Well, I'm not dead yet.
However, we're evacuated a county away, there's no real ETA for our power to come back on, and the destruction throughout my hometown is unbelievable. Our home is OK, but most of my family's homes are damaged, there are miles and miles of lines down, and communities all around us are simply missing. The storms were bad enough to actually rip up stone from the ground-not just pick up trees and fling them.
I did get a lot of pics on my wife's phone, and this is actually not even the worst damage we saw-out of respect for the dead, I photographed no bodies, but they were certainly there. I'm headed out to donate blood right now (I have a rare subtype) and if you are in the US, PLEASE DONATE BLOOD, if you do nothing else.
We're in a hotel put up by Children's Hospital since Snort is on oxygen, and we got a FEMA minifridge, but we're scraping for food since we're letting others get the immediate aid-we have some snacky type foods, but my bank account is dangerously low. Tuesday, if we get the all clear, we can go home and start helping clean up.
So, we're safe, if tired and low on blood sugar. Also, Snort says snort.
Hard to tell it, but this is the remains of a brick gas station. Nothing is left.
Gas rationing-there are three filling station open in my entire county at this point.
This is the roof of my church. Last I checked, it was still on the ground and the pastor and the men of the church were at my great-grandmother's house getting the trees off it.
These are some pics of my family's property. Roughly a million in damage is what the insurance people say.
A beam from the roof of that brick building in the background went through that tree, shattering it. I have a 7' 6" armspan, I couldn't put my arms around it.
Across the street from my great-grandmother...
The front yard of my childhood home...
Our shed is completely wrecked on the interior-the beams splintered under the trees.
And this, I think illustrates how we feel about everything here.
I borrow 'net from wherever I can get it until everything is restored near the house. I can read this from the phone, and give limited replies, and I'll let everyone know when I can do better.
Luthien's mother is in Trinity here, just transferred out of MICU for acute renal failure, and Snort's surgery went just fine-he was his old growly snorty self as soon as he was rolled out-deep in conversation with his Mr. Bumpy. Her mother is recovering slowly, though we've not gotten a prognosis yet. She was moved out of the ICU basically to free up beds, and we've seen the walking dead around here.
We will rebuild. Just take us some time, is all.