Monday I went into work at two because I'd been able to get all my order done before I left on Friday. I spent the first couple hours trying to get the things done on my list of stuff to do that I'd made when the manager did his walk through my department last week. (He was on vacation this week.) Things like dusting off the top edges of the stamp hutches and the counters, getting paint removed from a side counter, filling in holes and moving up 8x8 albums. Those kinds of things. Then I worked on craft department reset for awhile. Of course, in the evening I had the store to recover.
Tuesday was my day off and I did some things at home during the day, but I kept getting "Accuweather.comAlerts" in my email about the weather that was supposed to come in starting Tuesday evening (I thought) and going through the early hours of Thursday morning.
Jeni had made plans to go to Montgomery with some other ladies to speak to state representatives about getting midwivery made legal in Alabama. This was an event that was supposed to have taken place last week but got postponed. She had made arrangements for someone to keep the girls, "Ded" had Brad, and would pick up the boys when they got out of school. Josh was going to get the boys from "Ded" after he got off from work and bring them home with him and I was to get them just before church. Jeni would be returning from Montgomery late Wednesday. (Jef was out of town with his job so he wasn't available to get them.)
Jeni had asked me if I'd spend the night in Harvest so that she could go on early. All I'd have to do before I went to work was get the boys on the bus at twenty minutes 'til seven. That would work fine for me. I'd have time to read and pray before I left to get to work by 8:30.
As the weather alerts kept coming in, I decided that the one thing I did not want to do was be driving out Highway 53 in driving rain in the dark. I have always hated driving at night in the rain and nothing has changed about that as I've gotten older except that perhaps my ability to see well is not even as good as it was when I was younger. So, I decided I'd get ahead of the storm and the HORRIBLE traffic that leaves Huntsville going toward points North on TWO-LANED 53.
I was already out of Huntsville proper when I got a call from Jeni. She wasn't home. She had taken care of some business in Huntsville and had not yet dropped Brad off. There was no way to get in her house and I might have to wait awhile before she got there. So, I chose to stop at the Save a Lot (or somesuch name) grocery store that had replaced Piggly Wiggly and check it out. They were supposed to have very good prices and I was sure I needed a "rest stop" if Jeni was going to be delayed.
After looking it over, I went on to Jeni's and waited for her. The rains never came. The skies were blue. Things were fine. She and I spent a pleasant evening together and then we went to bed. I (stupidly) drank a huge glass of tea not long before bedtime. I tossed and turned all night. I was hot. I was wide awake. And in the middle of the night the storms began coming in. I hated it that I was going to have "freight day" ahead and so little sleep to go on.
When I got up, Jeni was already gone. Sirens were going off. One of the boys told me that when the Sirens went off, school was usually delayed. I had already told Jeni the day before that there could be a possibility of school being let out early because of the weather so she would need to be sure "Ded" was aware of that, but for some crazy reason, it never occurred to me that it might be delayed. For one thing, all the reports were saying that the threat of tornadoes was for the afternoon. But, school WAS delayed. Great. Instead of getting on the bus at twenty 'til seven, it would now be twenty 'til nine... ten minutes AFTER I was supposed to ALREADY be at work. I called Jeni and she said take the boys to "Ded" and tell him to not worry about taking them to school. I said, "They might let out early anyway" (which in fact they did. School was only in session two hours and fifteen minutes in Madison County).
I took the boys and dropped them off and went on to work. It was our freight day, after getting freight to the floor, I began working to get mine out. Throughout the day, the sirens kept going off regularly. Someone was staying tuned in to the weather so that they'd know when the sirens really were relevant to our location. We and the FEW customers who had ventured out on this day to shop were herded to the classroom a couple times to wait out a storm that was sighted close by. But for the most part it was just dark, eery skies, lots of rain, sirens and hardly any customers. I got almost all my freight out. I was working on the last cart trying to hurriedly finish it up-- thinking I'd have just enough time to do that-- by 5:30. That was my get off from work time. At 5:15 or thereabouts, the power went out. As soon as I located my manger, I told her that I might as well clock out and go on home. So I was headed home at about 5:25.
After I located Josh and picked up the boys, we came home. We had no power here either. I got out my oil lamps and candles and fixed things so we'd be able to navigate after dark, then we ate. Church had been cancelled because we had no power and the threat of storms was still afoot.
As I was driving home, I did have radio news that tornadoes were going through many areas of Alabama and neighboring states. But, this-is-not-good, I didn't have not one battery powered radio to listen to so I had no way of keeping up with what was happening without listening on my car radio. Of course, with Brad, Sam, and Zack to tend to, I didn't do a lot of going back to the car. Besides, I wasn't sure how smart it was to sit there using up my gas just listening and I didn't want to run my battery down by not starting the car. So, I really didn't have a way to keep up with the extent of damage caused by the storms on Wednesday.
Now I know that we made history. The storms that went through Alabama and surroundings states killed several hundred people and has left massive destruction in its wake. Just a few miles to the south of us, five people died. In Harvest, where Jef and Jeni live, nine people died. (This is at last count before I wrote this. There are still people missing.)
The power in Huntsville comes from the Browns Nuclear Plant and the line to it was cut by the storm, leaving all of Huntsville and Madison County without power for days. My own power source must be different because, although we did do without power overnight, by just after noon on Thursday our power was restored. The only thing I had to deal with was soft ice cream which the boys were glad to eat. Josh and Tesia came over and helped.
Jeni had a HARROWING trip home from Montgomery as she was driving WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON through the areas the storms were going through. It took her at least twice the hours the trip would normally take and she had to deal with heavy traffic, high winds, downed trees and power lines, and seeing destruction. She is a very fortunate lady that she came through all that unscathed. But she was VERY shook up by it all.
She spent the night in Huntsville at the friend's house who kept the girls. Jef was called back to Huntsville to by his work to take care of issues there and he stayed with his Dad. On Thursday morning they wound their way carefully through downed power lines and trees to get back to their home in Harvest to see first, if it was still there and, if so, what kind of damage they may have suffered. They had a leak in the roof, a downed tree, and a missing shutter. They packed up coolers with stuff from their freezer and emptied out what they wanted to bring from their refrigerator, packed a few clothes, and came to my house. Jef later had to go back into work to take care of shutting things down there.
The weather has been beautiful. The boys have played out in the stream most of the time. I've raked the yard. I have this sense of "guilt" hanging over me that I'm able to go about doing such normal things when people all over Alabama have lost their homes and loved ones. But, with the power off in all of Madison County, my best and chosen option has been to stay at home and save my gas. There is NOT a gas shortage but it can't be pumped without electricity therefore even here locally where we would be able to get it, there are LONG lines because people are coming from the areas where there is no electricity.
Thankfully, Tim-- who lives in Lacey Springs-- had his power restored in the middle of the night on Thursday so he was only out of power just a little over 24 hours. I had gone down to his house to tell them that they could come and spend their days with us and cook and eat and use our hot water, but I know they are glad they didn't have to do that. A neighbor of theirs had a generator he was sharing and was alternately allowing his neighbors to keep their stuff cooled down. Felicia said their water never did get cold so they didn't have to take cold showers.
Of course, I'm not able to go to work. There's no power in the shopping center where our store is located. A manager is having to be there at all times because the alarm system is not on, but they are alternating who is staying. My store manager went on vacation this week and I suppose he is still in Missouri. I don't think he planned to travel back until tomorrow. I'm not sure how this has affected his plans. He may have had to come back to help "guard" the store.
I'm still waiting for a call that says I can go back to work. The power for some areas of Madison County has been restores (Northeast) but not anything in Huntsville itself.
It seems strange to be at home, with family, just doing normal things, when so much around us has been destroyed and when the whole city of Huntsville is going to have to go without power for up to five days. I noticed a post that said, "If you have anything left in your refrigerator, throw it out today. After this it will not be safe to eat. Do not risk food poisoning."
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