On April 27, 2011,  the weather looked a little concerning in my hometown of  Muscle Shoals, Alabama.  I finally got the call that schools were to be dismissed at 1:00 due to inclement  weather, however, I picked my son up before noon because I was concerned for Jordan's safety - and I didn't want to fight the traffic when other parents swarmed the school at dismissal.
 
Jordan and I have never been scared of storms. I can't say the same about our dogs. Our Bichon, Jake,  barks incessantly at the voice in the sky warning us to "take cover now".   Our pitbull, Mallie, abides by the instructions by taking cover behind our couch until she feels its safe to come out. Our two yorkies borderline on having panic attacks when storms come- so needless to say, when the weather cranks up, so do our dogs.

The storm came through and the only damage we experienced was a section of our fence that had been blown down from the strong winds. It was later that I learned just how lucky we were to have dodged what was later determined to be an EF-5 tornado.  Not only did that tornado narrowly miss us, but Alabama experienced an outbreak of over 60 tornadoes.  Several cities experienced extensive damage including Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Phil Campbell, Hackleburg, Cullman, Harvest, Mt.Hope, and several other smaller communities.  Some communities were completely wiped out.  Thousands are homeless. The death toll in Alabama alone has been reported as close to 250,  two of those include my grandmother's cousin and his wife, who were found in a pasture behind their house.
 
My husband and I had plans to visit my best friend in Memphis, TN  for our anniversary, but considering the disaster that affected people just 20 minutes from our hometown, we decided to cancel our plans and head to Phil Campbell (the town nearest us with severe damage) to see how we could be of help.   I spoke with a friend of mine that runs a pit bull rescue, Rescue-A-Bull,  and we traveled to Phil Campbell to see if we could help with any displaced animals.   Once arriving in Phil Campbell, it took a good ten minutes of just looking around at the devastation before I could even move.  It was almost like my brain didn't register what my eyes were seeing. It looked like a bomb had been dropped on the community and everywhere I looked, people were either standing on their own pile of rubble that used to be their house or stammering around in a daze, trying to grasp what was happening.  My husband and I spent the next two days traveling to three of the closest and hardest hit areas to help in any way needed. We organized a great group of friends to go with us, and that experience will be something that will always tie us together in a special way. 

We heard story after story of people pulling loved ones out from under debris. I saw one elderly man struggle to nail his door back on the door frame, which was the only thing standing on the slab that used to be his home. My husband listened to a man describe pulling his mother's body out from under a pile of debris.   I passed by a group of three 10-11 year old girls, saw them point at a ripped dress among the rubble and overheard one girl say, "There's her dress"  and another girl ask, "I wonder if it hurt when she died?"  Everywhere we looked, people were digging what they considered salvageable and packing the things in boxes. I'm not sure if they even had a place to take them.  We saw make shift tents.  There were reports of photographs and documents being found hundreds of miles away. I saw I-beams folded like paperclips. There were vehicles thrown up into trees. I overheard two women discussing "who was left" out of their neighborhood.  I witnessed a dog taking its last breath after being crushed by a vehicle. There are no words to describe the experience in a way you can understand. You just had to be there. 

 Over a 3 day span, we visited Phil Campbell, Hackleburg and Mt.Hope cooking  hotdogs, delivering food & water(sometimes on a 4 wheeler due to the roads being impassible because of the debris), offering condolences to victims(some people just needed someone to listen to them), providing supplies to those in need, and  rescuing some displaced pets.  As soon as we left each day, we were already planning what we were going to do the next day to help.

Alabama is in a state of recovery.  It will be a long, hard road. Alabamains are tough. We are resilient. We pull together without discrimination of age, sex, race or whether you are an Auburn or Alabama fan. We are all Alabamains and we help each other out in times of disaster like this.   Donations are pouring in. Supplies are being brought from all over.  Facebook pages such as https://www.facebook.com/ALTornadoAnimals   and https://www.facebook.com/PicturesandDocumentsfoundafterAprilTornadoes , as well as countless others, have been set up to help victims try to recover things they've lost.

Families are able to apply for assistance, but this assistance will soon run out. I would like to ask for help from everyone reading this to please consider giving a donation to either assist in animal rescue & care,  or the cleanup and rebuilding of the communities that were affected by the tornadoes.

If you would like to make a donation, please contact me by email: LMiller943@aol.com   or  Facebook: www.facebook.com/leanna.clemmons

Thank you so much,
Leanna  :)