April 27th, 2011. Our story.

One year ago... Has it really been that long? I remember parts of that day so vividly, it's like it was yesterday.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011.
I woke up around 5am to the tornado sirens. I immediately turned on the tv to see what area needed to take cover. Arab. Relief washed over me, but at the same time, I had several friends that I went to nursing school with that live in Arab. I said a prayer for them all as I watched the tornado on the radar, and decided that if this was a sign of how my day was going to go, I was keeping Amberleigh home. Later that morning, I woke up to winds so strong, that we got in the closet and I thought the roof was gonna peel back. No tornado on the ground, but it was scary, just the same.
I am scared sick of tornadoes. I always have been, and I imagine I always will be. My husband was not. He takes on life with the mentality of being invincible. I was about 2 1/2 months pregnant, and against my better judgement, I was nervous & worried about everything. I was worried about my baby, I was worried about my daughter, I was worried about my husband who had to work later that day. I was even worried about our dogs who are big & outside & would definitely not fit in the closet with us. We have one closet in our house that I deem "safe enough" during bad weather, and I don't even feel all that safe in it. It is in Amberleigh's room & is full of her stuff. Other than cleaning out the closet & packing it with blankets and pillows, I was glued to the tv. I watched the radars & news stations on every channel I could find. I watched as cameras caught tornadoes moving through Huntsville & I knew my mama was at work on the arsenal. I knew Caleigh was at work in Huntsville & my husband would soon be riding with her husband to work. I knew Jacob's aunts both live in Madison & Huntsville. I knew Josh & Michelle lived in Harvest. All of these places were under warnings with tornadoes overhead or on the ground. I had Facebook pulled up and I think I added every meteorologist in North Alabama. I saw where a friend from Arab was in her grandmas house and it was hit, and that her roof on her trailer was torn off, all from the early morning tornado. I thanked God for their safety.
2pm rolled around & I dreaded it. Jacob got ready for work. I begged him almost to the point of tears to keep him home, but he just kept saying nothing would happen, he would be fine. As he & Preston were driving over the TN river, he took a picture of an ugly, eerie looking wall cloud that obviously scared the mess out of me, & I just kept telling him come home. But since he is invincible, he didn't listen. Now, mama was leaving work early. I needed her to safely get home from Huntsville, so I did what I could to tell her where bad weather was. By the airport, at I-65/I-565, then again between Priceville & Hartselle. She had to pull over several times because of hail or strong winds or rain so heavy she couldn't see to drive. By the grace of God, she made it home, but now, one of my worst fears. There was a tornado on the ground in Cullman, headed for Falkville. I got Amberleigh in the closet, made her put on her helmet, wrap up in a comforter, and get under her desk. I turned the weather on in her room, and got in the closet. I remember being scared to death, hearing the weatherman say Falkville and maybe 10 minutes? and worrying that my parents needed to be in their basement. I prayed for our safety, I prayed for the safety of everyone in Cullman, I just prayed. As the tornado changed direction, I was flooded with relief... then heard Eva. I immediately thought of our friends and family who live in or around there. My aunt, my cousins, our friends the Bakers. I prayed for them and their safety. Luckily, the tornado didn't go far enough in that direction, but what happened to Cullman and the places that were hit?
Our power went out not too long after all of that, and my car radio doesn't work due to a broken antenna. I knew that if my power was out, my parents wouldn't have power either, but at least they had radios in their cars. I piled Amberleigh up and we went the 3 blocks over to their house. We sat outside in the yard with the radio turned up in the car, and the neighbors across the street did the same. My husband works in Decatur and I had seen some radar images that were in Huntsville that were too close to him for my comfort, but you can imagine my fear when I heard "Decatur, take cover." I texted him but he didn't answer. Again, "Decatur, take cover." Can you say worried?? This was around 4pm. I finally heard from him about 4:15, and what he had to say didn't make me feel ANY better. He told me they were hit, and that the roof was on the road beside the building, that they were in a bathroom (9 people), to let Caleigh know that Preston was ok, but that he had to go. OK. They were ok. Then again I heard "Decatur, take cover." Really? I heard that at least 5 more times, I swear. The whole time, my mom was doing what she could to keep me calm. Amberleigh was in the house with her granddaddy, which was perfectly fine with me. Every once in a while, she would come outside to make sure there were no tornadoes coming towards us, then she'd go back in. I was so nervous that my nerves were gonna hurt my baby. Then I was worrying about what if this baby & Amberleigh lost their dad. I tried to keep calm, and I was flooded with relief when Jacob called me back to tell me they were coming home. He said there was another tornado, and they had to run the length of the building to get to the office, but that it changed direction and didn't hit them. I thank God for the men watching the weather at the plant that told those guys to take cover. They had enough time to where Jacob took a picture of the tornado before it hit them.

I remember I talked to Caleigh and her asking me if I saw the pictures of the building that Jacob had taken. I hadn't. She told me don't look at them because I wouldn't wanna see them, and I'm glad that I didn't look at them until after he was home. Seeing his car pull up at my parents house was the best sight I had seen in so long. I didn't know what to say to him, I was afraid I was gonna start crying and not be able to stop (it didn't help that my pregnancy hormones made me super emotional anyways). I hugged him and didn't wanna let go. He started showing us pictures of the building and it made me sick to my stomach. (These are pictures I took of the building. Some are blurry. I apologize.)

The back corner of the building where they were in the bathroom, plus the side of the building.

This is the back corner of the building, where the bathroom is that they were all in. Thank God for those walls.

The West side of the building. The back, where the wall is straight, is where the bathroom was.

Blurry, but this is looking into the middle of the building from the front.

Jacob, while he and Preston were looking at the bolts that were stretched and torn in half.

After a little while, we went to Jacob's moms house and spent some time in the candle light with his mom and sister. The drive to their house was something I will never forget. Everything was black. No lights anywhere. No traffic lights, almost no cars, no visible moon. It was almost scary. I had gotten texts & phone calls from family, asking were we ok & letting us know they were ok, but I couldn't return them because my phone service was so bad. Our power was off at the house, so we came home and sat in the car, listening to Jacob's radio, hearing reports of damage & tornadic activity that was still happening. After things started slowing down, we decided we had better just go inside and head to bed, thanking God for sparing us, our family, our friends. We got out of our car to head inside and it was so strange. On our little street in our small town, there is a street light right across from our house, and we are a short block away from the highway where there is a caution light that is always blinking red. There are normally porch lights on, including ours, lighting the houses across from our house... cars usually driving down the highway... a gas station with the lights over the pumps that you can see glowing a couple streets over. That night, there was nothing. The dogs weren't even barking. We had to use cell phones to come in the house and find candles and matches. The darkness was so still that I had trouble sleeping.
It wasn't until a couple days later that we even knew the real extent of the damage. We got power back late the next day because we live a block over from a nursing home (it took MUCH longer in some places). But getting gas was almost impossible. If you found a gas station that had power and gas, you had to wait for hours in line. We got lucky and found a gas station one night that had just opened back up and there was no line. The next morning, it was just like the rest. Full with long lines. We opted to only use one car. I had luckily gotten gas 2 days before the tornadoes hit, so I had almost a full tank.
The next Monday, we drove by and saw the plant. My heart was so heavy, I wanted to cry just looking at the building. Just seeing the parts of the building that were still standing compared to the parts that were literally torn to shreds was almost too much to take in. Then they found out their opportunities for remaining employed. Jacob opted to go to the Chicago plant to work, so in June, he left us and headed north. With opportunities to return home every other weekend & holidays, he spent 8 months working 650 miles away from us. We spent a lot of the summer there, but he also missed a lot of my pregnancy, our first wedding anniversary, stuff with Amberleigh & school, and Asher's first few months (except the 3 weeks he was home). He has been home since February and we are just getting back into a normal routine.
We didn't lose anyone or anything. Even though the college took a hit, I still graduated from Nursing school less than a month later. Amberleigh went back to a school that was thankfully still standing. But there SO many other people that were not so lucky. Hundreds of people died. People lost friends, family members, children, parents, pets..... They lost their homes, vehicles, had so much damage to repair.... I cannot think about that day without remembering that my husband and our friends could have just as easily been in another part of that building or that tornado could have been just a few hundred feet to the left, and I don't want to know what would have happened. My kids still have their dad.
We were some of the lucky ones.