Six years ago today, my sons and I stood in shock and awe at the northern border of our Farm. You see, a major tornado and storm front had spent all of the previous day churning through parts of eastern Alabama and plowed on through Georgia finally arriving here at the Dirt Road after 8:30 p.m. and into the wee hours of the morning. We remain forever grateful for being protected. Here are my thoughts from six years ago:
"As I type this morning, I can hear the continued sounds of helicopters and small aircraft continuing to survey the path of last night's tornado and storms that ripped through the Dirt Road passing on to our neighboring County and on from there.
I followed the weather reports all day yesterday and knew it would be a long, long night. I simply can not grasp what the families in southern Alabama are going through as they continue to search for the missing. Storms moved on into Georgia and made their way east. I knew we would be moving to the basement for the night after seeing the reports of weather moving up Highway 16 from Milledgeville.
At 8:30 p.m. last night, the first day of March escorted it's first tornado of the season right through the western boundary of our farm.
Our family is eternally grateful and blessed that we were protected and spared from these horrific storms last night. We remained in lockdown in our basement while the torrential rains and unbelieveable winds spun around us here.
This morning has revealed that many of our neighbors were not as fortunate as we are. Though we lost power around 8 last night, it was restored around 1 a.m. just after a second storm moved through. The creek that borders the western boundary of our property looked much like the Ogeechee River and was rising quickly. While our bridge is in tact, the road is pretty much a wash out and will remain so for weeks and weeks; truthfully, this is very minor in the grand scheme of things.
Never underestimate the power of weather: we have at least one hundred trees down (if not more) at the back of our property that include Oak and Hickory trees that no two people could possibly reach around. As we walked the back line this morning, I stood in shock. I don't have words to describe the visual impact of what this tornado destroyed along its path and I could feel emotion swelling knowing that we were spared.
Trees can be cut up and fences rebuilt. But when lives are impacted as those in southern Alabama and southwest Georgia, we must recognize our blessings and ensure that we give testimony to miracles when miracles are obviously evident...."
These photos were taken March 2nd, 2007
(24 hrs later)
HKJ
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