Praise YOU through the storm!

Wacky Wednesday is all the could be used to describe April 27,2011. It started with me being woke up by bad weather and tornado sirens going off around 5:45 that morning. I huddled with my dogs and turned on the tv to see what was going on.....that is until the power went out a few minutes later. I kept waiting to see if school would be cancelled before I attempted to get dressed in the dark. I ended up having to drive myself to school in the windy weather instead of meeting carpool. One carpool friend was stuck in her neighborhood where they ended up confirming an F2tornado had touched down. I was struck by the damage that littered the streets and interstate. I got to school and was amid chaos due to the power being out. The First Grade teachers had to sit and entertai the students in our school library for 2 hours until the school decided to release us early.
When I left school to go home and prepare for the BIG storm that was coming that afternoon, I was shocked at how blue the sky was--yet so deceiving for what was to come later that afternoon.
I packed up the dogs and my stuff and headed over to Ben's to stay to ride out the storm. The picture above is what I was watching at Ben's (his power came back on around 4:30 that afteroon just in time to catch the storm coming) when the news showed the tornado hitting Tuscaloosa. I freaked out and was calling Ben to come home from work asap and sent him that picture. He came home long enough to get me and the dogs to drive back to his office and get in his cement vault. There were other people up there and the weather got a bad for about 2 hours. We were lucky.

Over the past few days I have seen images that I have never seen before. I grew up in South Alabama and have been through numerous hurricanes (Ivan was the worst) but have never seen damage this so widespread. I have donated to my church , tried to donate blood (waited 2 hours and they ran out of supplies), donated to the humane society of Birmingham, and worked via Red Cross in Tuscaloosa. I feels so good to be able to help, yet there is so much help that will be needed. Please take a moment and donate to .

Below I will share some of the pictures of the devestation I saw from Alberta City which is a small community outside of Tuscaloosa, AL that was completely destroyed. It just makes me so sad and heartbroken for all of those who are going through this terrible situation. I was able to help families remove debris off of their homes to be able to go in and gather what was left. I truly touched my heart at all of the volunteers, guard, military, policemen, etc that are responding and helping others. It is such a heartwarming experience to see all of the people across the state (and around the United States) pull together and help neighbors in need.

My school is still not back in due to the damage to schools in our county, power outages, water problems, and bus routes unpassible. I am trying to use this time to help out in any way I can.