<p>BTW, Obama will be in Tuscaloosa tomorrow from 9:45-11:45 AM tomorrow.</p>
<p>Thoughts and prayers to everyone affiliated with the Tuscaloosa community. Stay safe and take care of yourselves.</p>
<p>They are calling for donations of clothes/underwear/socks and shoes, I have asked my friends locally for help.</p>
<p>Oh my gosh. I was going to ask about this earlier. I was wondering whether such stuff was needed. I work for Hanesbrands. All week long I have been planning to go to the employee store this Friday (tomorrow) during lunch. The employee store is having a huge tent sale. I don’t know how much stuff will be left, but they always have huge bins of tees (irregulars and overstocks), usually for 35 cents each. And, of course, they have underwear and socks out the wazoo. Also bras. I will see what I can do. Is there a place to send all this stuff? I was thinking of sending items to Saint Francis Church, so the clothing could get directly to the needy with zero red tape. (I am used to working this way with a local nun who works with the Hispanic community – zero red tape, zero overhead.) If there is a better place to send stuff, please let me know. Thanks!!</p>
<p>ahpimommy - oh my gosh, your poor DD. I did not realize that there were more student fatalities. Last I checked, there were two. Lord have mercy.</p>
<p>What a week this has been. Just the other day our kids’ former youth minister posted at Facebook that his wife had been diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer – on Easter day! She is only 31 and has just weaned their youngest. I have a sense of overwhelming horror, that everything horrible is happening at once. All I can do is pray.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info., Montegut, about the RA’s announcement. We were wondering about the checkout procedure. </p>
<p>Son called us from Ridgecrest South, where he went after finding out they had power. His cell phone was nearly out of charge and felt lucky to find out that he could plug it in an outlet there and charge the phone. He said there were kids in the hallways charging their phones as well. </p>
<p>We will drive down from PA tomorrow to pick up son. Since we’re assuming that lodging in the area will be difficult, we plan to stay overnight somewhere near the TN/AL border, get a full tank of gas, drive into Tuscaloosa, pick up son and all his belongings, and go right home.</p>
<p>Thank you for the insight on the psychological effects, crimsonmomtobe. In fact, our young daughter will be staying behind. She is quite distressed that Full Moon barbecue is no longer standing. She does not need to see the extent of the devastation first hand, although she is upset not to be able to make the trip. </p>
<p>Safe travels, all!</p>
<p>Did not know power was back on, wonder if it is also on in Ridgecrest West?
Please keep us posted as much as you can about the trip in etc., still working on details on how to get DS out as we are in Ariz. until Sat. If my convoluted plan with ehuttle getting him to storage then to BHM doesn’t work out looks like I’ll be driving down from Chicago Sun.
Have a safe trip. RTR!</p>
<p>Hey Al34 saw your post but as of now I don’t know if we have a storage place to go to …haven’t heard that we were able to reach them. Have you? Right now I am looking at three possible plans. </p>
<p>One, we get in touch with the storage place and my son’s roommates parents take his stuff there. He keeps his tuesday flight as scheduled. Plan B, they take my son’s stuff to there home in southern alabama until a later time and he keeps his flight plans for Tuesday. Three, he takes his stuff and himself to there home and we find a new flight since he was flying out of birmingham and that would be a far drive for them…so, if you hear any news about storage let me know. Does the idea of him staying put until tuesday seem crazy?</p>
<p>I called them today and they said storage was still on, good to go.
We’re still trying to figure this out - believe me if I was in Chicago I would have left by car already.
The only thing remaining is how to get DSs stuff to the Rice Mine Rd. storage unit. Anyone he knows with a car has already left town. Apparently there are UA shuttles to get him to BHM and plenty of flights to Chicago avail. each day. If we have to drive down will not be until Sunday. </p>
<p>So right now I’m looking for a taxi service or something to get him to the storage unit. Anyone with ideas? Not really getting answers from the local cab companies.</p>
<p>I’m sure there will be others staying until Tues., but sounds like they will be consolidated into a dorm so could be a pian - but nothing compared to what has happened. DS was originally scheduled for Fri., way too late to consider.</p>
<p>AL34 Does Lizette know this she said she had been calling all day. Do you have a way to reach matt? Hmmm that is good news. I think Hunter has some roommates leaving tomorrow that he could ask to help him get his stuff there. But, don’t we need Matt to get access? I will send my phone number on PM so we can talk.</p>
<p>Socal, AL, bassettmomma, if the roads are passable, we can swing by the storage facility to see if it’s still standing and in operation. We’re assuming the worst so we are planning to just take all of his belongings home. Son was able to get to 15th St. and posted photos of the devastation. He was wondering about the extent of the roadblocks around the city.</p>
<p>Thanks that would be great. I think I can get his stuff there when his future roommates parents come to get their son in a few days.</p>
<p>I called Rice Mine today and they picked right up- said no problems with storage unit - all systems go.
I gave Mitch Matt’s room number and told him to get the keys tomorrow. IIRC Matt is currently holding the lock so the first one’s over just have to bring it.
If Mitch can get a way over there then things get much easier, that’s my remaining issue.
As I said, I read that UA has shuttles to BHM, not concerned if they have to wait.
will ck PMs</p>
<p>We plan to arrive in town on Sat. If you can get the boys to pack their belongings so things are good to go, we can make several trips to drive all the stuff to the storage facility. We’ll just have to coordinate our schedules. I’ll PM my cell number.</p>
<p>I have not heard anything about shuttles to BHM. It would be great if someone could post that info. :)</p>
<p>My son will be good to go sophocles. THANKS</p>
<p>Recently at mass the priest gave a touching homily about “when bad things happen” and one of the most poignant things that impacted me was that in the turmoil we also get “a glimpse of heaven and God’s love in the kindness of others.” Thank you all for the glimpse of heaven through your kindness and caring. Continued prayers for all the UA and Alabama families.</p>
<p>Thoughts and prayers to everyone in Tuscaloosa. My son will be joining the UA family in August. I can’t imagine how devastating this has been for everyone there and for all the parents trying to contact their children.</p>
<p>SeaTide -
ua website says they have some shuttles available (205) 348-RIDE
will call when they wake up and post any info here.</p>
<p>AL34 & others: D told me last night that Ridgecrest South had power and internet; and that if she’d known that she would have gone over there Wed night/Thurs morning since Ridgecrest West didn’t.</p>
<p>I haven’t made our plans to return to Tuscaloosa yet; I’m waiting to see if there’s any more email from campus clarifying things over the weekend. Looking at my work schedule, I can take off on Tuesday or Thursday. DH had planned on Friday (as originally planned) but I’d like to get that done earlier. Anyway, when I know when I’m going, I’ll be happy to shuttle your kids around to where they need to go. I’ll post when dates are settled.</p>
<p>Thank you for thoughts and concern for us. As an occasional poster, mostly lurker I am truly touched by this board!</p>
<p>We made it through the storms with no damage. Some neighbors had damage. All of Madison County is without power and will be for 3-7 days. Cell phone coverage is spotty. I think it is being overloaded because most of the landlines are also dead.</p>
<p>We are now in Montgomery. D1 (the one going to Bama in the fall) has an art award/reception at the capitol building today that is continuing as planned, so we booked a hotel and headed down last night. It was nice to get a shower! </p>
<p>Someone asked about the Pulaski Pike area? As far as I know, that area is okay. The hardest hit in Madison County was Harvest. especially the Anderson Hills Subdivision.</p>
<p>We will head back home tomorrow, stopping for more supplies on the way home. I agree with everyone about making emergency supplies for themselves and their students! If you do, make sure you include an envelope of emergency cash! We are such a cashless society now! We were lucky that the Publix across the street has a generator so they were open yesterday and accepting plastic. Other stores were open but could only accept cash.</p>
<p>Prayers continues from our family for the students and families in Tuscaloosa and all of Alabama.</p>