Has anyone heard from Marc and Arlene? The tornados looked horrible. I tried to call, but phone lines apprear to be busy or out.

Hoping for better weather tonight.

I did. They are fine and on their way out of town. Just power out, no damage.

Tthanks everyone for thinking of us.

We are fine. We will be without power for 4 - 5 days, so we drove up to Tennessee this morning to stay for a couple of days. We are planning to go back on Saturday sometime. We don't have much damage at all that we know of as of now. We got a bad lightning strike last night, wouldn't you know it, the last lightning of the last thunderstorm! As the power is out of course we don't know how bad it is yet. In any case we both know we will be in better shape than Susan and Russ. We decided to drive up to stay in a hotel so we could have hot showers and so that I could watch the royal wedding and Marc could have Internet. The cell phone, cable TV, and Internet are all out at home, not to mention very few stores open, long, long lines at the gas stations, etc. Our power went out about 10AM yesterday, and our arbor went down about that time, We feel extremely lucky after driving up here today. About 1 1/2 miles from our house, a large Church was completely destroyed and there are massive trees down on top of houses, power lines all over the roads, etc. Since I had no power all day yesterday I really didn't know how bad it all was until today and was really surprised to see all the devastation today and listen to the radio. There are 8 dead in our county last I heard, but I know Tuscaloosa and other places are much much worse. Any way that is my quick update.

Hugs, Arlene

Arlene, we're so happy to hear that all is well with you and Marc. I know Dixie Chick also lives in Huntsville--has anyone heard from her? Unfortunately we have another month of so of Spring weather--let's hope we don't have any more storm fronts like we've had in the last week or so. One piece of good news--the fires that destroyed Susan and Russ' lake home have been fully contained. They had a lot of rain in that area from one of the fronts that came through which really helped with fighting the fire.

Arlene, thank you for checking in. I am so glad that you and Marc are ok. Hope when you are able to go home, you will not find a great deal of damage.

I am glad you checked in, Arlene! I hope your power comes back soon!

Glad you're safe. This is all over the international news. The pictures look horrific.

So happy you are OK. Storms were pretty bad here in Georgia as well.

I've been thinking of you guys, Marc & Arlene and wondering if you had any damage. I'm so glad it was minimal and that you are able to get out of town until the power comes back on.

This has been unprecedented. Every morning when I turn on the Weather Channel it seems there are more reports of tornadoes, damage and deaths. :(

I wish we would hear from Sally and Ron. Hope they are ok.

Arlene & Marc, glad to hear you ran away to TN and are safe.

Has anyone heard from Dixie Chick or David?

Stay Safe to all our LCTers who could be in harm's way. Mother Nature is sure wrecking havoc.

We are still vagabonds; three Hampton Inns in three nights (might as well take advantage of the situation to get in a mattress run ;) ). We decided to stay one more night and return home on Monday. TVA is reporting that power restoration is going slower than planned so we may not have electricity until later in the week (our area was one of the worst in terms of power lines down). When high voltage power lines go down, it is more building anew than repair (sorry for size of photo).

[img]http://www.tva.com/storm_damage/content/_B7J0007_large.html[/img]

More photos at TVA link .

"(might as well take advantage of the situation to get in a mattress run)"

you and Peter are mattress savvy :lct: :lct:

Marc,
So glad you escaped major harm and could go to Nashville. The videos of the Alabama destruction and in GA are devastating! Even the NE GA mountains,(supposedly "immune" to tornadoes,) at a large lake community, had a lot of destruction, including the fatality of a business acquaintance of DH's.
We were very fortunate, once again. Having grown up in Miami, hurricanes you can prepare for, but tornadoes are another story!

So glad you guys are safe Marc and Arlene, Frank just asked me yesterday if I had heard anything and since I saw Arlene chatting about the wedding on Friday, told him I thought you were fine and had no issues. Didn't realize you had moved up to TN. Are you in Nashville? Too bad we don't happen to be down there visiting Chris and family, we would have met up with you.

Tuscaloosa took a major hit and the pictures being posted on utube and such are just unbeleivable. According to Frank's cousin, who has two sons at the University, they have shut down completely, cancelled finals and postponed graduation until August. Somehow the University itself managed to get missed by about a mile, but of course many students live off campus and in the area hardest hit. Chris our son, doesn't know anyone still in Tuscaloosa, so he didn't have any additional info.

But again, glad you are safe. I too thought of Dixiechick, hoping she is safe and they just don't have power and thus she has not been able to post.

David & family & animals are all OK. Tornados passed to the right and left but no major damage. Power was restored after 3 days but Huntsville power is still out. Phones and internet have been sporadic. We have a propane generator and a full 1000 gals of propane. Enough to keep refrigerators and freezers and TV on.Thanks for your concerns.

Glad to hear you are well and safe David. I'm sorry I didn't realize you lived in AL although I see it now at the bottom. Hope you get power back soon.

David, Thanks for checking in and letting us know you and yours are all fine. So glad you have that generator and propane to keep everything in your house going.

I sure wish we would hear from Sally & Ron (Dixiechick and her husband).