Saturday, April 30, 2011

Tornado Alley



What a week. It started at 5 AM on Wednesday as the tornado sirens woke me up, nothing alarming, pretty typical for the month of April in Alabama. I did manage to peel myself out of bed and stumble to the playroom windows at the back of our house. The wind was roaring and as it blows over Red Mountain, which we back up to, it is hard to distinguish whether it is the wind whipping over it or a tornado about to come down it. It passed over quickly and I thanked God I didn't have to wake the banshee's at 5, the day would not have gone well for them. (there was a tornado in the Cahaba Heights area that did a ton of damage, my best friends home they are remodeling was really damaged :( )




School was cancelled for the day and we found a baby bird in the backyard. Convinced it had fallen out of it's nest we set out to catch it. CJ on the way to work was quite amused to see his wife, with the three in tow, running back and forth between our yard and our neighbors, which requires running down an alley to get there. "Hopster" as we named him, decided he did not want the giant, loud humans to handle him and did his best to escape us. We caught him, put some leaves in his new home, posted a FB picture for any help and made calls to Oak Mountain Wildlife refuge. We all loaded in the car with him riding as co-pilot. We drove around the block and one of my friends responded to my FB post, since I had yet to hear back from Oak Mtn, and said that if he was hopping it was called" fledging" and not to move him. Back home we went and got him back to the spot we found him. Oak Mtn returned my call and confirmed that we did the right thing. I hope he survived. This all happened before 9 AM.



We ran to railroad park before the storm and it was beautiful (but windy) and then settled in for a long afternoon with James Spann who did an excellent job reporting on the devastation that rolled in throughout the afternoon into the evening. Mary Holland was traumatized and might have panic attacks from now on when the tornado sirens go off, hopefully it won't be anytime soon. She said after it was all over, "I hope we don't have tornado's again until I am 6". Hudson going to bed said "I am so sick of hearing that man (James Spann's) voice." All is well and God moved the storm just North of us. We are blessed, but very saddened to see the devastation that lies all over our state. Here are some pictures from our top porch once we knew we weren't in the path of the vicious tornado.


Trying to get some energy out.

The chaos that ensued in my home. Notice the tornado in the lower left corner on the t.v.

Tornado that wrecked the Northside of Birmingham.

As it moves to the east.


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