In April of 2011, we had several huge tornadoes come through Alabama, and the area north of Huntsville where I was living (Harvest, AL) was right in the pathway of several of the tornadoes.
The first one hit before noon, and it took of a lot of the roof off of the house. My husband was at work, but my son from Washington State was out visiting with us; and we jumped into the van and went to bring my husband home . Even though Bobby only worked about a mile away, it took us over a half hour to get there because of the trees across the road, and having to find a different route to get there.
After picking up my husband and returning home, we spent most of the rest of the day huddled in the back of the basement (which was by then flooded with about 6" of water) as more tornadoes passed over. Finally, that evening the storms passed, and we could go back upstairs again. Since the roof over the bedrooms had been blown off, and the bedrooms were soaking wet; we had to sleep in the front living room of the house. There was water, but no electricity.
We didn't even hear emergency sirens until late that night, and later found out that it took that long before roads could be cleared for thee police and ambulance vehicles to get into our area to rescue people who were injured or trapped. Once the sirens started, they were constantly going for the rest of the night, and into the next day.
There were so many trees and power lines down that travel into and out of our area was impossible for almost a week afterwards; and we had no power for about two weeks. We could not use our cell phones, but could send a text, since it didn't have to connect as long, and that is how we were able to communicate with my daughter to see how she had fared. She was actually in a much better area than we were, and had electricity again in about a week.
The devastation was enormous in the Harvest area, and most of north Alabama had been hit hard. The insurance companies were swamped, so it was later in the summer before the landlord was able to get the roof replaced and new carpets in the bedrooms so that we could use them again.
We were very lucky to make it with no more damage than we had to the house, many whole areas had all of the houses and trees blown over and destroyed.
I am glad to be living in a safer part of Huntsville now, and out of the path that the storms usually take; but we keep supplies on hand just in case another bad tornado outbreak comes through and shuts the city down again. Here is a video showing how our area looked after the tornados came through.
http://youtu.be/TM7FD_9XEj8