Dixieland Devastation

I have to admit that with Facebook, I hardly have a need for cable news channels...if you want to know anything, just go to Facebook and surely someone's talking about it!

Last night, according to Facebook, the South was experiencing tornadic activity.  It is storm season, after all, so I didn't think much of it.  Then my friend Tom, who is from Alabama, had a status update saying the state had pretty much been leveled.  What?!

We turned to The Weather Channel and sure enough, Tom was pretty much right.  My heart sank.  I have such fond memories of visiting my sister while she lived in Alabama and it's absolutely BEAUTIFUL down there.  I can't even begin to fathom what the effected communities are waking up to this morning...

Below are some pictures I saw online this morning.

15th Street in Tuscaloosa

Inside their Krispy Kreme store--this was where I had my very first hot 'n ready Krispy Kreme :-(

Amazingly enough, the cups survived the storm

I just pray that the recovery process goes as well as possible.  My heart goes out to those who lost loved ones and the places they called home. 

Being 17-hours away from the damage, it will be hard to know what survived the storm and what was ruined by it...but here are some of my favorite sites/pics from our travels to the "Heart of Dixie."

Family pic from when we moved Tawnya & Adam to Tuscaloosa...had to be 2001? 

The streets by campus...gotta love ALL the green trees!!!

One of the now-historic homes on the UA campus

Sitting on the top of a hill in Tuscaloosa is some of the best bbq in the world--no joke.  It's UH-mazing.  All these years later and I still crave Dreamland's.

The Paul W. "Bear" Bryant Museum on campus

This is NOT in Tuscaloosa...or Alabama, for that matter.  But it's one of my favorite sites we visited while in the South--Oak Alley Mansion in Vacherie, Louisiana.  To me, this is the epitome of Southern Beauty

I couldn't steal any other pics of things I liked from the internet...so those will have to do!

Generally, enjoying a song or two usually makes things better.  Right?  So far, all of those near and dear to us in Alabama and surrounding states are accounted for--yippee!   So here's a few songs for your listening pleasure...from none other than Alabama ;-)