K woke me up on Wednesday, April 27, at 5 am and said, "Mom! It's so scary outside! It's crazy weather!" I groggily asked if she wanted to get in bed with me. She said no, so I told her to go back to bed. What was there to worry about? Straight line winds and rainstorms. When we awoke, power was out and I knew schools were closed, and I'd worked til 6 the day before, so I went into work late. Several people worked from home. I went home at lunch because my power was back and I wanted to be with the kids; weather forecasters were saying the tornado threat looked bad. "Highest level of tornadic activity" is what I heard. OK, got it. We'll get downstairs. No need to panic.
Found out M had to go babysit a friend's child because the University wasn't closed. The mother was taking clases. I felt unsure about that, and thought about calling to tell the mom we were going to cancel and she needed to stay home. But, I thought, it would be fine, at least M was with a kid and providing support. She's 18, she needs to learn about these situations. No big deal. Then my power blinked again. Decided to go into work since I had a big demo for a billing system, which is my specialty. So I dropped K at our friend Beth's and went in to the office. James Spann was on all afternoon while I got ready and got my script for the demo ready. Again, no big deal; I knew people were leaving but I was planning on leaving right at 4:30.
We started 20 min late and I got nervous, I really needed to leave on time to try to be with one of my children. M called me during that time and said she was heading home, that someone had come to take care of the child she was sitting. I told her to go to Beth's, which she did straightaway. I really did the demo on autopilot, and I went as quickly as I could, explaining that I needed to leave right at 4:30. And at 4:30, the other VP on the call said, "P needs to leave." The other VP was already at home. Easy beasy, right? I saw a few people were still at the office, and one of them confirmed that I had time to get home. So I left for Beth's, we went to the basement, and camped out. I beat it by about 15 minutes.
And then I really watched TV. We watched James Spann announce a twister on the ground of Tuscaloosa. And we saw it. My mouth dropped open. It was huge. I looked over at M, and she knew, too. It was so large, a mile across, they said. It was a "black monster" surrounded by debris balls. And I realized...the debris balls were cars, houses, businesses, and possibly people. I couldn't take it in. It was near the hospital. And within 10 minutes, it was over. We lost power briefly but it came back on; but cable was off partway through the storm, so we'd gotten the weather radio out. I'd left my phone at work, and so M called Mom and Dad, texted several friends, and we found they were ok. I went back to work and got my phone. Lights were out at several intersections, but I knew downtown was ok. That was it.
Two hours later...found out M's friend's dad had died in the storm. I found out that 15th street was not so hot. I was devastated.
I didn't know how bad 15th was until the next day when I went in to the office...Hobby Lobby, Milo's, Krispy Kreme - all gone. My coworker's Sheila's house was obliterated, which was on Crescent Ridge Road, and she made it out by the skin of her teeth. Her neighbor didn't. My coworker's Jennings' apartment, which was on 15th Street. Found out Forest Lake had a lot of damage. 25 deaths. I couldn't concentrate and I left.
No comments:
Post a Comment