Fifteen years ago, Alabama changed. Not all of the counties were affected, but there were sixty-two confirmed tornadoes. They called it a generational outbreak.
EF-5: 3 tornadoes
EF-4: 8 tornadoes
EF-3: 7 tornadoes
EF-2: 9 tornadoes
EF-1: 29 tornadoes
And several EF-0’s. An EF-5 tornado went through about 9 miles to our south; an EF-1 went a mile from home.
My memories.
Sitting in my car with my daughter, charging our phones because we had no power. As I sat there scrolling through Facebook, I saw that the gym next door to my best friend’s house was gone. She was home (I’d spoken to her earlier) with her family, and they lived in a trailer. Hectic hours passed before I found out they’d taken a direct hit. Her husband had died, and she and two of her boys were in the hospital.
My husband went out twice that day with the neighbors to cut trees that had fallen on our road. Everyone was trying to get their loved ones home.
Waiting as my husband met one of his best friends in our 4-wheel drive truck so they could go get his wife from their damaged home, about a mile from where the EF-5 went through. Thankfully, she was not hurt. They stayed with us several days, though we were without power for five days. Our two generators kept the refrigerators, freezer, and a TV going.
Cooking on the grill for days to feed everyone staying at our house. After breakfast, most of the family and friends went out in the community to help where they could, while I watched my granddaughter. Praying constantly.
Finding blue jeans in the yard, which probably came from the Wrangler factory in Hackleburg, forty-five miles away.
Picking up debris in the yard with my two and a half year old granddaughter.
Driving to Mother’s to do laundry since Russellville still had power.
Going back to our friend’s damaged home and finding weird things. Like a many-paned window with only one pane of glass missing. And finding a perfect line of dirt around all the walls where the winds had sucked it out from behind the sheetrock. One window had been lifted out of the house and lay on the grass, unbroken.
The first time I went back to Phil Campbell–my alma mater. I realized how drastically the landscape had changed with the missing trees, houses, and businesses.
Seeing my friend’s house completely gone, visiting her in the hospital, and going to her husband’s funeral. Seeing so much suffering everywhere.
And finally, going to the doctor a week later and having a lady run up to me, crying, hugging me. Another Jennifer Hallmark had been killed in the storm, and she thought it was me.
My smidgen of hope. Seems like in all the chaos, there couldn’t be much hope, doesn’t it? But so many people showed up with water, food, chainsaws, and time to help. Churches came from other states and rebuilt houses. Months later, people were starting to recover. Years later, the landscape recovered, too.
Alabama will never forget April 27, 2011.
Neither will I.
Have you been affected by a natural disaster? How did your community react? Let me know in the comments…
Powerful memories. God bless you and your family.
Thank you, Melissa. So much changed in a day…