Future Flooding and Earthquakes in America?

So the world didn’t end as predicted by some quack who claimed it would end yesterday with people being raptured. No offense, but I really hope nobody reading my Blog believed such things!

The “End Times” and prophecies of Armageddon and world ending disasters has been a hot topic of discussion for all of our recorded history (and probably even before then). I don’t think this is going to change anytime soon.

We have another such prediction coming up next year. This one is from the Mayans with the December 21, 2012 end date. Unfortunately there are no Mayans left to ask about this since they all disappeared quite some time ago.

Personally, I do not think the world is going to “end” next year either. I do however think that we could experience some life changing things in our near future.

The New Madrid earthquake fault line in America could very likely experience some strong activity. This could result in devastating changes in America if a huge earthquake were to hit there.



The U.S. Navy Earth Change Map also shows what America could look like in the future. I guess my dream home in the French Quarter in New Orleans, LA will be gone :(



So, what do you think will happen? Discuss!

Update and Pictures from the April 27, 2011 Tornadoes in Alabama

Thank you so much to everyone that has commented on my previous post about the tornadoes, sent me e-mails and messages and has also sent prayers or support in some way to the victims from the tornadoes in the South.

I honestly don’t even know where to begin writing this post. So, I’ll give some updates on what it is like here and also share some pictures of the damage around where I live.



This is a picture I took outside our house probably about 5 minutes before we heard the tornado come through. The trees behind where you see the house, it looked like a war zone after the tornado. To the right of there and across the river they also saw complete devastation. Shortly after it went through, we saw many red, white and blue lights flashing in the distance for hours. The next day we found out they were searching for people, some were fished out of the water.







Where I live, our road was extremely lucky. We live just one street away from an area that was completely devastated. The trees that were down on our road that hit power lines and fell on some houses didn’t kill anyone. We lost water for 4 days and power for almost one whole week though.

Everything that happened almost two weeks ago is still so unreal. You see national disasters on the news, but until it is in your own backyard (quite literally) you just don’t grasp how devastating it can be for people. The following pictures are of the debris still floating in the river by our house and some shots of the area that was hit so hard by where I live.







When I was driving back home from the store a few days ago, I clocked just how wide the destruction from that tornado was. 1.5 miles wide. For what was once such a beautiful country road, it will never look or feel the same again. Of course, that can be said for everywhere the tornado hit that was 200 or 300 miles long of destruction.

If you can possibly donate anything to the Red Cross or other organizations that are helping the victims from these tornadoes that went through, they do still need much support. If you can’t donate money, prayers are of course always welcome and much needed for people too.

Tornadoes in Alabama

As most of you that read my Blog know, I live in central Alabama. The storms that came through here on Wednesday have greatly affected my family and our close friends. Thankfully nobody in our family or close friends were part of the over 300 people that died from the tornadoes.

We lost power that morning at 6AM. A tornado hit about 7 miles away in my brother and sister’s town. It went through their small town and did a large amount of damage. A few trees fell down on our road with some power lines and we never restored power.

It was a very hot day, which is apparently very bad for the atmosphere and produces tornadoes. After the generator was running later that day, we realized that there was a very large tornado that was moving through our state.

This was the tornado that was on the ground for over 300 miles. It was the same one that was at times a mile wide. Same one that hit Tuscaloosa and eventually was the same one that hit about half a mile away from our house.

We don’t have a basement. When the news people were saying it was coming in our area and if you live where we live to seek cover immediately, we did. The sky by the way was a creepy shade of yellow. The water on the river was moving very fast. The only place we could make it to that was “safe” was the first floor hallway.

We heard the loud noise of the tornado. It was scary. We prayed. Luckily, it didn’t hit us. However, only half a mile away or so saw complete devastation. Many people died, our close friends lost their houses, and as my brother and dad said when they saw it over there, it looked like a war zone.

Yesterday, my Mom and I looked around our yard to see if we saw any debris or anything. We found mail from people in Pleasant Grove and Tuscaloosa, a yearbook page and a piece of a page from a Bible. We live probably 100 miles away from those two towns. Random objects have also been spotted floating down the river.

If you pray, the people that have lost everything really need your prayers and support. My little area that I live in isn’t getting much (if any) coverage on the news, but everyone affected by the deadly tornadoes that hit the South really do need prayers.

I will update when I can. I appreciate the e-mails and FB messages left for me asking if I am okay. We still have no power here and now not even water. I’m writing using the generator right now and using our DSL (somehow that works).

Take a look at the aerial coverage from the tornado damage in central Alabama here:

Happy (Late) Holidays!

Wow. So, I’m a little late in wishing everyone a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays (whatever it is you celebrate). My family celebrates Christmas. Usually we have some kind of a party here before Christmas (big family) and then end up going over to my Aunt and Uncle’s house on Christmas day. This year though, we went to Gatlinburg, Tennessee and stayed at a really beautiful resort.

While we were there – it snowed. I mean, a lot of snow! Blizzard kind of snow for this area of the country. We got around 14 inches of the beautiful powdery white stuff. We were snowed in for a few days, but that was okay. Luckily the resort we stayed at was in town and not high up on the top of a mountain like some unlucky tourists that were stuck up there for a week. Yeah, they ran out of food and water and couldn’t even get down the mountain!

It was a nice relaxing Christmas vacation though, which was quite needed for us all. Of course we did some shopping and had some good meals, but we also had fun playing the Wii – who know my Mom would be so good at that?

After we left Gatlinburg, we went to my Aunt and Uncle’s house in North Carolina for New Year’s. My Nana was also there who was visiting (she stayed at our house, and then my Aunt’s for a month each). It was fun and guess what? They had tons of snow there too! I don’t think I’ve seen this much snow during the holidays since I was a little kid.

I would post pictures of us all and perhaps mention names, but I like to keep it a little private since they probably don’t want me sharing with the world pictures of them, etc.


Here is a bit of a picture recap of my holiday…


Driving into town (before it snowed)…


View from our balcony after it snowed.


Self-shot of me on the balcony.


View of the pool area after the snow.


This is a shot in Gatlinburg after we got back from some shopping. VERY busy roads!


The Mill we stopped at for some souvenirs in Pigeon Forge. Love this shot!


I hope that all of you also had a great holiday. What did you do? Do you have snow where you live right now too?

Snow Day

The snow that is sweeping across the Southern states actually hit us here in Central Alabama too!

Sorry this isn’t a very long post, I’m having too much fun enjoying watching the snow fall down. Plus, as an added bonus I didn’t have to work today. Everything shuts down for snow/ice conditions here because roads aren’t equipped for it – and well, I live on a very long mountainy road along the river and don’t want to get in an accident.

Here are some of the pictures I took while having fun in the snow today. Enjoy!

Snow Pictures and Video!

Here are some of the pictures I took yesterday when it was snowing. We didn't get 3 inches, but we had several snow flurries and it stuck around for awhile.

Now it is just icy mostly. There are quite a few places in our yard that are still covered in snow though. Our road is also pretty undriveable with the ice too, so again no work for me today. It hasn't been above 25 degrees here today I think.

Anyways, here are the pictures - enjoy!





Here is some short video of it falling down by my car... I would have gotten better footage but it was hard to catch falling down with other backgrounds. Enjoy the first video I posted on here that I've taken myself!

I Wished For It… So What If It Is AYear Late?

Perhaps you remember all my posts last year about how I wished it would just snow already. It gets cold here, where it could snow. However it rarely ever does. Maybe that is a good thing because a little snow in the south makes people crazy and shuts everything down. No exaggeration there.

Much of the nation is in winter weather or cold/freeze advisories this week. Alabama is not excluded. In fact – we’re even getting snow today!



We’re having snow flurries right now where I live. I’m excited. The weather people are saying that we are going to get 1 to 3 inches of snow!

Not only do I love snow, but now it is also going to get me a free day or two out of work. I live on a very long, curvy, mountainy road along a river. It isn’t the best road in normal weather, so add in snow and ice and well nobody should be driving on it. Plus, our normal roads even aren’t equipped to handle snow/ice. Therefore… I can’t get into work.

Hazardous driving conditions don’t make for pizza delivery. I think our store will either shutdown (not likely) or go to carryout only during this weather. Honestly though, if someone wants delivery they are insane. If they wouldn’t drive in a certain weather type they should never call and ask someone else to do so either.

On other news, I was able to squeeze into another class this semester. Now I’ll be taking psychology and biology. I hope that I am able to get A’s in both. I’m going to study really hard. My job also is cool with the new hours change for me and days of availability so that is a relief too.

I’ll post pictures of the snow and stuff later today or tomorrow – assuming we don’t lose power or anything (::knocks on wood::).

Let The Sun Shine

Today it finally was slightly sunny. We had a huge amount of rain here this week in the Southeastern portion of USA.

Luckily I live where it is very unlikely to flood. We have a big lake behind our house, but with the dams we should be fine. Although, the first time I ever came here the bridge on our road did wash out…

In case you didn’t see this on the news, check out what Six Flags in Atlanta, GA looked like from the flooding issues caused by all this rain.

Look! A Rainbow

We had severe weather here all day today it seems like. We had 2 really big thunderstorms come through so far. More might be on the way later tonight. The weather storm alert thing we have went off every 10-15 mins all day. The weather guy was on TV almost all day, etc. We mostly just got a lot of rain and some hail though we may have been near some tornadoes. Hopefully not though.

My Mom noticed a beautiful rainbow after the 2nd storm of the day and I ran upstairs to get my camera. Luckily it wasn’t gone before I was able to snap a few pictures. It was still raining, so it isn’t the best it could be. I think it still turned out rather pretty.



The rainbow was in the lake by our house! How cool is that? Have you ever been really close to a rainbow too?

Baby, Its Cold Outside

The arctic air that is chilling the good ole’ USA (well, most parts) is even reaching down to us here in Alabama. It is about 22 degrees F right now. Last night it was supposed to go down to 0 or 10 degrees. Crazy! It is never this cold here.

I’m not complaining though, I love it! We do have a heater upstairs and downstairs, and a fireplace. So, it isn’t like we’re suffering in the cold outside with the wind chill or anything. If we were, I’m sure I’d hate it too. If only we had snow… then I’d be even happier. Ah, maybe we will get a miracle and it will snow.

Here are some amazing pictures that were e-mailed to me over a year ago that were taken in Switzerland (or so they said). I think they're cool though, so enjoy!

Beautiful Weather

This is a picture that I took on Monday. It’s been this kind of weather since Saturday I think, maybe longer. Some might not think it qualifies as being “beautiful weather.” I however, beg to differ. I love winter. I really wish it snowed here. Since it doesn’t, I take what I can get of the cold, rainy and overcast days.

I would have posted this picture yesterday, as I had planned. However, I got too caught up in reading New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn from the Twilight series. Yes, I read all of those in less than 3 days. I’ll make a post soon about my thoughts on that.

Weather like this makes me get out the song by Garbage “I’m Only Happy When It Rains.” I really love that song. Maybe because it reminds me of junior high school. Maybe because it reminds me of old friends I most likely won’t ever see again. Maybe because I just really like the rain?

Rain, But No Snow

As the weird weather system moved towards us here in Eastern Alabama, we had hopes of snow. The weather people of course couldn’t say there would be or not for sure, but we had hope.

Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, even Northwestern Alabama all had snow. Eastern Alabama (where I live) did not. We just got more rain. As in all day yesterday it rained and was cold. Snow? Nope…

Winter is not over though; I still hope we get it sometime this winter.

Weird Weather

At 4:30 AM this morning I woke up to the sound of heavy rain and the voice from the siren before the tornado alarm goes off. Not fun at all. I really hate the sound that the tornado warning alarm makes. Plus, it is December! We aren’t supposed to get tornadoes in Alabama in December! What is going on here? Am I dreaming??? Unfortunately, no. We were under the tornado warning until 5:30 AM. Luckily nothing happened here except rain. Others in our county weren’t so lucky because tornadoes did touchdown, but I don’t think anyone was seriously injured or killed.

I hate tornadoes (not that anyone except tornado chasers and weathermen loves them). I’ve been in many hurricanes and tropical storms, even nearby tornadoes from those hurricanes. At least with hurricanes you have time to prepare – as in days. Not like tornadoes though. If we’re sleeping and a tornado comes and we happen to hear the siren (we don’t live near it), we would have to run outside kind of far in the dark on an uneven path down the hill to our storm shelter. We’ve never done this. We just go downstairs and watch the weather guy on the news. ::knocks on some wood:: I wish we had a basement because that storm shelter isn’t going to be used.

After it was light outside and it had stopped raining (well not completely stopped but slowed down) another weird thing happened. We’ve had this misty fog now all day. If you ever saw that movie The Mist, it was a lot like the thick fog that rolled in just before the dinosaurs and other creatures from another dimension attacked everyone.

That brings me to more rain. It has been raining in some form all day. Mostly just a drizzly, rainy, grey, not so regular day.

Tonight and tomorrow might bring even more weird weather: snow. I recently blogged about it not snowing here, so I really hope it does! I won’t believe it until I see it though. Call me skeptical but I have yet to see snow stick here since I’ve lived here. Mother Nature has had a rather funny sense of humor here lately, so it wouldn’t surprise me if we have a blizzard here tomorrow.

I’ll keep you all posted if I still have internet connection. Hope you are all having a great day and staying warm!

Let it Snow - please?

I’m a Floridan, I’m not used to ‘cold’ weather. I’ve lived in Northern Alabama for a few years now, but not enough to make up for the better part of my life in Florida. It is true I actually hate the heat and humidity that Florida offers. I do happen to love the fall and winter seasons the most. I even wish it would snow here. After all, what is the point of it getting below freezing without the fresh white snow?

My family goes to visit my Aunt and Uncle in North Carolina a lot during the winter (and summer too really). My favorite memory of snow is when I woke up there one time while my other Aunt was visiting there too and we woke up to fresh snow outside. We played in the snow for hours building snowmen, snowballs and of course – snow angels! Why can’t it snow here? WHY?!?!

That is where this Blog post comes in. Really, it is just me complaining that I want snow. It is in the 20s (Fahrenheit) at night and usually not over the mid 40s during the day. So, why can’t it freaking snow?!? I’m not asking for feet of snow here, just a few inches that will stay on the ground all day. The kind you can play in and make snowballs and small mini-sized snowmen even. It appears to be snowing in Chicago today and I am envious. Send some of your snow here!

Do you enjoy the snow? Do you have snow on the ground where you live yet? What is your favorite memory of snow?

Hurricane Season

Growing up with constant threats of hurricanes every year, I am used to hurricanes. Florida gets hit quite often, and I lived in central Florida for most of my life. Packing up my stuff that I was allowed to fit in my bags and then evacuating with my family – possibly leaving everything else behind to get blown away. Luckily, nothing severe ever happened to our house or even the city we lived in.

In 2004, hurricanes hit Florida one after another. Remember that? I sure do. Even a seasoned hurricane Floridian was sick and tired of hurricanes after that. Sure, “hurricane parties” were fun and all – but the threat sure isn’t something to look forward to. We actually had a close call with tornadoes from Hurricane Charlie near where I lived in Orlando. The most severe hurricane that season was Hurricane Katrina. It didn’t hit Florida that hard but everyone remembers it from New Orleans’ devastation. They are still trying to recover from that hurricane.

Now, we have Hurricane Gustav that is hitting those along the Gulf today. We also have Tropical Storm Hanna (Hurricane Hanna sounds catchy and somehow that doesn’t seem like a good thing) out in the Atlantic right now. Hopefully, these hurricanes (and anymore that end up spawning out there) don’t cause devastation like some hurricanes have in the past. My thoughts and prayers go out to those in the path of these storms.