Remembering April 27th 2011

Today, I haven't gotten much done at work due to the fact that I have been glued to the computer reading articles in the Gadsden Times and all over the internet about April 27th, 2011. It does not seem like it has been a year already. This morning, I read the Sports Illustrated article about the tornadoes and cried like a baby at my desk at work. It wasn't the first time I have read that article, or the second or third. I have read that article at least 20 or 30 times since last year. I know each athlete's story that is in the article by heart; however, I still cry like a baby. Carson Tinker, long-snapper at the University of Alabama, lost his girlfriend that day. His story breaks my heart every time I hear it. I guess because I put myself in his situation. I do not know what I would do if something happened to Kip. You might as well bury me at the same time. I commend him for his strength...seriously I don't know how in the world he could be so strong and tell his story to millions of people on the news, in newspaper articles and magazines, and in person. I wish I could have that kind of strength! I think Carson's story has inspired so many people...I just wonder if he even knows how many people he has inspired by sharing his story! At the NCAA College Football Awards Ceremony when the Disney Spirit award was presented to the University of Alabama, Carson accepted the award on the behalf of the football team, and once again, they told his story and showed video and photos from that horrible day. And as always, I cried like a little baby. I am so thankful that no one in my family or any of my friends were directly affected by the storms, except for Kip's farm, but all that was damaged was a fence and gate and trees were down everywhere. No structural damage and all the cows were fine! As I sit here on this day that everyone in the state of Alabama will remember as long as they live, I reflect back on each moment of that day, remembering what I was doing that very minute a year ago. My heart still breaks for those who lost loved ones a year ago today, for those who lost homes, and those who lost every tangible memory. Looking back, I wish I would have been at the Emergency Management Agency with Kip that day helping out, whether it be answering phones, taking damage reports, monitoring the National Weather Service chat, or doing whatever I was needed to do! Now, when severe weather threatens, if available, I am at the EMA doing whatever I am needed to do. I didn't think I would be a good "volunteer" due to the fact that I have a come-apart when severe weather threatens, but while working at the daycare, I have learned that I must keep my composure and stay strong for the kiddos and other teachers. I think that has helped me the most..just knowing I need to stay strong and put on a happy face for the children. I am very thankful that we closed the daycare on April 27th, 2011, because I just don't think I would have stayed very calm, especially not after seeing what was coming through Cullman and then Tuscaloosa. I am also very thankful that none of the children or their families were directly affected by the storms either. A tree did fall a graze the roof of one family's home, but luckily no other damage to their home, considering just across the road from them everything was flattened...like a bulldozer had come through and bulldozed the entire neighborhood. An image I can still see in my head of that area is a gate...a large gate of a beautiful home was still standing, doors still locked, with nothing behind it. That beautiful home was completely gone. Everything else in the area..gone. But the gate still stood without a scratch on it. I love hearing the stories of people who's homes have been destroyed, but the room/closet they were sheltering in still had all 4 walls attached. There is no explanation for that except that the hand of God was surrounding that room and protecting that family. I know that many people ask why God spared some people but took other's lives, but God has a plan for every single person on this Earth. He knew who was going to be in the path of that storm that day and who wasn't. He has a way of working things out and his plan is ALWAYS perfect, though we may not realize it at the time. So many people were asking, "WHY ME??" or "WHY MY FAMILY??" on that day. I read a story in the Gadsden Times today about a family who lost their mom, dad, and grandmother, but they realized that this was what they would have wanted. They did were married for 52 years and did everything together..even died together. See..God does have a way for working things out. If you want to read the story, go to gadsdentimes.com and look for the article about the Wootens. It is a wonderful story! There are so many wonderful stories about the April 27th tornadoes all over the internet. I would suggest taking a look at some of them and reading the experiences people have gone through and how they have recovered over the past year! I will always remember April 27th, 2011, and I know everyone in the state of Alabama will too.

April 27th: One Year Later

As the one year anniversary of the horrible devastation of the April 27th tornadoes draws near, my heart is starting to break once again. I am going to travel back in time to that horrible day, and recall what all I went through. For weeks, James Spann, the wonderful meteorologist with ABC 33/40 news, had been warning us of the possibility of long-track, very dangerous tornadoes on April 27th. On the morning of April 27th about 6:45 am, I was woken by a very strong thunderstorm that knocked out our power. At the time, I was living in my boss's rental house just down the street from where I work. When I realized the power was out, I thought it may be crazy down at the daycare if we didn't have power, so hopped out of bed, brushed my teeth, and headed down to the daycare. Luckily, we only had about 7 children and were not accepting any more due to the power outage. I called to report the outage, and the power company said it would be on by 10:30 am or 11:00 am. It was 7:00 am at the time. Our policy says that if the power will be out for more than 2 hours, we have to contact the parents. After some consideration, we decided to close the daycare for the rest of the day, due to the severe weather headed our way later in the day. Without power, we could not use our telephone or computers to look up parents' numbers, so we had to pull all the files out and use our cell phones to call each of our 75 parents individually. After we finished up with all that at work, I went back to the house to pack up some stuff and head home. I wasn't going to be caught dead in Jacksonville by myself with a dangerous storm situation approaching. I decided I would go to my best friend, Jillian's house and ride out the storm, because Kip was going down to the EMA to help out..leaving me all alone and upset (haha). My parents were at work and my brother was at school so I didn't want to be home alone. I had to take a detour through Weaver, because trees were down on HWY 204 (what was causing the power outage in Jacksonville, later we realized a small tornado came through the area that morning). It took me FOREVER to get to Jillian's house, but I finally made it. We were watching the news all day, and the first evidence of a tornado we saw was the tornado in Cullman. We were watching it LIVE on ABC 33/40's sky cam. That thing looked like a monster.

We continued to watch the weather coverage, until about 5 pm that afternoon....when we watched..LIVE..a massive tornado rip through my beloved city of Tuscaloosa, only to hear that it was headed for Bryant-Denny Stadium and the University of Tuscaloosa campus. Thinking of all the friends and family I had in Tuscaloosa, I began checking facebook to see if any of them had things posted, but I got NOTHING. We watched this power monster of a tornado continue on into Birmingham, knowing that we were going to be in it's path next if it didn't weaken or take a drastic turn, and weakening wasn't an option at the time, as it appeared to be getting stronger.

Jillian started cleaning out her closet and making us a safe place with blankets, pillows, water, flashlights, and candles. We had charged our phones and computers....we were prepared for the worst. At 6:45 pm, Kip called to let us know that we had about 20 minutes until it would hit Etowah County, so we moved our computers and phones into the closet, turned James Spann on the TV in her bedroom, as loud as it would go, and hunkered down. I was monitoring twitter and Jillian was monitoring facebook. Before the rain even got to us, the satellite went out, so no more James Spann on TV. However, I was on his twitter page, and the LAST thing I see before the power went out was "VERY DANGEROUS STORM HEADING TOWARD GADSDEN METRO...ESPECIALLY SOUTHSIDE/GLENCOE"...straight from James Spann. And we were in Southside. When the power went out, so did the internet. We were sitting in the dark, not knowing what was about to happen or where the tornado was at the time. All we could hear was rain and thunder. It got very quiet all of the sudden...which I knew was not a good sign. Then, we hear this sound..it sounded like a roaring train. I knew I had been told that a tornado sounds like a freight train and that was all I could think of...just waiting for it to hit the house. It got very quite again, and then I hear the sound of trees/poles snapping. All of this lasted about 2 to 3 minutes. It was over. Apparently the house had not been hit, because all four walls of the closet were still standing and we still had a roof over our heads. Clai, Jillian's husband, said he was going to go check outside and see what the damage looked like..I just knew there would be so many trees down. He was gone for what seemed like an eternity. I remember telling Jillian that I bet it was horrible outside, because he had not come back yet. He comes back a few minutes later and says that it looks like nothing had happened...no trees down or anything! I was amazed. All those noises we heard...what were they and where were they coming from?? Still with no power, we had no clue as to where this massive tornado was and NO cell phone service...or if it had even made it to us yet. We were trying to find a radio station that would tell us SOMETHING. We finally get a station that is talking about the storms. We hear all sorts of storm reports, but nothing too horrible...until a call comes in that there are houses in the Coosa River in Southside and bodies floating down the river. We heard sirens like crazy going down HWY 77..still not knowing ANYTHING other than what the lady on the radio called in and said. I finally had service to call Kip and find something out. He said that Ohatchee had been hit pretty bad. We were lucky that the tornado went just south of us...and by just south I mean no more than 3 or 4 miles south of us. After things calmed down, we finally went to bed...with no power. We got up the next morning very early and went outside. We gathered up debris that had fallen in Jillian's yard and walked around picking up other stuff throughout the neighborhood. My dad has to drive through Ohatchee to get to work. My mom texts me and tells me that Willow Point in Ohatchee on the river has been hit bad and that houses were in the water, as per my dad. We instantly thought "that must have been what the lady was talking about on the radio last night". We went to Jillian's mom's house to shower and everything since she still did not have power. While we were there, we watched the news...all the news channels were doing all day coverage of the devastation that happened the day before. Hundreds or people were missing and many were already confirmed dead..and the death toll was rising. I just sat and cried as I watched and saw the pictures. That afternoon, I went with Kip to help deliver water and other things to shelters we had throughout the county. I went back to work on Friday and I always go down Gilberts Ferry Road to get to work. Little did I know, a small community on Gilberts Ferry Road had been in the path of the tornado. As I made the curve on Gilberts Ferry, I just stopped in the middle of the road. That small community was LEVELED. Nothing left. Power lines were down in the road, trees and debris everywhere. My heart SANK. My eyes teared up. People were out cleaning up the pieces of their lives that had been destroyed. I wanted to get out and help, but I knew I had to get to work. Over the next few days and weeks, I worked wherever I was needed in the recovery process. Working at Eaglepoint sorting clothes and food and toiletries and toys and anything else you could think of, helping Kip at his farm clean up the trees and debris, doing whatever was needed. I was consumed in that day for months...reading atricles, watching videos, wanting to help. Things slowly began to calm down, the rebuilding process began, and people started getting their lives back into some kind of order. Everyday, I drive through the Gilberts Ferry community, and I have LOVED watching the rebuilding process. Many new houses have been built, and some are still in progress. The wooded areas are being cleared of the fallen trees and the area is starting to look like a community again. One year later, and I still remember every detail of that day. I thank God every day that the tornado did not hit our county, but I hurt for those that were hit by it. Luckily I have never gone through a tornado or had one destroy my home. I cannot imagine what it feels like to stand in front of a pile of what used to be your home, and I hope I never will.