Auntie Em Auntie Em!

david_h

so. . .has anyone heard From Eric? Any idea how he's doing?

Stinkie

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/04/tornadoes_kill_over_200.html

Dave R

I'm talking to him now. No power until Monday or Tuesday but he and his family are doing well. He's been helping out his neighbors with supplies and other stuff. He'll report in soon.

Rich O Brien

That's good news. Wish him well

Dave R

I told him everyone is concerned and that we were pulling for him.

Stinkie

Glad he's okay.

boofredlay

Thanks everyone for the thoughts and prayers.

I have been without internet or power since the storm hit. There were 312 estimated tornadoes which took the lives of more than 350 people. In my state of Alabama there were over 150 tornadoes alone killing 255 people.

One of the tornadoes touched down about 8 houses away from ours. Luckily our house was spared. The only thing we lost was our trampoline and a section of fence which I had fixed by the next morning. Our family was very lucky but others were not. My heart and prayers goes out to those suffering much more than I can imagine.

Our sister cities Huntsville and Madison have been slowly regaining power. The reason for the massive power outage was that the Tennessee Valley Authority lost every single transmission line leaving more than 600,000 without power. This however is only a minor inconvenience to those of us who have survived. Full power to the two cities is estimated to return in the middle of next week. Again I feel lucky we were only out of power for 4 and a half days.

I have some crappy pictures from my phone that I can post up soon. We just got power back this afternoon. I was surprised to see the internet up and working too. The linemen and everyone involved in getting us hooked back up are true heroes. But there is still much to do in the months ahead.

solo

Eric, great to see you back.

Phew!! now that was a blow-job.

Hope you get your life back to normal soon...next time sink the trampoline.

utiler

Me too, Eric, great to hear you're around again. Mother nature has been a bitch this season...

Take care of yourself and the family....

boofredlay

Thanks guys.
I am honestly glad to see the tramp gone. What a hazard that has been.

Here are a couple of pictures I snapped with my phone driving to get gas and ice. This is one that went through Athens then onto north Madison then Huntsville. About a 70 mile path.
Highway 72 near Athens.
What used to be a house on the South side of Hwy 72.
This is just across the street on Hwy 72. The tower used to be a WAFF 48 Doppler Radar and a small business beside it.

Here are a couple pictures of the house which was a block away from our house. This house used to be in almost complete shade year round. Their backyard was worse.

Gaieus

Well, glad you are back and you and the family is safe.

Dave has been posting about your trampoline so we were not worrying toomuch for you but still nice to see you back.

d12dozr

Glad to hear from you, Eric

Alan Fraser

Welcome back, Eric. It's been pretty windy here the last few days, but those shots of yours puts my complaining about having to wash the car twice last week, because it immediately got covered in dust again, into some kind of perspective. Eight houses is a little too close for comfort.

boofredlay

Thanks again and yes, too close for comfort.
The one that hit our neighborhood was a small one. Were it any bigger I am positive we would not have fared as well.

Here are some photos of the TVA power line damage that has caused all the power outages.
These lines are only a few miles from my home.

boofredlay

A good friend of mine who is a photographer for the Huntsville times took these in the Carter's Gin community which is between our home and where I work.

's Gin 01.jpg

's Gin 02.jpg

's Gin 03.jpg

's Gin 04.jpg

ScottPara

Glad to hear you and your family are safe Eric. We were praying for you.

Scott

Stinkie

Whoa!

pilou

Terrifying!

Just a question: there is no Nuclear Plants on the path of all theses new tornadoes?

jeff hammond

@unknownuser said:

Terrifying!

Just a question: there is no Nuclear Plants on the path of all theses new tornadoes?

probably but i highly doubt a tornado -- even an f5 -- is going to take out a nuclear plant.

most buildings damaged in tornados are wooden framed (you don't see much crumbled brick houses in wind disaster pics )

mitcorb

Poorly reinforced brick veneer will peel away like paper. Some years ago, straight line winds came through and sucked the brick veneer off a local radio station. Two stories tall, pre-engineered metal building. The brick was on the leeward side of the building. Though I never went any closer than the street, the fact that the brick layer was still mostly intact as one plane on the ground told me that the dumbass who installed it did not use brick ties of any sort. The collapse narrowly missed their main satellite dish mounted on the ground next to the building.