April 27, 2011 started out like any other day, as I was getting ready for work that morning, the wind was howling and it got rough for a few minutes in Shoal Creek Valley, but by the time my daughter and I left for school and work, all was well. I noticed as I was walking to the car in the yard that some tin had gotten blown off of my dad’s garage (Roger White) and I snapped a picture of it.

After dropping my daughter off at my dad’s house for my step-mother to get her to school, I headed down County Rd 22 in an effort to get to work in Moody, I get a call from my boss saying that Hwy 411 South was shut down (the route that her & I both take to work).

As I am listening to the radio in my 2003 Ford Escape, I am hearing that the city of Moody had been hit by some strong straight-line winds and there was a lot of damage (hence the reason Hwy 411 was shut down). So I tried an alternative route, planning to take Hwy 231 to Pell City and get on Interstate 20.  Nope. Traffic was backed up for miles, so I ended up getting on Interstate 59 in Ashville and heading towards Trussville. Keep in mind at this point I really didn’t know the extinct of any damage in the Moody area.

After zig-zagging down some back roads in Trussville, maneuvering my way to Moody, and as I turned onto Markeeta-Spur Road, I couldn’t believe my eyes! Downed trees and power lines and I thought to myself – straight line winds my foot. These trees look as if they have been twisted like maybe from a tornado?? Oh well, finally at 9 a.m. I arrived at my work in Moody.

My boss and I both are weather conscious (her more that me) but we listened to all the weather reports that day and knew that “they” were saying we were going to have some severe weather all through out the day.

My husband calls me around 2 pm that afternoon stating that his step-sisters house in Moody (Kerr Road) had been hit by those so called “straight line” winds and he was off of work for the day and he was going to ride home that way and check it out and that when he got home, he would probably take a nap. And I said OK, not knowing how the events of the next couple of hours would affect our lives forever.

My boss and I shut our office down at 4:30 pm and headed home to avoid getting caught in any major storms or traffic problems. I get a text from my cousin who lives in Odenville telling me that we could come there (since they have a basement) and chill with them and wait out the storm, I politely replied, “Thanks but we will be fine – we will go to dad’s if it gets bad.”

When I arrived in Shoal Creek Valley, my step-mom had already picked up my daughter (since schools were let out early) so I went straight home to find my husband taking his much needed nap. I turned on the news and couldn’t believe my eyes! The whole state of Alabama was pretty much under a tornado warning, and the screen was lit up red with all the warnings.

I went and woke my husband up and told him he needed to get up so we could go to my dad’s house (since we lived in a single wide mobile home). He got up and jumped in the shower and I told him I was going to go ahead and go next door to my dad’s to check on our daughter. He said he would be there in a few minutes, and I left my single wide mobile home not knowing it was my last time ever stepping foot in it.

As I was walking out the front door, one of our favorite cats was sitting on the arm of the couch and I thought to myself that I should put her outside, but she was solid white and long hair so I didn’t want her to get all dirty.

So I arrived at my dad’s to find a bunch of people already there, friends and neighbors that lived all up and down the valley, most, like me, that lived in mobile homes, so as we have done many times in the past, we are all sitting on the porch, laughing and joking, and carrying on like we have done so many other times thinking the storm would blow over and we would all return to our homes as usual.

I recall standing on the back porch and yelling into the house (where my husband was sitting on the couch watching the weather) “What’s it doing?”

His reply was “It’s coming up I-59 around Argo and Springville. We will probably get some hail and some wind, but it’s not coming our way.”

 About that time it started hailing, then we lost power and I remember standing on the porch and my neighbor said, “What’s that sound?” and it dawned on me, that it was “here”.

We all scurried inside and some went in the bathroom, but I was in the hallway, my daughter was crying and I shielded her with my body and my husband shielded me.  Glass was breaking, and I remember my husband reaching up and closing the bedroom door that we were right outside of and then it hit. I do not remember going “up” but I remember being sucked backwards and for the life of me I couldn’t hold on to my nine-year-old daughter and I was pulled from her.

I was getting pounded by debris and Lord only knows what else.  I couldn’t feel any pain, yet I would feel the pressure and the blows that my body was taking, and I am sure that my eyes were closed, but black and white colors I remember, I am not sure if it was light and dark from the rotation of the tornado or me going in and out of consciousness and like that it was over.

I came to on the ground, flat on my back with my head slightly turned towards my left, and when I opened my eyes  I was staring at my daughter and my nephew. They were trying to stand and I could never explain the terror in those babies eyes, they were so covered in dirt, mud, etc that they were hardly recognizable. I called my daughter to me and she hobbled over as best she could since there was so much debris and her flip flops had been sucked off and she was barefoot.

I slowly but surely zoned in on what was going on, there was 18 of us in that house and we were thrown a good 60 feet from where we took shelter. I hear my dad calling out, he needed someone to help him up, my step-mom calling out for her grandchildren and I hear my husband, who is not laying real far from me, but he wasn’t injured bad. He was complaining about his leg and was totally conscious at that point, but as the hours passed that we laid there (about 5 hours to be exact) the worse he got.

By then neighbors and other family members from across the road and down the street had arrived and were doing the best they could to administer First Aid and keep us warm. I have never been so cold in my life. I kept telling my young man neighbor that I needed to sit up, that my back hurt and he kept telling me no. Finally he told me that I had a pretty good size puncture wound in my abdomen. I didn’t even realize it. It rained, it thundered and lighteninged, and at one point I thought I heard someone say that another tornado was coming.

I started praying, “Please God don’t let there be.”

We were all laying, scattered and so exposed to the elements I could not even fathom taking another ride like that again. I don’t know when or what time, but some of my closest friends made it to my side, it meant so much to not only see a familiar face but to know that help was on it’s way.

I was confused – why could my friends make it to us and not the paramedics and first responders? I went through a vast range of emotions: pain, sadness, and anger. Why wasn’t help arriving for us? I know now that St. Clair County wasn’t prepared for this kind of catastrophe, and I have made peace with knowing they were doing the best they could to get to us and help us.

Finally around maybe 11:30 pm, the ambulances arrived. My husband and I were loaded on the same ambulance and away to UAB Hospital we went. I was a barking drill sergeant the whole way. I wanted to know which way we were going and why it was taking so long. My husband was talking all out of his head and I was watching his vitals and at one point I remember saying, “Is it because his blood pressure is so low that he is talking smack?”  

The paramedic responded, “No sweetie, he has a severe head trauma”.

Until that moment I had no idea that he was in the shape that he was in. He was the strong one, this couldn’t be happening.

I woke up in the ER with several of my closest friends standing at my bedside. All they could tell me was that he was in surgery and my daughter was taken via ambulance to Children’s hospital. I felt so helpless. I immediately started trying to remember phone numbers of family so everyone would know what happened and where we were. All my in-law’s numbers were in my cell phone that prior to the tornado was in my pocket, it was gone. I wanted my mother (who also lives in the Ashville area) to get to the hospital for my daughter. My friends were using their cell phones trying to contact everyone and anyone that could get a hold of my Mom and my husband’s side of the family.

Finally, contact was made. I have never felt so much helplessness and loss of control as I did when I could not be with my daughter or husband in their time of need, but I had some serious injuries of my own to deal with. My lower back and abdomen were hurting so bad, along with a dislocated shoulder and shattered ulna (bone in my right arm) and surgically repaired ligaments in my right foot/ankle. I was battered and bruised beyond belief.

A day or so went by, and I am catching on that something “more” is going on with my husband, but no one was talking. Finally my sister-in-law came and talked to me and broke it down, It was so hard for her to say and even harder for me to hear. My husband sustained a massive head injury and was hanging on to dear life. My heart sank. I didn’t know what to say or do. I was lost.

A lot of my hospital stay is a blur, due to the medications I was on I am sure and I don’t remember what day, but finally they took me to see my husband. It is a sight I will never forget, him laying there with tubes coming out of him everywhere and his abdomen split wide open. On top of his severe head injury, he also sustained a severe abdominal and leg injury. He was unconscious and remained that way for nine weeks.

My daughter got hit with something small but very hard on the left side of her head, right above her left ear and she too was very battered and bruised. My mother said she wasn’t prepared for how she looked when she arrived at Children’s hospital, that her granddaughter was unrecognizable.

I was released the following Monday and not only had the “reality” set in on the injuries to my family, it set in on that we lost our home and everything in it. And so did my dad and many or our family and neighbors. I cannot begin to explain how that feels. Little things, like the comfort of your own bed are gone.

I was so blessed to be able to go back home with my mother, but for the grace of God she did not get any damage at her house and they had room for my daughter and me. I cannot thank my mom or my step-dad enough for taking care of us those first few weeks and we ended up living there for eight months.

I had to be pushed to take care of business, because I still couldn’t wrap my brain around the business end of what needed to be taken care of. Insurance, filing for FEMA, etc were the farthest things from my mind. I wanted my husband home with me and our daughter. And I needed his input and opinions on what our next step would be.

Finally after about nine weeks, he is awake and although the top neurologists at UAB Hospital told us that his speech and motor skills would be affected, he was fine, very weak and fragile, but “mentally” he was there. It’s been a long road for myself and my family, we struggle it seems day to day, not only with the aches and pains of what our bodies have been through, but also the aches and pains our hearts have been through. I have seen and witnessed so much tragedy and devastation.

I feel truly blessed to be alive and back with my family. The good Lord above had his hand on the house at 4270 Shoal Creek Road on April 27th 2011. And although we took a direct hit and were thrown and tossed around, he cushioned us from death, and for that I am BLESSED.

 “I choose to be a survivor – not a victim”