Storms – Near and Far

Matzo balls? No. Hail? Yes.

Nearly two weeks ago an 80 mph storm with tennis ball size hail passed over my house. We went to safety in our basement. My kids were scared and I played the part of the brave mom while my heart pounded. After the storm, we walked around the neighborhood to assess the damage. There was an aftermath of damaged siding, roofs, some broken windows and large divots in my lawn. It took 2 hours for some of the pieces of hail to melt! Our home, with its less than a year old siding and gutters faired pretty well. 

"Dalmation House"

Hail still melting in the ground 2 hours later.

Within 24 hours my neighborhood was crawling with contractors from neighboring states looking for work, I mean to help. I began to think about what it must have looked like after Hurricane Katrina and other mammoth storms. Were there people coming out of the woodwork to help? At first I was angry that no contractors were local. Storm chasers is what we began calling them. We have hired someone not local, but they have ties to the community and its not like they’re Wal-Mart trying to take down the Mom and Pop shops. The truth is that I decided there’s enough work for everyone.

 Yesterday, Tuscaloosa, Alabama was hit with a historical tornado. Tuscaloosa aka T’town was my home for 4½ years of college plus a year and a half. I have six years of memories in that city and although some do include tornadoes, it was never anything like what hit there yesterday. I remember the sky being an eerie greenish-gray. I remember watching meteorologist James Spann pinpoint the exact minute the tornado would be at my house, as if arriving for dinner. Thankfully none ever touched down closer than 10 miles from where I was and never affected me directly. I never lived anywhere with a basement, in fact one apartment (and this was common) was on top of the parking lot garage. I recall one tornado we took coverage in the basement/tornado shelter of an engineering building on campus my then boyfriend, now husband had a key to. I remember sitting in a lab with walls so thick we couldn’t get a radio to work. We played a board game and after some time snuck up the stairs preparing ourselves to see everything around us leveled. Fortunately wasn’t the case.

You know it's bad when the meteorologist is flustered:

Tuscaloosa tornado caught on tape wreaking havoc

It’s been 6 years since I’ve been to Tuscaloosa and as I watch the images online and on TV my heart aches for all the residents of the town, especially the students who are not fro the southeast. Students like I was, who learned what to do in case of a tornado as one was quickly approaching. In college they don’t do tornado drills.

To all my friends, former colleagues, their families, UA’s faculty and student body and to my former home of Tuscaloosa I send you a heartfelt “Roll Tide”.

The Aftermath -- just 1-2 miles from where i used to live.