When the tornado hit, I had no clue anything had happened. Although Prattville is my home, I am currently in Tuscaloosa attending the University of Alabama. When the storm hit I was watching the Daytona 500 with my roommates and saw one of the little state maps in the corner of the screen pointing out the Tornado warnings around the state. My roommate pointed out that Autauga County was highlighted to which I responded “Its probably out in Autaugaville and not much of a tornado, that’s what always happens.” After that I did not give it another thought until about 3:15 when a close friend from Millbrook called to see if my family was ok. This caught me off guard as I was completely oblivious to the fact that a tornado had hit my home. At this point everything became a blur as I tried calling family all over Prattville or even in Birmingham and got no answer. After what seemed like hours, I heard from my parents a little under an hour after the storm hit. My family was lucky in that we had no damage from the storm, but I could not reach my parents because they were out checking on our neighbors. My father went into a house that he believed was in danger of collapsing to go help our neighbor Ms. Mary who was stuck inside. I was crushed after hearing what had happened and devastated when I started hearing stories from friends and seeing the pictures, especially since I could not return home to help due to a number of tests that week. The first chance I had to come home was late on the Friday after the storm. I was amazed at what I saw that night I came home, with all of the destruction that had happened to my neighbors, my friends, and my family. The only comfort I found was that everyone was physically ok. I felt physically sick as I drove to my house and saw the carnage of this disaster. The next morning I woke up to help my parents clean up the mess around our house. Early that morning we were greeted by a number of National Guardsmen asking what they could do to help, which we declined for there were others with greater needs than our own. As I left to go to a friends house across town to pick up some things to help clean up I was shocked to see the sheer volume of people wearing gloves, carrying rakes, and walking from house to house. I watched as two entire busloads of people got off and immediately went to help out. Sunday I was once again saw the same thing as I was working at my home. Seeing the people of Prattville come out like this to help their neighbors that suffered through this disaster reminded my of why I love Prattville and its people. The people of Prattville saw a disaster and quickly rallied to help their neighbors. I want to thank all of the people who came out and sacrificed their time to help their neighbors. The people of Prattville, through their compassion have shown the entire nation why Prattville is “The Preferred Community”.
Kyle Shirley, Janice St.
