Wednesday morning I was woken up by my dog jumping into the bed, which he only does when he's scared. Considering my husband is both the light sleeper and the "weatherman" of the household, it was good Snoop woke me up since Joe was out of town. Storms were pelting through, but it was just that - storms in Helena. I watched the weather on TV for a while until it was time to get ready for work. The workday was a little busy as our biggest client was flying in that night and I was preparing my portion of a presentation for them. Plans were to go to dinner with them that night and give the presentation the next morning along with other members of my department. Around 2:00 a coworker sends me a link with a live news feed of a tornado presently on the ground going through Cullman. This town is about 45 minutes away from my work. Knowing weather was only supposed to get worse throughout the rest of the day, many people started leaving. Schools had already closed down as well as city government buildings. Not knowing if our clients would be able to fly in, I stayed and prepared on still going to dinner if the weather miraculously got better. At 4:40 signs were getting worse, and even though they did indeed land, I chose to play it smart and go home. With Joe gone, I had a house and a dog to protect. I later learned that others actually chose work over safety and being with their families, which is really sad to me. Driving through the streets of downtown Birmingham were eery. Tornado sirens were going off and the streets were dead. It was definitely a very alone feeling. About five minutes after I got home, the power shut off, but luckily I still had natural light. I cleared the closet that is our safe spot and Snoop ran right on in. I grabbed all the necessities and turned on the weather radio. The power was out so I couldn't listen to a TV, my computer wouldn't connect to any networks, and my phone was going in and out of service, so the weather radio was my only way of knowing what was going on. The man was on a rotation giving weather warnings, but because there were so many storms and tornados that had touched down, it would take forever for him to get back to the storm I needed information on. Joe was experiencing the same thing in the Florence/Huntsville area but due to the number of storms we weren't hearing about each other's. At one point the tornado that had been sighted near me put us in a tornado emergency level which I had never even heard of. I stayed in the closet for 2 hours depending on Facebook and text. Joe was finally able to let me know that I was safe so I came out of the closet. Five minutes later my power came back on. I realized right then how lucky I was to have power knowing that others would be going a week without it.
The next morning I was terrified of seeing the devastation that was already being shown on TV. The commute to work was slow as traffic lights were out. I passed one church with men on the roof removing a huge tree that had fallen on it along with trees down all around the perimeter. But for the most part there was not too much damage on that route. I was closed off to the outside world that day due to being in the boardroom all day, but already knew I wanted to help. Joe and I decided we would do anything we could that weekend. And when I got home from work that day, seeing him for the first time, we gave each other a very long hug.
Saturday morning we went through our entire house within about 90 minutes and created a large pile of donations. Donating after a natural disaster is the best way to purge because you're not thinking about it. You're not spending time trying on clothes and debating on whether or not you should keep it because you're thinking of all those people who need it now and way more than yourself. We loaded up the car and dropped it off to an amazing group of people that set up a donation station in our small town of Helena. We picked up our friend Mandi and headed to Tuscaloosa.
Plans were to arrive at a church that was taking volunteers and distributing them to different places that needed help, but when we got there they were turning people away for that day due to too many volunteers. As you can see there were so many people volunteering at this church people had to park on the shoulder and in the median of this road.
With Joe doing business there and Mandi having gone to school there they called up their connections and we found some opportunities. We met up with a man named Jason at a water supply station to pick up and deliver water to a town called Holt that was severely damaged and low on water. We had a caravan of about 6 cars filled to the brim with water and traveled through the town to a school that was collecting necessities. The traffic through this town was horrible due to closed off roads which allowed me to take many pictures from the car.
This was a house.
It appears as though there is a random Pepsi vending machine where houses used to be.
Steps leading to a house that is no longer there. And the house behind it remained.
After dropping off the water we decided to help the Child Nutrition Director of Tuscaloosa city schools that Joe knows through work. There were two schools in this district that were demolished, however there was still good food in the freezers that needed transported to a school that still had power. Somehow after 3 days of no power in this school the food was still very frozen and salvageable. We loaded up an entire delivery truck of frozen food and headed to a shut down school that would be reopening due to the given circumstances.
Side of school ripped off.
Top of school ripped off. I believe that's either a closet door or classroom door visible from the parking lot with a poster hanging on the door.
This pile of rubble was in front of the school and I didn't even realize there was a car in it at first.
From inside the school kitchen.
From side of school looking out to what used to be residential Tuscaloosa.
As we were waiting for the director with his truck we were able to walk around a bit and actually be in the midst of the destruction. What hit me hardest was a residential street (below) directly to the right of the picture above. I'm sure there were at least a few kids who lived on this street that walked to this school every day. They now no longer have a house or a school.
This house on the left had 5 shirts on hangers hanging on a tree branch (not pictured). My thought was they were able to save 5 shirts and knowing they no longer have a closet are using a tree for the time being. Across the street was a house just as bad with a man carrying out some board games. He declined my help but I'm guessing there wasn't much more to be found in the house anyways.
Looks like a guard rail literally got wrapped around a tree.
The street in front of the school was just as bad. All the houses had their addresses spray-painted on the brick.
This was a neighborhood.
After unloading the food at the other school we decided to head home. On our way we drove past McFarland which is a main road through Tuscaloosa that used to be lined with retail and restaurants. This is what it looks like now.
Looks like a bomb went off.
Here is something that will put the power of nature in perspective. This Chevron is on one side of McFarland.
This strip mall is directly across the street.
These are only a few of the pictures I took. It was amazing to see people walking down streets handing out water, construction workers already replacing roofs on churches, and windows being boarded up to prevent further water damage. Although situations like these always bring out looters and thieves, there was definitely more good being done than bad.
When we got home we bought some steaks and had a cookout with Mandi and her parents who are displaced due to an ongoing power outage at their home. It was a long day starting with helping lives and ending with celebrating life!
American flag in front of leveled city of Holt
