Alabama Tornadoes April 27, 2011

Wednesday started out like a fairly normal day. Kids began school, Scott headed to work and I went to the commissary. There was talk of storms coming late in the afternoon. Turns out there was a tornado warning on post (while I was at the commissary) but they never got word of it. I think that one ended up doing nothing. Got home, unloaded groceries, checked on schoolwork, had lunch and then ......

Another tornado warning.... we always turn on the TV since the alarms sound for our entire county and many times it's south of us. This one was southwest of us but heading our way. We kept the TV on and when it was about 10 or so from our area (about 11:30amCDT), we headed for the bathroom. Abigail wasn't even home - she was at her voice lesson where they also rode out the storm in the bathroom. Kids and I were entertaining ourselves with my NookColor. Even over the story (it read itself to us) we could hear the roaring wind and the shaking of the house. The power flickered on and off a few times and then went off for good..... not sure how long we stayed in there but we stayed until it was definitively quiet. Came out to thankfully find our house intact but not only no power but no internet or phone.  Went outside to inspect and found missing roof shingles, some pulled siding, small fence issue and a destroyed trampoline. Abigail was brought home safely by Susie - thanks Susie.

Lost track of what happened over the next 4 hours or so. We had no power, no internet, no phone... I did text Madeleine to let her know we were okay.

 Wait, I remember... the kids played games.

 Scott came home early - actually I think he was hardly at work yesterday. He renailed the fence and got the siding to look a little better.

These clouds are from almost 4pm CDT - it was west of us heading northwest. It looked much more ominous IRL; we think this may be the one that slammed the Piggly Wiggly and gas stations in Harvest.

The alarms went off at least 2 more times.... we went to the bathroom again but it was never as noisy as the storm at lunchtime.

The fence got blown over worse but mostly because the ground was so saturated that the cement footings just shifted and sagged.  And the roof lost more shingles - forgot to take a pic of that.

Scott grilled bratwurst... I can't remember what time the storms were finally finished but it was before bedtime because I remember the kids took Lola for a walk to give them something to do.