Monday/today began with the weather alert radio sounding off at about 3:00 am — the western/central area of the state was getting hammered by hard weather. I knew it was expected to pass near Birmingham, but I went back to bed and tried to sleep, to no avail. Dave was still sleeping; I saw no reason to wake him at that point.
I shut down my computer in the office, got a few things moved to Q-hut/kitchen, and crawled back under the covers…tossed turned, and eventually heard thunder nearby.
Did not know for sure what time is was; then the alert radio went off again. The area affected was toward the Mississippi border, closing in on Tuscaloosa County. Still the activity was on the other side of the state. Checked the radar on my ,laptop, went back to the covers,
Next noise heard was the weather sirens going off.
Crawled from under the cover, grab a quilt and pillow, turn the weather radio on, heard that areas near Pell City/Ragland were being warned to seek a safe place. Two areas of tornado activity were being watched.
James Spann was warning folks in these two storm paths to seek safety…I woke Dave.
When he got into the kitchen there were already reports of serious damage near Birmingham.
That storm was heading toward Ragland, and areas east of there — we watched/listened as James Spann tracked the circulation in the storm across HWY 431, along HWY 204.. by then the danger was lessening, when the weather service let the warning(s) expire we felt like we should try to get some much needed sleep.
We had stayed in the kitchen for what seemed liked several hours, until the storm were clear — then crawled back to bed.
[am exhausted, will continue this post after a nap, Dave and I are fine...more later] — CAA.
[Continued]
The rest of that day dragged…I did not get much done, other than checking/answering messages on the computer. I was exhausted.
I did call Mom that evening. She said she was fine, and that the lights had not even flickered during the bad weather. The closest damage to her, she knew of was somewhere around Childersburg. [On the other side of the Coosa River.]
So, for our ‘folks’ we were ALL very lucky and the storms did not hit us. If you wish to know what else has been happening — in general, stay tuned. I will do my best to post here often.
– Cathy Ann Abernathy [weavercat@gmail.com]
http://brothersbandfamily.wordpress.com