100 Hours

April 27, 2011.  To most Alabamians, that date makes their stomachs have that sinking feeling for just a minute.  To several, it will bring tears to their eyes.  But for me, I remember with a certain fondness what we came to call “Survivor Madison”.  We were lucky, REALLY lucky.  Actually, we were really blessed.  I do not intend to disregard the severity of the storms that day, nor the negative effect that the storms had for days and months afterwards.  My intention is to share a different experience.

  APRIL 27

After multiple trips to the storm shelter at work resulting in little accomplishment by early afternoon, I decided to go home between storms.  We had heard rumored reports of damage by this time.  Schools were dismissing early. Businesses were closing.  I set up my command post in the downstairs bathroom – laptop, cell phone, land line phone, backup hard drive, pillow, and quilt – and called for the one cat that was not cowering under a bed.  I received a call from my sister-in-law that their power was out and part of their neighbor’s fence had blown into one of their AC units and moved it off its foundation.  I told her that they could stay with us and that their dog could stay in our backyard.   Less than an hour later, the storm came through that destroyed the high voltage distribution towers, and we too were without power.  Loss of power was something that I had to deal with multiple times as a child growing up in rural Tennessee, so it is not a big deal to me.  I began gathering items – flashlights, kerosene lamp, portable radio, candles – for what I thought would be one evening without power. We went to bed sad for those who had lost homes and loved ones, but thankful that we were all unharmed and together.

APRIL 28

We awoke to a beautiful Thursday morning to discover that the power outage was more widespread than we originally thought.  We also learned the severity of the damage, and that it would be several days before power would be restored our little corner of the world.  My husband spent the day on the roof of a co-worker’s house repairing damage and getting quite the sunburn.   With a freezer full of home-grown beef in the garage, I realized that we were going to have to find a generator, get the grill fired up, or transport a lot of cow to Tennessee.   After many attempts at phone calls to my in-laws, we finally connected and they agreed to bring us a generator the next morning, since they would not be able to arrive before evening curfew.  (Yes, a curfew was instated due to looting in some neighborhoods.) With this particular burden lifted, my sister-in-law and I started making our game plan for meals for the next several days for the combined family staying at our home now.  We joked with my niece and nephew about how we were living like the first century church, in that we “had all things in common” and that we were “going from house to house”, since we were sleeping and eating at our house and showering at their house.  Our only means of contact with others were texting and facebook posts.  We were even carrying my husband’s old Garfield phone with us from house to house, as it was an old-school corded model.   

 Thursday evening we received word via facebook that a group was meeting on Friday at the home of one of our church members to salvage what belongings had survived the hit to their home. 

APRIL 29

Friday morning my niece cooked breakfast on the camp stove on the patio, and my in-laws arrived bright and early with the generator and several cans of gas.  Hurray! They also brought along some fresh fruit and other food items.  We then headed out for our day of work. 

I was not prepared for the devastation I saw on our way to the Anderson Hills subdivision.  I have seen tornado aftermath since I was 6 years old, but this was different. These were not random homes hit here and there.  These were complete neighborhoods. I tried picturing some houses as I had seen them last, since now there was only a foundation.  My first thought was “war zone”.  We worked into the mid-afternoon carrying items to either a “keep” pile or “pitch” pile.  The highlight of the day was when we were able to back the oldest son’s pick-up out of the collapsed garage and crank it up.  It would have made a great commercial for Toyota.  My brother-in-law arrived from his business trip to DC that afternoon and was given the task of moving their cold items to our place and starting dinner.  We learned that you can really grill anything – french fries and snap peas included.  The evening ended with the kids playing board games and the adults sitting on the patio talking until it got dark.  We felt like we were living in an episode of “The Waltons”.

APRIL 30

Saturday morning we went to our church to help unload and sort a load of relief items that had been sent from a congregation in Montgomery.  Then groups went out into the county to distribute the goods in neighborhoods and to cook for those working near the Monrovia Community Center.  We were glad to hear that we were going to have service the next day.  

MAY 1

The worship service on Sunday was great.  Our minister talked about how it was important to first take care of your family, then your church family, and then your community in situations like we were going through.  The singing was joyous and thankful.  We prayed for those who had lost homes and worse, lost family members.

Afterwards, we split into groups and went in search of those who needed help with clean up.  It was becoming difficult to go into some neighborhoods unless you were registered and had a wrist band.  However, we went to the East Limestone area and helped one of our church families with cutting up trees and making brush piles.  That was the day that I truly realized what it meant to come together as a community.  We had a group come by and hand out water bottles and Gatorade.  We had another group that was giving away hotdogs.  We even had a Dominos pizza employee walk up and give us at least 5 pizzas.

I received a text from my engineering lead that evening asking if I could come to work the next day.  I said that I would be there, wondering how much longer our home would be without power. We had been seeing some street lights on here and there in Madison throughout the day and were very hopeful we would be next.   We all went to bed that night with that good kind of tired and thankful again for a hot shower and soft bed.  Around 10:00pm that all changed.  The house came alive!  Lights came on, appliances started beeping, the printer popped, and the electric litter boxes cycled.   We had POWER!   We quickly ran through the house closing windows and turning off lights.  We woke the rest of the family and had a happy dance. I looked at my watch. 100 hours.  It was only 100 hours.  100 hours of focus on something other than the world.  It made me wonder if we really have it any better than our ancestors.