Back from Oz

Sometime around 3 AM Tuesday morning, I was jerked from my peaceful slumber to the loudest noise. I really think it was just the shutter slamming into the window next to my bed and the glass shattering. It could have been partially the tornado. I laid there for a minute trying to figure out what was going on. I glanced out the window and saw the shattered glass, flashing lightning. I am so very lucky that I have storm windows in my room. It saved me from having the glass blown all over me. It did pop out part way, and there was glass all over my floor. I got up to see what was going on and it wasn't for a good 5 minutes did we realize what had happened. Kristen and I wandered to the front of the house, closing some of the windows that had blown open. We went to go see how the furniture on the balcony had weathered. At first I thought it had all blown away. Somethings had. The rest was pushed up to the other end of the balcony. I looked up and noticed that the gutter was gone. The gutter had partially pulled away from the roof during Katrina. I even made the comment that our landlord was going to have to fix that now. It was then that I realized that the roof to the balcony was GONE. The big pillars that hold it up? GONE. I can't explain the feeling that swept through me. It was fear and confusion and dread. We eventually ventured outside. All the neighbors were slowly emerging from their homes. There were oak tree limbs from the trees in the park all over the road, just two houses up, in the middle of the street lay one of the said trees. Our neighbors new car was smashed. He actually saw the tornado coming up the street. He as going out to move his car when he saw/heard the transformers popping all the way down the block, one after another. He said he saw these amazing colors, blues, purples, greens and yellows. He ran back inside just in time. Parts of our roof are in the neighbors roof. A house shifted. We were right down the street where the roof blew off one house and landed on the FEMA trailer. Everyone walked around in a daze, rather like zombies. A neighbor and I pulled tree limbs out from the middle of Claiborne since some cars were barrelling down the street just barely slowing down when they saw the branches. It started to rain again so we made our way inside. Once it got light enough everyone ventured out again to access the damage in the light. We all started cleaning up. Within minutes the city had the people out there cleaning out the street. By 4 PM Tuesday, the street was completly clear. Mayor Ray Nagin stopped by the house to see how we were doing. He spent a majority of the afternoon in our 10 block radius going to houses talking to people and accessing the damage. The response by everyone, the emergency workers and relief workers was amazing. Our power was restored yesterday at about noon. We will have to throw out all the contents in the fridge. Considering how bad it could have been, we all consider ourselves so very lucky. Mother Nature isn't happy right now.