Reflections....

It is hard to believe it's been one year ago today that the massive tornado outbreak happened across the southeast. I will say, that I have lived through so many bad storms from growing up in the south but April 28th is a day I will never forget.  I remember thinking as I was heading to my mom's with the girls for spring break week that there won't be any bad weather.  The weather looked fine when I checked before we left.  I remember hearing the forecast on Monday morning at mom's and thinking, "why didn't I stay in Boone?"  They were predicting a perfect alignment of air masses to create super cell storms.  It was the highest risk number that the weather channel could predict.  When we went to bed on Wednesday night, I was praying and hoping that all of the predictions would be wrong.  Next thing, mom was waking me and the girls up at 5 am (4 am ET mind you) telling us we need to go downstairs.  These storms bypassed my mom's area but hit south of Bham and where my dad lived out at the lake in Pell City really bad. After that first round of storms came through, things had settled down a bit.  I had wanted to spend some more time with Dad and take the girls out to see him.  I loaded up the girls and drove the 45 minutes out to see him and Jo Ann that morning, not realizing how bad it had actually been.  There were power lines down all over his neighborhood.  I was sitting under one that was leaning over the road asking myself if I could make it under.  Another girl drives up (she has kids in the back too) and says she thinks it's fine and that I could follow her.  By the time I get in at dad's, mom's already calling me saying I should get back to her house or stay put but do something fast.  There was a 2nd round of storms that were coming though and they were expected to be much worse.  Not really sure what to do, I figured all of our things are at mom's.  I will go back there.  So, we load up again, drive the 45 minutes back to mom's...and wait.  I put the girls down for a nap and laid down to rest a bit myself.  I think I dozed off for a minute but I woke up to James Spann on the TV.  He's a meteorologist who has been in Alabama and has experienced tornadoes his whole career.  He's saying a massive tornado is on the ground in Cullman.  As we are watching that storm move through, he's talking about another.  It's coming up from the south west and moving toward Tuscaloosa.  By this time, the girls are up and mom's trying to work on supper for everyone.  We see the storm on TV, moving through Tuscaloosa and virtually destroying everything in it's path.  I can't recall all of the things he was specifically talking about in regards to the storms but I do remember one.  He says that this particular storm is moving right toward downtown Birmingham and you should find a safe place immediately.  Just the shock and awe in his voice were scary enough for me.  I was trying to hold it together for the girls but it was really hard.  All I could think about at that point is keeping them safe.  I knew that mom didn't have a basement and I wasn't sure that I wanted to stay there.  I called my Uncle who lived about 5 minutes away to see if I could come over with the girls.  He had an underground basement and I felt a lot better about being there.  Again, loading up the girls, I remember SC saying, mommy, you are going to fast.  I was praying in my head for God would keep us safe and that He would watch over mom and Ray since they were staying.   I could see the dark clouds off in the distance.  As I am pulling up in their driveway, my aunt and uncle are are coming out the door to help me with the girls.  We make it in and off to the basement we went.  I recall thinking how quiet it was for a while and then really heavy rain and wind.  It was hard to tell because the windows were low and really small.   I just keep talking to my Aunt and praying in my head  that God would provide me with calm for my girls.  My uncle goes up to check the radar and the news and tells us everything is ok.  As we head outside, we see pieces of debris everywhere.   There's bark shredded from trees, insulation, paper and it's everywhere.  I already knew that God was watching over us because based on the track of the storm, it should have gone right over us. I watched it tear through Tuscaloosa on tv.  Fortunately, it had moved to the north, but closer to where my mom's home.  There was very bad damage only a mile from where my mom lived.  We were all blessed to have walked away from those storms that day.  There were many that didn't.  I hope that I never have to go through another day like that.  I can share with my girls one day that they were in the middle of one of the worst storm outbreaks in history.  Not sure that I would want them to remember that or not!