Still Overwhelmed

Fionnuala went with me, on Sunday, to Concord. The Concord Elementary School teachers were offering to babysit children while people worked in the damaged area. We (Fionnuala) bought our supplies that I wanted to take out there. We brought hand sanitizer, work gloves, sunscreen, and D batteries. We got there more than an hour before the babysitting started, so we didn't end up staying that long. It was overwhelming to see the mass of volunteers and donated items. Concord is a close knit community and all of the local churches are doing more than their share.

Monday, we had a faculty meeting at school. The teachers discussed how to handle our students. As far as I know, we had two students who died and 14 families (about 25 students) who lost everything. People I know, that have lived in the area for their entire lives, say they went to the destruction sight and became disoriented because their was nothing recognizable. My closest friend, went to the site on Thursday, and said she couldn't go back. She, along with many other of my teachers, suffered horrible losses and devastation, in the 1998 Oak Grove tornado. How sad that these people have to experience this more than once in their lives.

While Fionnuala and I couldn't drive through the area where the tornado entered Concord, we did see the path on 15th Street. I knew that we couldn't go through Hueytown to get to Concord because the roads were closed. However, it never occurred to me that we would still see the path of the tornado on the other side of town. After all, the tornado went from Tuscaloosa to Concord. There would have to be point that we would drive through. As we started to see snapped trees, we realized that was the path of tornado. How humbling it was to see the destruction in an area that was uninhabited. The trees were bent over and the power lines mangled. I do have memories (they might be pictures) of all of the trees laying down, on the mountain, above Jones Valley School, after the 1989 Huntsville tornado.

I'm still overwhelmed with grief. The funeral for our students is tomorrow. Also, school reopens. There is supposed to be heavy rain and thunderstorms. Our teachers, with experience from 1998, say that children will become upset during thunderstorms after experiencing such devastation. Please pray for our faculty as they deal with children, who have experienced unbelievable situations. I heard one story about a fifth grader's experience as he climbed out of his demolished home. I can't finish the story, but it is not something an eleven year old should ever experience.

It will take a long time for these people to recover. However, I can remember the destruction that the Huntsville, AL tornado of 1989 caused. The tornado demolished Airport Rd and took many lives, but that same area has recovered and become an area of prosperity for Huntsville.

Please watch the following video. These pictures are from Concord, AL. These pictures are what some of my students used call home.

Concord, AL