glad things turned out good for your family.

 

Glad you are ok.

 

Wow...simply wow! glad your family is safe and hopefully back to normal sooner than later. good info about the radio too. Please continue to keep us posted.

 

I will post pictures later. We have had a new phrase come out of this thing...CHAINSAW HERO! I hear chainsaws day and sometimes at night. Helicopters flying overhead is a constant thing. Seeing the military everywhere. I have so many thoughts I want to add but I am too tired to think. Please excuse the typos, like I said, Im so tired! My youngest son and I have been working 10 hour days in the recovery effort. ( we homeschool) School is almost out so he is getting some hands on life experiences.

 

wow. glad you made it thru. love to hear how people just got down to work and helping each other out. almost enough to give me a bit of hope for the future.

 

Glad to hear you all are ok.

 

Thanks for sharing. I echo you on having a radio. I was desperate for information following the '94 earthquake.

I've been lax about gassing up when I hit a half a tank. I'm going to be better about that from here on out.

 

God bless! I'm not all that far down the road from you, so there but for the grace of God . . . . keep us posted.

 

Reminds me of living through the Columbus Day storm in Oregon, except that it lasted for hours and I was only 8 years old.

We all moved to the basement of my grandparents house across the road. My uncle kept going upstairs to check on the damage (the house was brick, but the roof did sustain some damage).

Our barn was knocked off its foundation and tilted. We lost the building covering our well (a large building with a windmill on top - it was old, from the late 1800s) and we lost a lot of trees (we had orchards) with some damage to roofs of various buildings - but we were lucky - a lot of people suffered much worse damage. Our local school was shut down for a while.

I remember my dad spending the better part of a day getting into town on the roads blocked by trees, so he could buy a chain saw. We were without power for a while (I don't remember how long - that was almost 50 years ago). I do remember trees being everywhere.

Cyclones are not as intensive, but the damage is more widespread.

A basement or something like it underground is a good thing to have.

 

thanks for sharing your experience. I am glad you and your family survived it.

 

I'm very happy to hear that you and yours are fine. Please keep us updated if you can.

 

Thanks for the information-please stay safe!

 

I'm so glad you're ok! Many, many prayers for all who are involved. It's going to take a long time to get everything back to normal.

 

I am very glad you shared your experiences. Being from Texas, tornadoes are something I consider ofter. I'm sorry to hear of the loss of your friend, and the disruption these storms brought to you and yours. I am glad you all are alright otherwise. You post got me thinking about a "tornado cache". Candles, matches, batteries, a radio or two,ect. Being underground, it could survive if everything else were blown away. Thank you for sharing. TP

 

It is just not Texas or the midwest/etc. that have windstorms. While 1962 was kind of a freak thing, we have wind storms every winter that blow down trees. Sometimes they are pretty severe, sometimes not so much, but it is something to consider, especially in coastal regions and where you have tall trees. I lost a very tall tree in my yard a few years back, but fortunately it didn't fall on the house, it fell away from it.

I think in a number of common scenarios, if your land can support it (water table, rocks, etc.), then a basement, storm shelter, or other underground shelter can be a good thing for a lot of preppers, not just those at risk for tornados.

 

Good to see that you made it through, and it's always a good idea to learn from the disaster.

I can't imagine how scary it was. I remember seeing the monster tornatoes on TV and even one website showed them forming from shots from the space station!...

 

What a harrowing experience. Glad you, your family and home are safe. I've never been in a situation like that....and pray my family and I never are.
Sorry for the loss of your friend....her family is in my prayers, along with you and all those affected by this tradgedy.

 

The emotional drain can be much more than the physical drain. With the loss of lives, property, income, it takes its toll. It makes a person thankful that the family is alive. I'm glad churches, Red Cross, Samaritans Purse and others are there to help.
Thanks for sharing. It helps us away from that area to hear what has happened first hand. How many lives were lost in your county?

 

The emotional drain can be much more than the physical drain.

This is so very true, having been in two hurricanes (Camille & Katrina) I can tell you that at some level the fear never really goes away. Most of the people I know around here are permanently "storm-phobic"

 

Thanks everyone, for posting replies. It was so weird. I had never been more fearful in my whole life. But it was beyond just being afraid for my life. I really didn't think I was going to die. I kinda figured the house I was in might get hit and things might start falling on us. We were at the bottom of large hill, plus partly underground. Thats why I couldn't see any initial damage when we first went outside. Obviously if we would have been hit head on we might have been severely injured or sucked up into the tornado (many people were) or had to be dug out of the debris. But at the time, I wasn't thinking of dying. Oh don't get me wrong, I was terrified, but if you have seen the video clips of how big that thing was, and we saw it on tv, knowing it was where many people were, knowing it was causing massive destruction and death, I don't know, I can't explain it. I wasn't thinking of, oh my god Im gonna die, I was consumed with fear over what it was doing in general, and where my grown children were and people were still driving around on the cli[p (idiots). I was just terrified beyond words. I knew it was changing many lives.

Because we didn't have tv or internet, our main source of info was the radio station that I already mentioned and word of mouth. I found out that over half the stuff I heard "word of mouth" was not true. Examples: The mall was gone- not true, the bank on the corner of the mall had damage but not the mall. They found 30 + bodies in a small lake-not true, they had cadaver dogs there but they didn't find anyone. They found bodies on top of the mall-not true. 30+ (that number came up alot) people died in Chuckie Cheese and all of the children were not accounted for-false, Chuckie cheese closed at 4 bc of the weather. All sorts of rumors, even that the hospital was destroyed. Because I didn't go "to town" for over a week, I really didn't know what was true and what was not, bc also I had no way to look at pictures or videos.

I was really surprised at my own reaction to everything. I had always prided myself on the one who was always prepared, always had answers, always was the strong one. The one who could figure out what needed to be done and figure out ways to get it
done. Of course we were prepared as far as we had lanterns and a way to cook and stuff, but I was so overcome with grief that I couldn't function. Not just the loss of our friend, that was bad enough because I couldn't get the picture out of my head. She was a very smart lady and we didn't know why she stayed. Apparently they didn't realize how close it was. Her husband had left to go buy supplies in case the power wnt out. He asked herto go with him. She was afraid of getting stuck somewhere. They were saying a line of storms so it may have gone on for hours. She told him to go on, she anted to be home. Someone calld her on the phone and told her it was headed straight for her and she should leave. She said she would get in the bathtub, and she would be ok. I can't imagine how terrifying her last moments were. Im not trying to sensationalize anything but they found most of her in one place and had to continue looking. Her poor husband, trying to rush home, the trees were all in the roads. He got out of his truck and groped his way in the dark for a mile and a half, only to get to his driveway and his trailer completely gone. he knew she hadn't left bc her car was still there. I just couldn't shake all of that. Plus all of the devastation and destruction I was hearing on the radio. Normally I would be one out there leading the way, trying to set up things to help people and stuff. We stayed home for several days just cutting trees off of our vehicles and sorting through things from the shed that was smashed or scattered. The roof to the shed was on the neighbors trailer, we helped his nephews remove that and trees and stuff onhis home. The neighbor was in the hospital at the time. A tree hit a water pipe in his yard and water gushed for 24 hours before we figured it out and turned it off. I was in a fog, we all were. We were all (hubby, 17 year old and 13 year old sons) snapping at each other and arguing. it was miserable. I just felt like I couldn't even function. Like I was walking around in a dream or rather a nightmare. It took me a few LONG days to start to pul myself up, plus I think I had "surviver's guilt". I couldn't believe how much damage other people had and ours was barely anything compared to that. When people would ask the qustion, "were you hit" or "how hard were you hit" I didn't even want to say. I felt stupid saying, "my underpinning blew away", when people lost everything they owned or lost loved ones. I live on a main road, even though it's in the country. Anyone heading to Tuscaloosa passes my house unless they get on the interstate. People started stopping by, people I hadn't seen in years. Everyone was out helping someone. People from local churches kept stopping by bringing food, cold drinks, ice, heck even a Little Ceasers Pizza stopped by and gave us free pizza. Everyone was helping someone. I was too depressed to think about helping anyone. I felt guilty taking stuff, because we didn't "lose" anything. it was a very strange experience and I couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. I actually snapped out of it Saturday night, so it was only from Wednesday to Saturday, but for me it was eternity. I'll tell more about snapping out of it and how involved I am in the recovery effort later.

 

a funny side note. My 13 year old David knew I had been reading and posting on here. He had heard my husband and me talking about SHTF senerios. The day after the tornado he asking us, is this SHTF? My husband said, yes, for us it is.

 

Sounds like the lady who got hit wasn't prepared. No good place to ride it out like you had, running off for last minute preps and so on.

I feel sorry for you losing your friend and so on, but there are lessons to be learned there.

I am glad you and your family survived without any more severe repercussions than losing a friend.

Have you thought about adding an underground storm shelter on your own property now?

 

Heretic if we owned our own property, we would definitely have a storm shelter and way more preps. Rented land. it sucks.

 

Yup. I don't own any land either.

If things go well over the next few years I may be able to buy some BOL land though. In which case I will slowly prepare it, mostly for my daughter and her husband.

They "own" their own house and land, but it is not suitable for a basement or underground shelter and it is on the edge of a metro suburban area, and it has a minimal plot, so not a very good BOL - although it is better than something close to the metro center and they are on the edge of a urban growth boundary so they have a jump on most of the people in the metro area if they have to bug out.

Personally I doubt that I or they will ever have to bug out, but I prefer the countryside anyway, so if I can, when I retire in a year or two or three, I will be looking at moving out into the local rural areas near them. If I can buy land at that point then it will become our BOL and sustainable farm/etc.

 

Honey, don't feel bad if you weren't/aren't able to help right away. The needs will still be there for a long, long time, and once the first rush of "help" dies down and you guys are forgotten by the media, your help will be needed as much or possibly worse. The man who lost his wife will need you a whole lot come Thanksgiving and Christmas.

 

I need to buy a battery-operated weather alert unit for my pack. I have AM/FM handcranked radios but nothing that activates from NWS. I was at Wal-Mart tonight but didn't have it on my magical list. I do have an alert feature on my cell phone from the county but it doesn't always kick in as I found out.

I would have gone to some Georgia towns near me the weekend of the storm but I had needs and found it necessary to coordinate with others. I wanted to help or sightsee on roads that weren't encumbered by traffic or debris. That twister was no joke.

I would say that if you volunteer, from what I hear, you will be humbled. Don't focus on whether or not someone prepped; it is too late for that. Help them. Don't fall for fakes trying to solicit money; go to safe charities like the Red Cross.

One more thing; if you see power lines across the road you generally should stay away from them. But how cautious should you be? Should you clear a road even if you see lines down or just get back several feet? I admire the chainsaw heroes for their work. The major chain saw makers should send some oil and parts to be handed out directly to the local governments in those areas.

 

Very sorry for the loss of your friend.

Thank God you had somewhere safe to go and that you and your family were not hurt or killed.

Stay safe, and I'm glad your area is getting much-needed help.

 

Thank G-d you and your family survived. We have 3 crank-powered radios and LED flashlights. 1 for the house and 1 for each of the car bobs. In an emergency where seconds count like you guys had. BOB's in your house and vehicles are the ultimate life meets death equalizer. Good luck and G-D bless you guys.