So according to my last post it has been 6 months since the last time I posted. That's due mainly to the fact that time has been about as easy to find as the fountain of youth, el dorado, the holy grail, a unicorn, or watermelon flavored sour straws. The latter one is the most difficult by far.
So here is what you've missed in a nutshell...
1. Alabama went 10-3 and lost to Auburn. A long period of loss induced football depression followed.
2. I was accepted into Alabama grad school full paid, plus a monthly paycheck. This takes up most of my time by the way.
3. Everyone I know is getting married.
4. Ezra got another puppy.
5. My golf game is better.
6. A tornado wrecked my town.
I'll focus on the last one for now because it has had the most impact on my life lately and frankly who the hell wants to here about the other stuff? And who reads this anyway?
Here is my story to be added to the others about that day that we will all remember. It isn't as dramatic or spellbinding as some of the others you may have heard. I didn't have to crawl out of the ruins of my house and look for my roommates, or be rescued from a freezer with 9 other people. I didn't lose anyone close to me or have them ripped form my arms by the storm. I am not homeless, carless, unclothed, or hungry. Other people are, but I was lucky.
My day started like any other Wednesday. I woke up and prepared my lesson plan for the lab that I teach on Wednesdays. I went to class at 9 am ate lunch and then went to my office for office hours. I had heard several days in advance that the possibility of extremely strong storms may affect the area, but honestly thought nothing of it. I had heard it before and nothing had come of it. I will not make that mistake again.
The two hours of office hours went by as usual, with no students coming in as was the theme for the whole year. So went about my business working on my assignments. 3 p.m. rolled around and I went to the lab room to proctor the lab final for my class. By this time a severe weather watch had been issued for the University and all my students were praying to whatever gods that would listen that they would have to be dismissed and not have to take the final. I imagine they would take those prayers back now if they could.
Shortly after this the first of many tornado warnings was issued and we had to move to the basement of Smith Hall. Much to the dismay of my students, I told them they could just bring their finals with them and complete them in the basement. One by one they finished and so we just sat and talked until the warning was lifted. At this point the warning was lifted, but no sooner had it been lifted than another was issued. The storm was just now entering the county, all of my students but two elected to go to their homes. I told them that this was the safest place to be and that I would stay, but they left anyway. I still haven't heard from some of them and I hope they are ok.
So now it was just me and two of my students who happened to take my advice and stay. We decided to pull up the James Spann on one of the students computers and keep track of what was going on. At this point in the day the devastating tornado had gone through Cullman and I looked at the images and watched the videos from the town I had called home for most of my middle school and all of my high school years. I have yet to make it up there but I would like to so i can see the place.
At this point though, coverage turned to the storm headed our way. A storm spotter had an eye on the tornado in the county and the video was being streamed to the news station. All i remember is James Spann commenting on how huge it was, saying that it was over 1 mile wide and very dangerous.
At this point he also said that it looked to be headed on a straight path for the city of Tuscaloosa. We still didn't think much of it bc we had all heard this before. I called Ashley my girlfriend and told her to be prepared to get to her safe place with her roommates. Had I known just how close it came to her house I would have insisted they come to Smith Hall. Hindsight is 20/20. We kept watching the feed on the computer and as the minutes passed we saw that the storm was indeed headed to the metro area. I called Ashley back and she told me that the power was out and they had no radio to listen to the weather. This put me on edge and I probably called her 20 times in that hour.
The storm moved closer and closer and eventually a video feed came up from on top of the RBC bank here in town. I will never forget the video from that camera. We were now joined in the basement by the employees of the museum who share the building with us and we were all gathered around the screen watching as a low lying cloud approached the city. As it drew closer we saw that it wasn't a low wall cloud like we thought, rather, it was an extraordinarily large tornado. I remember the words of the newscaster like it was yesterday, when he saw the tornado. "This is a once in a career storm. I have never and will never see another storm like this." And the other meteorologists commented that it was "a wicked storm capable of tremendous and violent damage." You normally do not hear things such as weather described in such an anthropomorphic way. It struck a note in me that really let me know just how serious the situation was.
The storm continued to move closer to the city. It crossed highway 69 and then we saw the truly devastating punch that it was about to land on the city. The mood up until this point had been excited and lacked too much seriousness. People were amazed at how "cool" the storm looked from far away. The mood in the room as the tornado barreled into the city was anything but excited. We all stared at the screen, not in amazement, but in fear. We watched as it impacted the city and tore apart everything in its way. I distinctly remember how quiet everyone was. I looked at their faces and they weren't smiling in excited amazement anymore. They were genuinely afraid. The last image we saw before the power went out was a still image of the tornado when it was headed down 15th street. The lights went out we lost internet feed and people began to panic. I ran to the window to see if I could see anything. I remember looking at one of the huge 100 year oaks on the quad and every leaf was deathly still. I looked up into the sky and was amazed. The clouds weren't just swirling, they were chaotic. Moving in a huge circular motion. I could hear something in the distance, at the time I didnt realize what it was, thinking back on it now I know. As I looked up into the sky I saw "things" in the clouds moving with the wind. As I looked closer I realized that though they looked small they were several hundred feet above me and that they were actually very large. What I was looking at were pieces of houses, walls roofs, doors. I saw 2x4's and pieces of fences, sheetrock, and other things that were too hard to make out. I listened to the distant roar and ran and got my bike and headed for Ashley's house.
Thats all I have time to tell now. I'll try to get more on tomorrow.
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