Checking in: hard times in Alabama
Apr. 29th, 2011 03:06 pmNeither my place or my parents' even lost power, but the outlying metro Birmingham area and poorer nearby towns were hit hard. About two hundred people have died in Alabama, and pictures resemble destruction from someplace like Afghanistan or Iraq. As for my family, we watched the TV nervously and eyed the "storm shelter" (hallway closet) as the bad weather quickly passed from our area. My cat, Beowulf, kept trying to get outside (he has no sense), but we made sure he stayed in until the storm passed in about forty-five minutes.
Historically, tornadoes miss my neighborhood because we're in a hilly area, and they tend to break up. So I wasn't too worried, but I kept a watchful ear for the television broadcast while this was happening. Apparently these were tornadoes of epic, historic, even mythic proportions. My friend Melissa said the one hovering over Tuscaloosa didn't even look real, but animated, it was so perfect. The strangest news footage came from someone in a car with a mounted camera who was apparently chasing a tornado on the I-65 highway to provide pictures. That seems to be the definition of "suicidal" to me.
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