Hollywoodland

Sorry for going AWOL, kids. But our little town got slammed by one of the umpteen tornadoes on Sunday. Our house made it through just fine, thank God. The same can’t be said for much of the rest of town. In fact, the houses on our street and the street just north of us are the only ones in town that weren’t under a mandatory evacuation! Though we were under a curfew. Still are, in fact. At least as I type this (on Monday afternoon). After the storm was over, Mom got to worrying about her sister and brother-in-law, so she took off walking to their house on the other side of town. The further she went, the worse the damage got. My aunt & uncle’s house was pretty much demolished, though they’re okay physically. Naturally, of course, they’re in shock. Mom said every house but two on their street was gone. :sad:

The tornado hit about 6:15pm and was over in less than two minutes, if that long. We lost some of the skirting around our house (it’s what those not in the know call a mobile home, but we call it a manufactured house because it’s really not all that mobile *g*) and some of the stuff outside that wasn’t anchored down is gone. Not that there was time to anchor anything. Our storage building got shifted a tad, but it wasn’t knocked off its blocks. As for our house, it didn’t budge an inch. It didn’t even shake! I guess the newfangled tie-downs they used really work. Of course, they said they’re supposed to withstand 160mph winds. I’d be happy to give them a testimonial. Especially since I heard by the time the storm hit western Tennessee it was packing winds of 200mph!!! We also lost three trees (two of which fell on the electric, cable, and phone lines). So who knows when I’ll be able to send this….

We don’t have power, but we do have water. Splish, splash. We’re hoping they’ll get our electricity back on tomorrow. They’ve been working like maniacs this afternoon cutting trees and clearing debris.

Tuesday UPDATE: They got our electricity on about 8:00pm last night. To the guys working in the dark to restore our electricy, THANK YOU!!! You guys are the best!!!! Now if the phone company would just get the phone lines back up and running… And I wouldn’t complain if they got the cable going either, but I can wait until tomorrow. But if I can’t watch Lost tomorrow night, I’m gonna be a basketcase!

Let’s see… what else is newsworthy about this mess? I’ve heard a report that something hit the town’s water tower and left a huge dent in it. So the tornado had to have really sent whatever it was flying. I also heard a farm tractor (not a lawn mower type tractor, but an honest-to-goodness farm tractor) was carried over a mile!!!

A cousin of mine who’s a builder/carpenter has taken a look at my aunt & uncle’s house and said he can rebuild it. So I guess theirs wasn’t as demolished as some of the other houses. I’ve heard anywhere from 250 to 500 houses have been completely destroyed. That’s in a town with a population of only 1500!!! Of course, I’ve heard reports on the news that the entire town was evacuated and there was no one here but emergency workers. That was according to some Red Cross drone who obviously didn’t know what the hell she was talking about. I debated calling the TV station and setting them straight (thank God the cell phones work!), but decided it wasn’t worth wasting our cell phone minutes. But from that point on, I didn’t believe anything the reporters on the news had to say.

Oh, forgot to mention my moment of exquisite gracefulness. I was in the utility room yesterday (Monday) and lost my balance which made me trip over a box. In a lovely chain reaction, I fell and hit my hip/upper thigh on the edge of one of those Rubbermaid type plastic bins. Those suckers are HARD!!! I’ve got a knot on my leg now that hurts like the dickens and a bruise the size of my fist! On the plus side, though, it’s a lovely shade of purple and matches my bedroom color scheme. LOL!

Wednesday UPDATE: Well, still no cable or phones. I suppose I’m just thankful for having electricity. Though I don’t sound very thankful, do I? Dad made a Walmart run (at least we can come and go out of the town now—at one point if you left town you couldn’t come back in) yesterday and bought a set of rabbit ears for the TV. Of course, we can only get two channels. ABC and PBS. The picture’s pretty sucky, but at least I can watch Lost tonight if they don’t get the cable up and running today.

I think they lifted the curfew last night. At any rate, I saw a lot of the National Guard folks leaving town last night. Some repair people are down the street putting up new poles for something. Either cable or phone. I’m not sure which I’m hoping for the most. *g* I hate missing my TV shows, but I hate not being able to get online more.

Another fascinating tornado vs. a tractor story: A tractor was carried about a quarter of a mile, but in its short trip it somehow got wrapped in a boxcar before it was tossed into the front yard of someone we actually know! I know this one is true because they had film footage of it. In fact, my dad saw it this morning.

Hooray!!!! The phone dude was just here and I can get online now! And rumor has it the cable dudes (or dudettes *g*) are working up on the highway which is just a block away. I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

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