One of the Best Days of My Life and One of the WORST Days of My Life

This isn't going to be an easy post for me, but I need to write it.  I think it will help me heal a bit.

I'm first going to start with my Chase Log for April 26, 2011.

Wes C. and I met up at 7am CDT and headed towards our initial target of Corinth, MS.  We examined the models, and saw we should move just a bit further west for our best potential before dark.  We got to Holly Springs, MS, and saw some creepy abandoned buildings and took a few photos, because honestly.. we were beginning to think we were going to blue sky bust.  The cap was strong above us.  We headed a bit further west to Tunica, and an outlook upgrade was issued.  We were in a HIGH risk!  But after reading the text of the outlook, again...  everything was supposed to start happening overnight. 

We sat at a gas station in Tunica, trying to decide our strategy.  The atmosphere was pretty volatile.. It just needed one little thing to make everything go boom.

Then suddenly we saw a few discrete supercells pop up.  The decision was made to cross the Mississippi and head over into Arkansas for our intercept.  Just south of Haynes, AR, we approached a beautiful supercell.  Classic with a beavertail...  and we were rewarded with a wall cloud.  :)  We took some photos, and we were starting to think it was going to produce, so we repositioned and paralleled the storm on an East/West road for awhile...  The the storm went HP and we lost sight of the wall cloud because every thing got all wrapped up in rain.  That's when things got a bit hairy.  The road kept winding in and out taking is close to the rotation.  We were getting cored, thanks to a slow truck in front of us, but honestly, we both said later, if it hadn't been for that truck, things could have gotten ugly.  Not long after that we found damage outside of West Memphis, AR.  From that point, the entire way home, we kept struggling to stay out of the rotation.  But finally, at 2:30 am... I made it back home to Ringgold.

I woke up at 6am for work, and saw the High Risk for our area.  On my way in to work, I saw the tornado warnings in Alabama were already heading that way, so I hurried to beat the weather to work.  Approximately 8:30, Chattanooga was placed under a tornado warning.  I pulled up the radar on my phone and we were sitting RIGHT in the hook.  I'm certain Chattem took a direct hit from a tornado.  We lost power and the HUGE beautiful tree went down in front of our entrance.

Then, to put it bluntly, all hell broke loose.  From 2pm-10pm, one supercell right after another made a bee line for our area.  We basically spent it in the basement. These supercells were like mini low pressure systems.  You could FEEL the drop in pressure as they approached.  I can't describe it.  I thought I was imagining it at first...  but then I realized that's exactly what was happening.  You could feel the pressure bearing down on you.  The last one.... Stacey and I both felt.  An area of STRONG rotation went very near our home and produced an EF4 (preliminary) tornado about 3 miles away.  I didn't know what happened, until my phone started blowing up after it was over.  My sister and niece kept asking if we were okay.  They mentioned my ROAD on the news.  Thank GOD that we were spared.  I can't tell you how much I have THANKED him for that.  My brother, Chuck... his house sustained damage.  They are living in it with a generator that someone gave them as we speak. 

But Ringgold..........  Ringgold is my hometown.  I've lived here since I was 5 years old.  And even though I attended Lakeview-Ft Oglethorpe high school.......  I still have many memories of football games.  How many times have I eaten at that Pizza Hut???  I can hardly speak of it.  I look at the footage and feel like memories were just swept away.  Many homes are obliterated.  So many lost lives, including 5 alone from the Cherokee Valley Road community.  There you can see homes completely swept off their foundation.

Tornado video from Ringgold



Aerial footage of MY city.... WE WILL REBUILD!  God bless Ringgold!



http://www.wrcbtv.com/global/video/flash/popupplayer.asp?vt1=v&clipFormat=flv&clipId1=5797415&at1=News+-+Breaking+News&h1=RAW%3A+Aerials+from+Ringgold%2C+GA&flvUri&partnerclipid&rnd=65227794