We planned to go to Chattanooga this weekend for a youth worker's conference. We got the tickets back in August/September, planned a sitter for Luke, made the reservations, etc. I saved 2 of my personal days from work to be able to go- and we were all packed and ready to go Thursday morning!
We dropped Luke off at his sitter around 10am and started on our way! Our sitter mentioned that her throat was a little scratchy and she had a little cough but considering our weather has gone from iced in to 70 degrees with tornadoes in 6 days, we all brushed it off thinking it was just the change in temps.
We met my mom for lunch in Atlanta, and began the second leg of our trip up 75. We got just past Rome and got the text that our sitter who was keeping Luke had just tested positive for the flu. Wha?!? That's literally how fast it came on her (from the time we dropped him to that afternoon- maybe 4 hours). We quickly pulled over and tried to come up with plan B. A few friends offered to go get him and keep him while we continued our trip, but we just couldn't risk him getting anyone else sick (since he had been exposed). I would never forgive myself if my child got a whole family sick just because we didn't turn around and come home. Luke had his flu shot this year, but he had a flu shot a couple years ago and still got the flu- so no guarantees there.
4 hours after we started our trip (we were 30 minutes from our destination in Chattanooga), we turned around to come home.
We decided since it was already almost 4pm when we made the decision that we would hit Atlanta traffic dead on. So we avoided it and took Hwy 53 which GPS said was only 6-10 minutes longer than going through Atlanta. About a mile after we exited we hit a wall of traffic, bumper to bumper, and a sign that said 1 lane road ahead. We weren't sure what was going, so after 10 minutes we just turned our car engine off and just waited. All the time I'm just thinking about getting Luke and getting home. I really just wanted the day to be over!
The traffic lasted about 20 minutes and our lane began moving. Little did we know, we had ventured into tornado damage traffic. Obviously if we had known that we wouldn't have added another car to the road- but we were stuck, so we forged ahead. Holy cow the damage was AWFUL.
We saw a traffic light, vacuum cleaner, electric meter from a house, and a ceiling fan thrown in a ditch. There were Christmas decorations everywhere along with clothes, a mattress, stuffed animals, and house debris. It was UNREAL. Before seeing all this I was having a pretty big pity party for myself and the fact that our weekend away was unexpectedly canceled; and then as I saw all this damage it really put everything into perspective. I can't imagine if that was my stuff strewn all over a field. Or my house in splinters. It just broke my heart to see so much damage.
We got Luke, went home and crashed. It was such a whirlwind but we made the best of it. Since I had already taken Friday off as a personal day, I chose to keep it that way. I was able to get in to the nursery and finish most of the painting! I was also able to work on the nursery curtains. I'll have details coming this week!
The big bowl bash is Sunday at church so we are looking forward to that too!
Here are some pictures from the storm damage. Sorry they aren't zoomed in... all I had was my iPhone. Most of these photos are taken right outside Calhoun, GA on Hwy 53.
{we watched the truck on the right try to pull the truck on the left out of the mud- the truck on the right lost his whole front bumper!}
{this house as far as we could see was left untouched. There were trees down ALL around it- crazy!}
{A house without a roof. And there's a vacuum and electric meter in that ditch}
{a mattress in the midst of house debris}
{This was on I-75 where the tornado crossed the highway in Adairsville}
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