April Tornadoes

Last Wednesday, April 27, my family and I were scheduled to leave for Chicago around 4pm. But, as you know, “the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” Here’s how my day really paned-out:

Early that morning, there was a horrible storm that hit the Vestavia/Cahaba Heights area. We’re talking whole trees uprooted and splitting homes in half. As if that wasn’t bad enough, everyone was predicting that the storm scheduled for that evening (some reports saying as early as 4pm) would be even worse.

I was a nervous wreck! I left work at 11:30 and convinced my parents to leave for the airport at 1:30. Yes, EXTREMELY early for the flight, but I figured it was better to be at the airport for a few hours than in the car when the storm hit…Mistake! Our flight was delayed as a result of the first batch of storms, with our new departure time being 5:30. We were still patient until 5ish when we saw Tuscaloosa on the news..

http://www.myfoxal.com/

A little after 5, Tuscaloosa had a tornado, over a mile wide, plow through their downtown areas. The news reports were very clear that the same storm event was headed to Birmingham. No one gave any indication that there was a plan in place at the airport for severe weather. My mom even asked someone what the plan was; they said we would just go to one of the bathrooms “or something…”. Then, about 15 mins before it’ll pass over us, airport security demanded that everyone in the Birmingham airport retreat to the bottom level bathrooms. The news must have been telling everyone in Birmingham that the storm would pass right over the airport, cause my phone was blowing-up with calls and sweet messages from friends. At that point, I wasn’t too scared, but I should have been. Some parts of the storm did pass right over us, but luckily no tornadoes touched ground around the airport.

When they finally let us leave the bathrooms and return to our terminals, it was a mad dash to go back through security...only to realize that the Birmingham airport pretty much shuts down at 8pm. We made a dinner of chips, pretzels, candy, and beer. Around 9, the Sam Adams restaurant in the airport finally sold us sandwiches. And around 10pm, we finally left the Birmingham Airport for Chicago.

It was bittersweet leaving behind my work responsibilities and the devastation following the storm. My coworkers put in 16 hour days to restore power to 99% of Alabamians within a week (not including those who can no longer receive power). I’m so proud to be an employee of Alabama Power right now. So, SO proud!

My heart goes out to everyone who lost homes, treasured possessions, and, most importantly, human lives.