Update on the Aftermath of the Storms:

Guys, I tell you... I have been counting my blessings ALLLLL morning. Everywhere I've been in Florence, trees have fallen on top of houses, been uprooted, twisted into splinters, and so much more. We had 6 tornado touchdowns in just the area I lived in, but luckily our area wasn't hit nowhere near as badly as Tuscaloosa and Phil Cambell county. An F5 struck them and HARD... just looking at the photographs of the damage on Yahoo.com is chilling.

As for my personal experience with the weather...
I at first shrugged it off because where I live, sure we see some bad storms come through, but I sure wasn't ready for what came through yesterday. My shift at the hotel ended at 3pm, so I bebop downstairs and meet my dad in the parking lot. He said a tornado warning was issued right after I got in the truck. Dad and I decided to hang out in the parking lot and wait for the warning to expire at 3:15 like the local radio said it would. At 3:15, the weather radio broadcasters told us the warning had to be PROLONGED due to a tornado 6 miles outside of Sheffield, which to put things in perspective for ya'll who don't know the area, Sheffield was barely 15 minutes from where I was located. No sooner when I heard the broadcaster say this, I stuck my head out the window and there it was...
A gigantic churning and rotating wall cloud (not an official tornado but the wall cloud it COULD DROP FROM!) was FAST approaching over the treelines of the hotel and Dad & I bolted to get inside the security office. Not 35 seconds later after we shut the door, a wall of rain came down and with the wind blowing as hard as it was, the rain was falling SIDEWAYS!!! I swear any second I thought I was going to see a tornado drop right on us!!! I was horrified!
After about 30 minutes, things died down and Dad and I felt it was safe enough to leave the hotel property. As we drove back to the house, the damage we saw around Florence was rather shocking, and again, I am reminded how very blessed I was and still am.

Please keep the ones who have have lost their homes & loved ones in your prayers. This was the worst tornado outbreak Alabama has seen since the 1970's. Even bigger cities like Birmingham and Huntsville were struck by the outbreak and buildings and homes have been obliterated. People have lost loved ones... I was even told about a 4 year child who luckily just ended up in the ER with some minor scrapes, but tragically, the same can't be said for his parents... So tragic.