All of Mom's sister's were in Meridian visiting with Grammy all week, so Dad picked us up at the airport and off we went to join the party. About 20 minutes from Meridian, I called Mom and got no answer so I called her younger sister. She informed me that they were at a bank and Mom was on the phone with the neighbors as a tornado had just come through Jackson and there were lots of trees down. Apparently, the girls had walked into the Community Bank in Meridian and the clerk said "We're sorry, our computers are down because a tornado has hit Jackson and our branch on Old Canton Road is without power." Immediately Mom realized this was a bad sign, as the Community Bank in reference is a stone's throw from our house. She immediately started calling the neighbors and found out that our house was "okay", only some missing shingles, but that there were trees down and a couple of our close friends on the street had trees on their homes. At that time, she didn't really know the breadth of the damage, which we would later find out.
We arrived in Meridian and had a wonderful Southern lunch at New's (Catfish, Fried Chicken, Black Eyed Peas, Fried Pickles, Sweet Tea) while the storm blew over Meridian. The power went out and the wind blew hard, but there was no "freight-train". The storms had weakened by the time they got to Meridian, but still did some minor damage here and there.
We stopped by Grammy's new apartment so that Ryan and I could see it, and so that we could help her with her jig saw puzzle (Ryan's specialty). Her place is really cute and she seems so happy around all the other people. As we visited, it was obvious that we were all on edge and ready to get back to Jackson to check on things, so we packed up and headed back. It was a short trip to see Grammy, Rosanne, Dee and Becky but well worth it!
As we pulled into North Jackson, you could see that most every place was without power from about Northside Drive. This continued to my parents' neighborhood. As we pulled down Plantation, heading toward our side of the neighborhood, it was shocking to see the damage. There were trees and power lines down everywhere. Trees had fallen on homes and cars. The tornadoes had not touched down but the winds were strong enough to uproot and snap hundred+ year old trees. It was just so hard to drive through what is "home" and see the destruction.
When we finally made it to our street, after several detours due to down trees, we confirmed the neighbors reports that our house was okay. Some of our neighbors were not as fortunate. One had 3 trees on his house, one that went all the way through the ceiling of his inside utility room. Others had trees causing some surface damage, trees leaning on their homes, uprooted trees across driveways and streets with power lines tangled in them. Homes in other parts of the neighborhood could very well be destroyed by large trees that crashed through the middle. Mom and Dad were very lucky that the wind blew the way it did, and that Mom decided to cut all the trees in the yard down when I was still living at home.
The power came back on today but some in Jackson are still without. It was an interesting weekend at home, navigating the house by candlelight, hearing chainsaws and generators pretty much constantly and weaving through the neighborhood to try to get to someplace with power to eat dinner. James helped Dad get a generator at a store in Hattiesburg -- so Dad didn't miss the Final Four, though after UNC got spanked, I am sure he wished he missed it.
All the pictures taken by Ryan and Dad are here.
Ryan and I had Keifers (with Mom and Dad), went to the wedding
and hung out with our SAE friends on Saturday. Sunday morning we headed back home to Texas... to lights, air conditioning, cable and internet!
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