Tuscaloosa After the Storm

We visited Tuscaloosa while we were back in Alabama.

We have so many memories there.

I grew up on Alabama football (even though I eventually defected to LSU).  Jonathan's mother's side of the family is from Tuscaloosa so he has memories of holidays with his grandmother and aunt and cousins there.  He also spent four educational(?) years there at "the U-nuh-vuh-suh-tee" during which three of those years we were dating so I spent a fair amount of time there as well.

While we were in town to spend some good turkey-eating time with Jono's family, we also wanted to see what was still there and what wasn't from the April tornado.

Remember the April tornado?

The one a mile wide and stayed on the ground for over 100 miles?

This is a bit of what we saw.

This block had been cleaned up but it is a whole block of just driveways.

Other sections looked as if clean-up hadn't even been attempted.

This is the church in Alberta City that my mother-in-law grew up in.

Got married in.

 There are whole neighborhoods of houses that still have these markings on the windows.

After the storm they were going from house to house searching for people.
It a disturbing reminder of the storm's warpath.

I was struck by how much rebuilding there is still left to do.
The city just has holes in it.

It has been months since Tuscaloosa was struck by the tornado and you most likely won't be hearing about it on the news anymore.  But these people still need help.

Project Blessings is a local Tuscaloosa organization helping low-income and underprivileged homeowners repair their homes--those that desperately need home repair, but do not currently have the means to make them happen.  You can help them with a donation by clicking here or if you are more local find out about volunteering here.

(metal still wrapped around a tree branch)