I once saw a tv show about an African tree (Baobob?) documenting the birds and other wildlife which depended on the tree for shelter, food, protection during the seasons. I thought then I'd like to see the same type show done for our Oaks, Pines, etc. I remember during one of our rare snowfalls seeing a tiny field mouse run from under a birdfeeder to the hedge. DH said they were probably always present in our overgrown garden, just unobserved. It's said that nature is neutral but it still hurts to know creatures suffer. And to see our own friendly garden inhabitants hurts more. Hope most found shelter even next door and will return. josh

Basements are not rare in my area of the south (TN). Many, I would even venture to say most, homes here have a garage, but many houses have basements. This is our third home and we have had a basement in each house. On this and the last house we had a basement with a garage on the main (living) level. First house was combo garage/basement. Jane - there was some damage in Knoxville, but I'm about 30 minutes from there. That's where I work and where my dad and my sister and her husband live. We had about 40 windows out of the building where I work (college campus) and lots of downed trees, limbs, etc. My sister had a couple of storm windows broken as well as hail damage to one vehicle. My dad did FINALLY get power back on Friday evening (was without for 5 days), only after a neighbor called and complained that she had felt sick after breathing fumes from the ruptured transformer on their property. Within 30 minutes there were 6 trucks and just a bit later from another area, a special truck and crew that removed the transformer and dug up soil around it. Scary. My dad and others on his end of the road have wells - so water has been tested. This is a small county road - only 8 houses - all with acreage. Those further back from the main road have wells. Thanks for asking. My brother is in Ft. Oglethorpe, GA which is close to Cleveland and Chattanooga and he and his wife were quite upset at the amount of damage. She did her graduate work at Lee University in Cleveland and they lived there before moving to Ft. Oglethorpe. tina

There are a couple of threads over on the conversations side too, I was looking for Glenda and someone told me that she had posted at KT, and I'm glad to see her post here safely. I understand that Beverly is safe too, but without power, and Jude is also OK. Everyone in the path of those storms has been in my prayers and will remain there, clean up is going to be a long process. As LindaC said, Iowa is still cleaning up from the catastrophic flooding after 2 years, so I'm sure clean up and rebuilding from this is going to take years, not months. I'm just glad our friends here are safe and hopefully the storms are over so rebuilding can begin. Annie

I'm always amazed at what a tornado will do. Dh and I helped clean up a coworker's house after the 2007 tornado that hit Little Rock. It was shocking to see parts of houses left undamaged while everything else was flattened. I don't know if you've seen today's news reports. Tulsa got hit by straight line winds with gusts over 80 mph early this morning. There is a lot of damage around the area with some roofs blown off a lot of people without power. Several schools in the area are closed.