pieces and ponderings

I have a series of text messages on my phone from April 27, 2011, around 4:43 in the afternoon.  The messages are from my firstborn, child number 1.  I remember hearing a weather report and thought that maybe I should contact him to see where he was in his college town because the weather was becoming rather stormy.

He let me know that he was safe in the University of Alabama’s Recreation Center, where he works.  In fact, his job that day involved sending tweets…giving weather updates on the approaching storm.

He told me that I could follow him on twitter as he posted updates of what was happening there in Tuscaloosa…so that’s what I did.  I weathered the storm with my son via modern communication devices.  We knew that a tornado had hit the area…we had no idea just how severe a storm it had been…nor of the incredible damage and destruction that had occurred in just a few minutes.

I was on the phone with child number 1 soon after the tornado had passed through the city.  He was heading out of the Rec. when he asked me to hold on a moment.  A man was entering the Rec. center.  He was from a nearby neighborhood.  He was asking my son for help.

“Mom, the guy looked like he had been in a war,” my son told me, as he headed back inside the Recreation Center to see if he could help in any way.  Soon we would begin realizing the horrible toll that the storm had taken.

The University’s Recreation Center would be transformed that afternoon/evening into a shelter for many of the victims of the destructive storm.  The night passed into day and people rallied to help in whatever way they could.  Classes at the University were cancelled as the devastation to the city was beginning to be realized.

The tornado had been an EF5, the rating assigned to tornados with wind speeds of more that 200 mph.  The supercell that produced the tornado lasted 7 hours and 24 minutes, covering around 380 miles.

Many people lost their lives in the path of this storm.  Many lost their homes or workplaces.

The spring semester ended that day.  No more classes would be held.  Graduation would be postponed.

Tomorrow my family will be in Tuscaloosa for commencement.  Those who didn’t walk in their graduation ceremony in May will walk tomorrow.  My son’s diploma already hangs on his bedroom wall here at home, but tomorrow we will celebrate his hard work during the last four years…and we’ll remember those who lost their lives, their homes, their businesses…but not their hope.