Devastating Weather..

Yesterday, we were in the midst of the worst weather I have witnessed in my town since I've been alive. I knew the weather that had been predicted, which was severe thunderstorms and tornado watches, but when we left church last night the skies didn't look bad at all. However, it didn't take long for the storms to plow in. We kept watching the weather and it was one of those moments where we thought well, should we really go to the basement? We've had weather warnings in the years past but nothing usually hits here because the mountains break it up. But it looked and sounded pretty serious so 8 of us, and two dogs, went to my parents' basement and in the laundry room (not a very large room at all!) At first we felt kinda silly, all cramped up in this room but we had the tv on pretty loud upstairs so we could hear and after only about an hour in, there had been 135 tornadoes and the bands of storms simply kept coming. So I started messaging my friends and family to make sure everyone was ok and everyone else were also in their basements. I also have a cousin at the University of Alabama and Tuscaloosa got hit extremely hard, so hard that the school has let students go on home without taking finals! We did hear my cousin was ok which was good news! But then we heard from my mom's friend who lives about 25min or so from us and they were in her basement with what they thought to be a tornado right outside. It then was about 10 min before we heard from her again and that made everything become very real. Once we did hear from her, they had come out to find their house to be ok but neighbors homes absolutely destroyed.

So we spent almost 4 hours in the basement before the storms finally weakened. Today we are safe and sound but others were not so lucky. We drove out today to see some of the damage and I am so very thankful to first and foremost be alive and also to have no damage to the house. These storms swept through the entire southeast leaving behind great loss and devastation. And the scary thing is, it could have very easily been me or someone close to me. Here are a few photos of the damage all around us...

This was the worst area we saw. There was once a house here and now no more. Luckliy, the lady living here had gone to a friend's house and is safe but her home is scattered all over these fields. 

Half the garage wall is gone here...

Trees were down everywhere! Many were even completely uprooted...

The roof was blown off here as were many other homes in this neighborhood. 

The siding was blown off here. 

And here it was blown completely off as well as the gutters along the eves of the house. 

This looked like it was once a strorage building, the remains are scattered all over the yard. 

Please pray for those who suffered loss with these terrible storms...