it sounded like a freight train*

you can now read my blog without fear of experiencing "katrina fatigue." you may, however, experience "tornado fatigue" seeing as how countless twisters roared through my city yesterday. the church you see in the picture with the story on msnbc.com is about five miles from my house.

my church was planning another trip to louisiana this month, but shifted focus to west tennessee in response to last week's storms, and has now scratched that to take care of our own. earlier i was with about twenty people who spent the day sorting through trees and debris, ironically, at the home of the woman who has spearheaded the trips to louisiana. her home is fine, minus some shutters, but she and her husband lost two barns and contents, more trees than we could count, and some chickens who are probably really confused right about now.

goodlettsville, hendersonville, and ashland city (where i lived when i was little) are terribly hard-hit. gallatin is unbelieveable. miles and miles of homes and businesses and schools and hospitals are splintered. interstate 65 was shut down for quite a while yesterday and is still moving at a snail's pace, i guess because of all the cars, trees, and debris that have been tossed in the way. plus people keep coming up here just to look around, which doesn't help at all.

special thanks to the nice woman at target who whisked me through at a closed cash register this morning when she saw that i was buying a case of bottled water, pairs of work gloves, and batteries instead regular saturday stuff.

special thanks to E for taking me in when i couldn't get home on friday.

and a most special thanks to God for protecting my family and friends on a day when many families are grieving the unexpected loss of at least 36 people this week.

*what the tv-interviewed women in pink hair rollers and men in camo coveralls say is true. it does, in fact, sound like a freight train.