Friday, April 29, 2011

No Better Today

Things seem even worse today. I can't stop crying.

I heard on the radio about an hour ago that there were 45 confirmed dead in Tuscaloosa and 446 still missing. I read that 8 University students had been confirmed dead. It's just devastating.

All of our family and friends are safe, but my heart is broken for the people who lost their homes and family members and friends. I can't imagine what they're going through right now if I'm this emotionally hurt.

Lee had a friend who had damage to his house in Tuscaloosa so he went to help him clean up instead of going to work today. I was going to go help, too, but Lee told me to just stay home. He said it was chaos and it would have taken me 3 hours to get there.

Tuscaloosa will never be the same again :(

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Heartbroken

My heart is absolutely broken right now.

At about five o'clock yesterday afternoon a mile-wide tornado absolutely destroyed the city where I spent five of the best years of my life, the city that I still consider home.

All photos via tuscaloosanews.com

We live about 30 miles from Tuscaloosa right now, but I'm there for school every day and Lee works there. I was home all day yesterday because my school was canceled and Lee came from work at lunch [thank goodness] because of the threat of bad weather, but Lee's brother and sister and lots of our friends live in Tuscaloosa, so watching this monster on the news was terrifying. It went right by his brother and sister's apartments, but they're okay. Our friends are all okay too, but some had damage to their houses.

Here's a video somebody took from the parking lot of the mall. I'm not sure how the mall is still standing. I'm also not sure why this person was in the car filming this and not in a safe place, but it's an amazing [and terrifying] video. This thing was a beast.

The damage is horrifying. It looks like bombs went off in Tuscaloosa. It beats all I've ever seen.

The pile of rubble on the left was a Big Lots yesterday morning


So many cities in Alabama are absolutely devastated right now. I'm so thankful all my family and friends are okay, but heartbroken for those who lost their homes and family members/friends. What a crazy day.

If you're reading this, could you please take a minute to say a prayer for everyone affected by this storm?