THERE BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD GO I

Once more I spent the day watching weather radar and checking ABC3340's weather blog. Then I would switch to the NWS National Mosaic to see how much was still to come from the far reaches of Mississippi that shares ALL their bad weather with their good neighbors is Alabama.  The radar yesterday reminded me of someone standing on the Mississippi river and throwing a hand full of pingpong balls across the state at us.  That is what supercell storms look like on radar.  And they just kept on coming.  I got up at 5:30AM Wed. morning and heated left over coffee in the microwave (yes I do like it that way and it also means I have coffee to drink while I am making a fresh pot). Besides waste not, want not.  About that time the tornado sirens went off outside.  I zipped over to my computer and turned it on to see the radar.  I can read a weather radar as well as the weathermen can and I know exactly where I am on the map.  I started buttoning down the house, closing windows and waking up my hubby so he would be awake incase we were blown away.  I unplug important electrical stuff (computers, tv's, SEWING MACHINES, etc) when the lighting comes.  I have seen (my brother's house) what a lightening strike can do to electronic stuff.  The only thing I don''t unplug is refridgerators and stoves and washing machines.  The radar looked like a squall line of storms and about 10 min later the power went off.  I was able to shut down my computer first though.  The storm lasted about 30 min and I read a book.  The power was off for about and hour and a half.  Then I started watching every 30 min to see how the radar looked the rest of the day.  I was watching the internet (I don't have TV any more, too expensive for the trash on it).  There was some damage from trees etc.  I was also watching when the tornado hit Tuscaloosa. Saw that monster live destoying everything in its path. 

 If you would like to see the videos of the storms yesterday go to http://www.abc3340.com/ and clik on home or weather they have about 20 of the storms themselves and the destruction.  The one thing those pics prove YOU ARE NOT SAFE ANYWHERE.  It destroyed stores, homes, court houses, hospitals, roads, EVERYTHING in its path.  Today 24 hours later they are still finding bodies, and injured, and have not even been able to search everywhere even with National Guard help.  We were lucky.  The supercells, 2 of them, one went just north of my home by a couple of miles and one stayed in the air as it went over the top us. Literally over the top.  Even the national weather service station at the airport 4 miles from my house abandoned their station to seek saftey.  Just the grace of God that that storm stayed in the air.  I was, for the first time in a long time, terrified in a storm.  Today around my home the air is clean, the birds are singing and all seems right in our world,  but not all that far from me people are worn out, hurting, trying to find their loved ones, to pick up the pieces of their homes and their lives.  They look in the pics to be shell shocked like casualities  of a war battle, and the pain won't end in a day or two or even months. They have no homes, no belongings left, just nothing but splinters and tattered dreams.  May God have mercy on their souls, and comfort them.  Please say a prayer for all of the people touched by those storms yesterday, not just the ones in Alabama.  Folks as far away as Michigan were hit by tornados yesterday.  They all hurt, physically and mentally.   

This is just a sample of the damage.  (Not near me, Thank you Lord.)  This was in Birmingham or Tuscaloosa, I am not sure which.  Wednesday April 27, 2011.  A day we will add to the other horrible weather days we remember the rest of our lives.

Be safe, all of you.   Mary