a total combined path of destruction 2,600 miles long.
Claimed 319 lives (77 in Alabama).
Sported:
Confirmed tornadoes (total, and various strengths)
Total F0 F1 F2 F3 F4 F5
148 19 33 32 34 24 6
Entire cities are just...gone. People's bodies have been found up to 80 miles away from their homes. A bank, including their vault, was leveled to the ground. My cousin's in-laws' neighborhood has not one single house left standing.
If you are a blood donor, please. Find a donation facility and give.
If you give to charity, please. Look up the Red Cross or United Way (even though I hate the United Way) and donate.
If you are religious, pray.
If you are not religious, send us good thoughts and feelings.
There are hundreds of thousands of people without power. Hundreds of lives lost - we won't have a final total until sometime in the next weeks, when the rubble has been searched and all the bodies found.
One example, and if this doesn't break your heart, nothing will. A 5 year old girl who was lost, after hours of searching involving teams of rescuers, airplanes, and helicopters, ended tonight when her body was found crushed beneath a sofa - near, but not in, where her home had stood.
Tens of thousands of people no longer have a home. And I don't mean trailers or mobile homes. I mean actual, well built, brick and wood houses. Many of which had storm cellars or basements.
People, this is a heartbreaking, major devastation event that happens once in a lifetime - if you're lucky. Everytime I pull up the news I start crying - part in thankfulness that I'm ok, and part in sorrow for all the people suffering, or the families of the dead.
Help however you can.