Joel picked a perfect week to be out of town! He was in Vegas for the week for work and I had to go through this by myself! It was scary. The worst for us came around 5:30 am Wednesday morning. The sirens woke me up and I immediately turned on the weather. I went and got Hudson and put him in the bed with me, and within 5 minutes, we were heading to the basement! The power stayed on for about 2.5 seconds before it was pitch black. It was a good thing the Easter bunny brought Hudson a bug flashlight or else we would have been in trouble! I, along with many others, had no idea that there would be an early morning part to this storm! Thankfully, I heard the sirens.
From what I could hear from the basement, the storm only lasted a few minutes, but let's just say I heard a lot of trees breaking in those few minutes. My mom called around 6 in tears wanting to know if I was ok. She knew I was alone and as it turned out, she was alone too. Something had happened at her house and at the time she called, she didn't know what. She just knew it was bad. She called back a few minutes later to tell me that her chimney was safely placed in the neighbor's yard, and her bedroom windows were busted out. Luckily, our house was spared. We only had a few large tree branches fall.
Hudson and I ventured out a little while later to see the damage. Stop signs are not supposed to be flattened like this...
Most all of the stop signs near us looked like this. There were trees down everywhere. I didn't realize how lucky we were until we drove around. My mom's neighborhood, which is in our same neighborhood as well, looked like a warzone with all the trees down. I don't know if it was a tornado or just really strong winds, but you can pretty much see a clear path straight from Cahaba Heights to our neighborhood.
There are two ways in and out of our neighborhood, and currently, only one way is functional. The road behind our house has been closed since Wednesday. It is also really hard to get through Cahaba Heights with all the roads still being closed.
Hudson and I headed to my sister's at lunchtime to charge my cell phone. She had power and I had no idea when ours would be coming back on and my phone was just about dead. With Joel being out of town and us having no power, I couldn't chance not having any mode of communication! On a happy note, while we were at Carrie's, Hudson lifted up his shirt and pointed to his belly and said, "Be careful, there's a baby in there." Haha.
Once my phone was good to go, we came back home to hunker down for the next round of storms. One thing that is so interesting about all of this is that I met so many neighbors on Wednesday. Everyone was out and about and it was just nice to have someone to talk to and meet. We've been in our house for 4 years, but have never met some of the people that live so close by! Shortly after we got home, our power came back on! Thank goodness! I did not want to be in a dark house by myself for the night with more bad storms on the way! I'm a scaredy cat!
I watched the weather for the next few hours and watched all the devastating storms. When the tornado left Tuscaloosa and headed our way, I freaked out a little! Thankfully for us (unfortunately, not for a lot of others), it went north, but we were definitely in our safe place.
I can't stop thinking about all those victims from this horrible storm. This was just so close to home. Our damage is nothing compared to Tuscaloosa and north Birmingham. It really looked like something from a movie. I can't imagine losing everything you have. I want to help in so many ways! We should all do our part to help, even if it is just donating money. Say a prayer for our state!
I'm thankful though. I'm thankful that my family and friends are safe. I'm thankful that my husband is back home safely. He's never allowed to go out of town again! I need a man in the house to do things like lift the garage door when the power is out, among other things of course! :) I'm thankful for power, and for good neighbors. I'm thankful for the weathermen that had us prepared for this day (did they ever get a bathroom break the whole day???). I'm thankful for the best little boy a girl could ask for--he's just so go with the flow and didn't get scared at all this time! And, for loving parents and in-laws, siblings, and friends, who called to check on us. I'm thankful for the house over our heads, and the food that we have to eat. And for so many more things...
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