The Big Storm (Part 1)

As many of you may know, Alabama was hit with one of the biggest storms in it's states history last week. Our hearts good out the all those who lost their lives, homes, and belongings in this terrible storm. There's so much to do by everyone to help rebuild our area. It was a very challenging time for all of us who live here.
I recall the day that it happened.  I was leaving Ross when I looked up and saw the sky turn black right before my eyes. It was noon and darkness had covered most the town.  I thought to myself, that doesn't look good. It looks like a bad tornado is brewing. As I jumped in my car, my phone started ringing and I heard the automated service from the Huntsville school system come on the line. It stated that I must pick my child up due to inclement bad weather that day. I thought, this must be pretty serious if they are letting my kid out of school for a thunderstorm. As I drove over the mountian to pick Noa up, I could see the view of the whole city and what appeared to be small funnel clouds forming. The traffic was backed up on the two lane road as storm chasers were holding up traffic with their expensive cameras taking storm photos. I got to Noa school and it was so chaotic with parents rushing to pick up their little ones. The huntsville tornado sirens were going off every five minutes.  I called Reggie to give him an update at his job and to see if he was being sent home too. He replied that they were on base lockdown for a major storm was brewing in the skies and tornadoes are expected to touch down everywhere. My heart dropped as I thought to myself that I have to make it through this storm alone with my kids in our new home. In OKC, we had a storm shelter for our safety. But, in Alabama we have nothing but an inner hallway closet for our protection.  I got home, brought my dogs inside, parked in the garage, cleared out a space in our hallway closet, then waited. The rain began to pour down as I've never seen it rain. Then the lightening and thunder show outside began and the winds started blowing strong. I heard small insecured objects being knocked over in our screened porch. The weather was whipping back and forth like a hurricane and we sat their waiting for it to be over. After what seemed like eternity, the storms calmed down. It kept raining the whole time. Reggie was released to come home as the storms briefly subsided. But, it wasn't over.  All night long we heard the tornado sirens going off and listened to the battery powered radio as we heard the horror that was taking place in our area. Our electricity suddenly cut off and then I knew it was getting worse outside. As we looked around for candles in the dark as heard on the news that a major electricity source was just destroyed and that we'd have to be without power until they could reaccess it in the morning.  (continued)