If you’ve watched the news much this morning, in-between segments on tomorrow’s royal wedding, you’ve probably seen coverage of horrific storm system that hit the Southeast yesterday and last night. Here in eastern TN we had severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings off and on from late afternoon through the evening, but thankfully our area wasn’t hit hard. As I took Jesse to school and then went to see Jim’s mom, the usual spontaneous lakes and ponds that spring up after heavy rains here were there, but not quite as high as I’ve seen them after other storms.

But it made for a pretty tense few hours, hearing the thrumming storm and seeing nothing but storm coverage on the three major network TV stations — and Jim was away last night as well! At one point Jason said the sky was green — I didn’t look. We got out flashlights and lanterns and batteries, and the lights dimmed a few times, but thankfully we never lost power.

I had gone to see Jim’s mom around 4 yesterday afternoon, which happened to be right when things were starting up. The skies were dark and it was just starting to rain, and as I got to her assisted living place, they were bringing all the residents out of their rooms into the hallway due to the threat or tornadoes. You can imagine what that was like. Some understood what was going on and were taking it patiently, some were fidgety. They were just bringing Jim’s mom out as I came in, but they left her with her walker, and she can’t stand even with her walker for very long, so I dashed into her room and got her a chair (then she told me to have a seat in it. I convinced her I brought it for her. 🙂 ) I didn’t stay long since the weather seemed more threatening. I wondered through the evening how many times they’d had to bring the residents out. And then I thought of that kind of thing going on in assisted living places and nursing homes all across the South. One particularly poignant photo I saw in the morning’s newscast was someone pushing a lady in a wheelchair with storm debris behind them.

Of course, if you’ve seen the coverage, you’ve probably seen one of the videos of one of the massive tornadoes. I saw this one this morning on The Today Show with an interview with the man who captured it on video — wish I could get that to embed here but their code won’t cooperate with WP. The video just of the tornado is here:

I just can not imagine being near something like that. As tense as it was just with the possibility of a tornado, I can’t imagine living through that or some of the “jaw-dropping destruction.”

There are news reports of damage and even deaths here in TN as well as GA, but by far the worst is in AL. I know all involved would appreciate prayer as they try to recover from this disaster.

Often yesterday the hymn “Keep Me Safe Til the Storm Passes By” came to mind. I wouldn’t say it’s a favorite — in one church we were in it was a favorite of the song-leader’s and we sang it about every other week, and I am sad to say I got tired of it. But it certainly ministered to me yesterday.