My thoughts, prayers and heart are with those affected by the horrible storms and tornadoes that swept across the south yesterday. Especially those in Smithville, MS and Tuscaloosa, AL. This video is of the EF4 tornado that wiped out Tuscaloosa yesterday. You can see the strip mall where I shop at Ann Taylor Loft and get my beloved Starbucks (right next door to Game Stop) get completely flattened. It just barely missed Target (located on the other side of Belk and the old mall). It’s so hard to believe the part of Tuscaloosa I know so well and the places I love to shop at are gone.
We’ve eaten at this Schlotzsky’s Deli. |
The Hob Lob where most of the decor in my house came from. |
There used to be a Big Lots right next to Hob Lob. |
Wall cloud over our house. |
They were HUGE clouds. |
It’s difficult to see in the picture, but there is a funnel cloud just above KFC. |
Most of north Mississippi did loose power, and for quite a while. I’ve heard quite a few stories about why it went out, but the most popular one is that a tornado took out 11 high voltage power lines and they shut down 3 nuclear reactors down at the Birmingham plant which cut power to nearly 38,000 people. Unfortunately, I was in Starkvull (that’s how the folks here say any any town that ends in -ville, Smithvull, Louisvull, Boonevull, etc.) at the HPC^2 working on the presentation I had to give today (which went really well) when the power went out and I lost it all. I went in early this morning to start all over. Since everything grill-able was frozen and we didn’t want to open the freezer with no power, we went to the grocery store (in the dark) and bought burgers to grill. We spent the rest of the evening hanging out on the patio with a friend of ours who is (sadly) PCSing (permanent change of station) to Canon AFB in New Mexico today. He was in Alex’s pilot training class. The power came back to us sometime overnight.
The pilot, another pilot and a mouse. |
Then, God graced us with His presence. A beautiful sunset – if you look past all the power lines and construction. |
The “new” slim and trim Elmer Fudd |
Apparently, she gets cold at night. This is how I found her this morning when I got out of the shower. |
She looks kind of like a rodent, but we still love her. |