"A dark & stormy night" has a new meaning

Let me begin by saying that we were extremely fortunate last night. Our house had no damage, nor did my car, or even my plants outside. Our garbage cans were blown over, but that was it. I know how lucky we were at our house.

The storms that moved through the South last night were terrible. The devastation in Alabama is just heartbreaking! I see the coverage and realize how blessed we were last night to be spared. Sure, we were nervous and frightened and anxious, but today we are ALIVE. We have electricity, we could cook our meals and take showers. Our home is intact, we are all safe.

Driving to work today I could see signs of the storm. There were many tornadoes in the area; one is suspected to have touched down near Sophie's babysitter's house.  This morning, one lane of a road on the way to her house was closed because of flooding. I could see where other sections of the road had been flooded. I couldn't stop in traffic to take pictures, but some areas were pretty bad.

My husband has been away all week. I was worried about being alone with the girls in case of an emergency, he was worried about being a couple states away from us while it was going on. Emma spoke with her best friend during a break in the storm, and learned the hail had broken a window of their house. But they were all ok. That is the important part - everyone we talked to is ok.

When the second wave of storm cells hit (instead of one big storm, there were several small, fast-moving supercells, one after the other), Emma started gathering an emergency kit. She had blankets, books, her Nintendo DS, nail polish. I took the chance to teach her what to gather in case of tornado, and to put it in the bathroom in the center of the house. She loaded it up with diapers for Sophie, wipes, and ointment, our purses and the diaper bag, insulin and a needle for the cat, cat food and dog food, a Bible, and a framed picture of her Daddy.

Since we were more concerned about staying safe in the storm (and I was wondering why our town does not have tornado sirens?) I did not think to take pictures during the storm itself. Thankfully, many others did. I leave you with some of those pictures.

(All photos taken from either knoxnews.com or wate.com)

This was a house, in the town where I grew up and my parents still live. It was blown ACROSS the road.

Hail

This is part of an Alabama phone book, storm debris found in East Tennessee

This intersection leads to a hospital. Scary thought.

Near the same area.

One of the storm cells

Hail! It's a miracle my car was not damaged at all.

Great picture of downtown Knoxville

I've read many tales like this on Facebook and Twitter today.

Here is an article from the Knoxville News Sentinel about last night's storms. Both the town where I grew up and where I now live are mentioned by name. Oddly enough, in 1993 we had a storm move through and tornadoes hit both towns then, too.