This has been an unbelievable day in Alabama! The weather people had predicted that the tornadoes would be numerous and powerful. They were so right. There have been multiple tornadoes with many fatalities and unbelievable destruction. Tuscaloosa had an enormous tornado that had confirmed minimum of 15 deaths. We know there were at least 40 confirmed deaths in the state. Cullman has had three tornadoes. Birmingham was hit by a terrible tornado. A suburb of Birmingham, Pleasant Grove had horrendous damage with fatalities There was one tornado in our county, but the damage was south of us. We spent some time in our basement, and no, not everyone has basements, but you spend time in it if a tornado is approaching. One of the things that enhanced the death toll may have been the early morning storms that resulted in many people losing power. They would be less likely to know that a storm was on the way. My DGD was in the house with her other grandmother, and the tornado hit the street where she was. The windows in her house were blown out, and out of the houses on the street were heavily damaged. In fact the house she was in is the only house on the block still standing. There was a fatality on the street. She reports that the sound of a tornado is indeed very like the sound a train makes. I feel very blessed that all of my family is safe. I hope everyone on the forum remains safe. Have we heard from Jean? kay

It sounds like you have a full chimney. Why can't you keep the doors closed when the fire place is turned on? I live in a cold climate so just about all of the fire places around here use outside air for combustion and don't need to draw air from the house for combustion which means the glass doors can be closed when the fireplace is being used. If you need to keep your doors open, then you must not use outside air. With kids, the biggest advantage of glass doors is being able to close the doors while the fireplace is in use--at worst they get a burn from the hot glass if they are playing around the fire place and happen to touch it. Screens are much more easily moved or tipped over. As chisue said, another advantage of the doors is (if you can close them while the fireplace is on) that you prevent conditioned air from going up the chimney. Good luck.

Calm down, Sue. I hope you don't feel I was flaming you because I sure didn't mean to. I was saying I hated last minute customers when I was in the restaurant business so I don't go late. Even though I agreed with you, I still had some sympathy for the employees. The bottom line is you are right, and no one can dispute that even if their answers weren't quite as matteroffact as the simplicity of the subject. The sign said 8:30, so the door should not be locked until 8:30. To each their own in the way they do things. I don't arrive so late and others don't either, but many people do. Really not that big a deal. But, please don't let it all rile you like this. Not everyone agrees is all.

It's hard to imagine how this could have happened and the aftermath looked horrific. Such a sweet-looking town.