Concord April 27 Tornadoes - A Year Later

On April 27, 2011, the residents of Alabama were glued to their TVs, in their safe place and listening to endless tornado sirens.

I will not soon forget that day, 

or the days that followed.

I will never forget the live view of the F5 tornado ripping through Tuscaloosa.

The massiveness of it was horrifying.

The loss of life was heart-breaking.

The stories of survival were touching.

The clean-up effort was overwhelming.

As I drove up to Erie, PA a couple weeks ago, it was evident as to where all the tornadoes crossed over I-65.

It brought a sadness to my heart.

But hope, in that houses were being fixed and rebuilt.

Then I began to wonder, What does the place where our family volunteered look like today?

On April 27, 2012, I was in Cincinnati visiting a friend on my way back home.

It struck me that it was exactly a year from that terrifying day.

I decided that when we got back, I'd take the kids back up to Concord, AL to see how that community was doing.

When I announced our plan for the day, the kids all cheered.

They couldn't wait to see Miss P again.

They wanted to see all the new construction.

They were very excited.

The following pictures will be as follows:

1st pic from May 2, 2011

2nd pic from May 4, 2012

The house across the street from Miss P's.

Same house 1 yr later

View of neighbor's yard from Miss P's driveway

Same view, just zoomed out a little bit.

Miss P's garage

I accidentally took a pic of the opposite side of the garage, but regardless, it's all fixed up and looks beautiful. =)

A highly populated subdivision, 2011

The same neighborhood.  It was very sad.  A few homes rebuilt new, but most were leveled and vacant lots, with cement slab foundations and grown up grass & weeds.

The opposite the previous subdivision in 2011

This pic is a little more to the right of that, but you can tell the road on the left of this pic is the road on the center of the one above.  Most of those homes are gone with no signs of rebuilding.

On the main road of the subdivision 2011

This shot is a little zoomed in from the previous picture, but it's the same road.  Although, some gorgeous new homes are being rebuilt (not viewable from this pic), there is a downside: their view is sad: tall weeds, cement driveways leading to nowhere, the look of community that is not coming back.

Magnolia Drive 2011

Magnolia Drive 2012

This house was on the main road in front of the subdivision 2011

The same home (on the left) - The houses look great!!

The house where only the bathroom remained.

That same property, a little different angle.  Or it might be the neighbors driveway.  Who could tell, there are absolutely no homes there anymore.

And then there were houses like this.  In 2012 they look the exact same as in 2011.

I was hoping that the trip to Concord would make me feel good.  I was hoping that I would see these neighborhoods and say, "Yes!  Alabama did it!  They pulled together and rebuilt their communities!"

But instead, I drove into Concord feeling almost as sad as I did a year ago.

Not to put down the people who worked day and night rebuilding their homes and lives.

Their efforts are evident and I am so proud of them!

And all the debris that was cleaned up -impressive!

(In fact there were still crews there working on debris and power lines - who would have guessed that a year later?!?)

Some of the houses looked gorgeous.

There was a couple sitting, rocking in their rocking chairs on the front porch of their beautiful home.

 Miss P's house looked awesome and so did her neighbors.

In those instances, I had great joy.

But I can't tell you how many driveways we saw that led to nowhere;

How many subdivision roads that led to nothing;

How many mailboxes we saw that had no house behind them.

I was just so sad to see how many people just got up and left ... never to return.

And I have to ask myself, 

Would I have done the same thing?

Would I have been able to stay where such a devastating thing happened?

Would I have been able to rebuild my home and go on with life living in the same area where a horrifying storm ripped my home apart, my family apart, my life apart?

Would I have been able to rebuild in the same spot where the memories and feelings of that dreadful day would daily be present?

And to be honest,

I'm not so sure I would.