April 27, 2011

We woke up the morning of April 27th to the weather radio going off. It was almost 6 am, so I told Clay to turn on the TV to see what was going on. As soon as we turned on the TV, we heard our local weatherman saying that the storm would be hitting our city in 3-5 minutes. Clay and I got out of bed to check things out. Clay went to the window in our office and immediately saw things were probably about to get bad. He told me to go get Will up and then not two seconds later he told me to get in my closet (our safe place). It was so weird. The wind was blowing so hard and we could hear tress falling all over the place. I was so scared, but it really was over in the matter of a few minutes.

We thought things were okay, until we looked out our windows and saw that there was a lot of damage on our street. Trees were down everywhere!! Clay went outside to check to make sure our house wasn’t damaged. We were so lucky but our neighbors weren’t. There are so many houses with trees on them and many houses have damage that may not be able to be repaired.

Looking out our front door.

Once we figured out that things were probably worse than we thought, we headed out to go to my parent’s to get a generator. We couldn’t even get to my parent’s house because of all the trees that were on the road. We turned back and went a checked on Kristen’s parent’s house. They had a tree on their front porch. They were also very lucky. From their house, we went to our church and saw that our steeple had blown off and the roof had some damage. We tried getting in touch with our preacher, but we couldn’t so then we started calling Ashley. When we got a hold of her, she wanted us to come get her right away. Her apartment complex was very damaged and she couldn’t get her car out.

Our church steeple.

Front of our church office building.

Ashley's apartment complex. (Not her apartment)

We spent the rest of the day surveying the damage and helping out where we could. About midday, we found out that Robby and Robbin had severe damage at their house. Their home is completely destroyed! The storm was so bad at their house that Robbin was even picked up by the wind at one point and slammed into her mantel, and then the couch fell on top of her. She has some broken/bruised ribs and had to have stitches in her hip. They are so lucky to be alive and we are so thankful that God kept them safe.

The side of Robby and Robbin's House.

Robby and Robbin's living room.

Their office on the second floor.

That afternoon, we hung around the house waiting for the second round of storms. Thankfully nothing too bad came through our area, but other parts of the state were devastated!! Places like Tuscaloosa are completely destroyed!

Again, we are so lucky and we praise God for keeping our friends and family safe. My prayer is through all of this, God will be glorified. Please continue to pray for the state of Alabama, all those who were affected by these storms, and all the people who are helping to rebuild in these areas.

He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. Luke 8:24

More pictures HERE.