Alabama Tornadoes – April 27, 2011
To keep the refrigerator running we used an inverter hooked to the pickup. Since it is rated at 750 watts it won’t do more than one thing at a time, but it will also make a pot of coffee. After two days next door neighbor Butch Martin remembered he had an old, small generator that might still work. He gave it to us and Jack managed to bring it to life with some gas additive and starting fluid. It’s a 1600 watt version and gave us some added capability. Then neighbor Bruce Light stopped by with some hamburgers and hot dogs he had cooked on his grill, which we enjoyed. The next day neighbor Jim Limperis brought us a home cooked meal of shrimp and sausage that he and Mary had prepared. We heard many reports of folks sharing everything and even some businesses were giving food away as they cleaned out their freezers. As of yesterday (May 2) there were still no restaurants open in Arab, but since power has returned to most of the town we expect a rapid recovery.
It was no more than an inconvenience for our family, but our hearts go out to those around the area that suffered many losses.