Tornadoes Hit Close To Home...

My mom lives in Alabama...

On Wednesday April 27 at around 9:30pm, I received a call from my Granddaddy concerned about my mom since he couldn't get a hold of her with all the tornadoes.  Of course I immediately assume everything is fine and tell him not to worry.  I hang up the phone and actually look at the news reports.  All the reports indicated that the tornadoes were hitting the small community we live in.  Fear immediately set in... It ended up being a very long night complete with lots of tears.

We kept trying to call my mom which was useless.  We called emergency services in the area and got my mom put on a list to be searched for as soon as possible since she was alone.  After 14 hours without contact with my mom, we finally heard that she was fine and so was the house.  I've never been so angry at false news reports!

I already had a tripped planned to visit my mom and I left for Alabama Friday night.  We live on a lake and over the next week, we traveled by boat and viewed a lot of the aftermath.

I was born in Iowa and tornadoes are not new to me.  At least, the warnings and the hiding in basements part of them are not new.  I also work in insurance, which means I hear about people having damage to their homes all the time.  But I've never seen anything like this.

 I've heard about how a tornado and hit one house and the one next to it is completely fine, but never saw it first hand until now...

 It's awful to think about what these people will have to go through.  Their things have been completely destroyed by a force moving 50 mph through their home.  To think about the process of removing the debris and rebuilding their lives is heartbreaking.

 We were very lucky...

 It will take months to rebuild from this horrible event, but it's amazing to see people come together to help out.  University students have come to help and neighbors are, well, being neighborly. 

Please continue to keep these people in your thoughts...