BOL Round Table

Welcome to the addiction. I went down a week or so after and brought goods and checked on friends I still had at Alabama. It was really hard for me to see all the damage to a place I call home.

I'm a student and I was on campus that day. I knew the weather was going to be severe, but no one knew how severe. Earlier in the day it was a picturesque spring atmosphere. When the tornadoes were actually destroying the city, I was in my dorm. The alarms were going off telling the residents to go downstairs, but I kind of brushed it off thinking no real harm would come our way. After all, it had happened a little more than a week earlier (tornado warnings) and no tornadoes happened on campus. Then a friend banged on my door and said that there were tornadoes headed towards campus, so I went downstairs. Everyone was crowded in the halls, either clinging for their life, or trying to get a peak at what was going on outside. From what I saw I could see rampant winds and debris flying through the air. I was in Lakeside West looking south towards Mallet and could see boxes and other debris more that 50 feet up in the air flying about. There was talk of a tornado raging through the Riverside parking lot but it was just a rumor. We knew it was pretty bad, but no one even had the slightest clue what was happening barely a mile away.

When it was mostly over, I made a mad dash to my truck to check on it. There were many limbs in the bed but it was perfectly fine. Still, no one really knew the extent of the damage. The power was out, and it seemed to me it wouldn't be coming back on for a while. Me and a friend hopped in my truck and went to Northport to stock up on dry goods, water, and fill up on gas. It was VERY smart to go to Northport because Publix on the strip was packed. We went to the Piggly Wiggly right across Lurleen Wallace and it was empty. Got back and it was pitch black in the dorms (except for the emergency lighting in the hallways). I ended up spending the night in the hallway with most of my floor, talking about the ordeal and drinking. It seemed everyone knew someone who was there and they got information about the scene. By word of mouth alone it seemed impossible at what they were describing. I simply thought they were overexaggerating; I had to see it for myself.

The next day, my neighbor and I trekked from our dorms to DCH. There were signs of wind damage on campus, but nothing sigificant. When we began walking towards 15th the damage started becoming more and more present. Once we crossed the train tracks, it was like we had stepped into another world. Had I not know where I was coming from, I would not have had the slightest clue where I was. I could not recognize anything. Where we popped out of was the intersection where Taco Casa and the 10-Minute Oil Change was. The Japanese Restaurant on that corner was completely leveled, and the oil change as well except for one hydraulic lift (which it how I recognized it). We just walked up and down the street completely in awe at the damage. It truly humbled me and made me appreciate everything I have.

God can give you everything you will ever want in this world, and in an instant it can be taken away.