tornado damage update

This post probably isn't all that interesting, but since my blog also serves as my personal journal, I'm going to post about the progress of the storm damage. It was a month ago today when the tornado hit Prattville. Although most houses & businesses have a long way to go to get back to normal, they have also come a long way since 4 weeks ago. The sound of hammers on rooftops and the sight of busy contractors swarming our neighborhood are familiar to us. Wal-Mart reopened just a week after the storm, and they are now getting a face lift & new flooring. A large section of the store is still blocked off due to construction, so hopefully soon they'll be back to normal. Regions Bank, Whitney Bank, the car wash, K-Mart, and the shopping center behind Krystal still have a long way to go. K-Mart is apparently unsure of their future; their employees received notice of termination a week or so ago. (This is really sad because I love the Martha Stewart home products that are only offered at K-Mart!)

So...on to the progress at our house. We got a new roof a couple of weeks ago, and we got our mailbox replaced about a week & a half ago. We decided to hire a general contractor because all of the little repairs were getting overwhelming since both of us work during the day & that makes it hard to make so many phone calls. Chris Mitchell is our GC and he is the son of the president of PCA, so we trust him. It's great to have someone we know because we can just hand off our house key to him & not worry about folks stealing stuff. Anyway, we're getting carpet installed today, and hopefully we'll have new flooring in the dining room & kitchen/breakfast room later this week. We have verified with the GC that we do have enough money to upgrade our flooring! We're getting hardwood in the dining room and tile in the kitchen/breakfast/laundry room. Hopefully we'll also have enough money to get a fence built, but we don't know yet if that will happen or not. We also still don't have windows, but we hope to have those within the next week or two. It is rather drafty in the house right now. :-)

Baron's car was totalled. He is shopping for a new vehicle this week while on spring break. He'll be looking at a truck this afternoon, so by the time some of you read this, he might already have something! He has been enjoying driving his rental car - a 2008 Dodge Charger - so he may not be in a huge hurry to replace it. :-) My car is on a waiting list at the shop, and I expect to get a phone call any day now to take it in.

For awhile, things seemed to be moving slowly, but now they're starting to come together. Part of me is anxious to get things back to normal, but the other part of me realizes that there are a lot of folks who have much worse damage than we do. We are blessed to only have annoyances like unusuable furniture & broken windows; we do at least still have a house standing!

{Click Here for article in the Montgomery Advertiser about the storm damage progress}
{Click Here for WSFA's story on the progress}

tornado videos

Here are a couple of videos of the tornado that hit Prattville. It's pretty crazy to watch it. And speaking of crazy...what's up with the guy standing OUTSIDE to video the tornado??? Idiot. But I am intrigued to watch his video. :-)

Ryan's Steakhouse and Bass Pro Shop video surveillance

typical lazy sunday afternoon...or not...

What did you do Sunday afternoon?

Ours started out pretty typical. After church we went to lunch with friends. I had a bridal shower at the church at 2:00, but I didn't stay long & we headed home pretty soon after that. We were pulling into our neighborhood at about 2:30, and the sirens started going off. Now, if you live in the south, you know that tornado sirens are not an uncommon occurrence, so we are usually not alarmed by the sirens. But for some reason, I found myself starting to get a little scared. We got to the house & turned the TV to WSFA as we usually do. Rich Thomas was giving his typical "severe weather" spill about getting to your safe place, etc., but we ignored him as usual. After watching the weather for a couple of minutes, I started to become frightened. I turned to Baron & said "Would you make fun of me if I went to the closet?" He just laughed & said no.

So I got the radio & made my way to the closet. When I got there, I realized the radio was missing 2 batteries, so I went to get more, only to discover we had no more. "Forget it," I thought, and I started back to my safe place. When I got to our bedroom, Baron was walking in behind me & we heard stuff hitting the house. The next minute is kind of a blur to me, but I remember my ears popping, scrambling to get Toby, running to the closet in our bathroom, and stuffing ourselves into the closet. I kept saying "my ears are popping...I'm scared..." and then, after about 45 seconds of very loud noises & nothing that sounded like a freight train, it was over.

Baron opened the closet door. We heard a rattling noise, and I realized it was the bedroom door, which we had closed. I thought perhaps the wind had blown one of the doors open. Baron walked out into the house, and I heard him gasp & I'm pretty sure say "holy crap." At that point I was wondering if we even had a house. I walked out & saw what I definitely did not expect. In hindsight, it was not that bad. But at the time, when you think you will just walk back into your house & it will be the same, it was devastating for me. I just couldn't believe it happened. After surveying the damage, I just didn't know what we were supposed to do. So I did like I always do in a crisis & I called my dad. Only my mom answered the phone. I told her what just happened & she said she would wake up my dad. (What? He was sleeping??? How could he sleep when a tornado just hit my house?? Apparently Montgomery wasn't having the bad weather.) So my parents got to my house as soon as they could, followed by Helen & Anthony and Jim Clarke shortly thereafter. They helped us clean up, which was a tremendous blessing at the time. (Thank y'all so much!!!!!)

Anyway, this story is way too long so I'll stop rambling. The moral of this story is that God was truly watching over us & over our house. We are unharmed, our house only has minor damage, and in the entire community of Prattville, there were no fatalities. Thank you, God, for sparing so many lives!

So...here are some pics from the damage. You can see lots more on the Montgomery Advertiser's website.

{our chimney on the ground}

{mailbox turned around}

{broken window on Baron's car}

{what shingles + 140 mph wind will do to your car}

{the trashed living room...including broken glass everywhere}


{breakfast room w/ broken windows}


{more of the breakfast room}

{window screen, shingles, glass, dirt, etc...}

{apparently the plastic cup, bills, & checkbook could withstand the winds :-)}

{dining room}

{two houses around the corner from us. we were very blessed!}