Super (Tornado) Tuesday!

For those who have been wondering why we haven't posted about the Super Tuesday election results, we have been without internet service for over 24 hours!

Our Super Tuesday election party at our grandparents' house last night turned out to be very different from what we'd expected. Severe weather had been building across the South all afternoon, and the election results had barely started to come in when several tornados hit West Tennessee. Instead of watching the election results, we ended up crowding in a small hall to wait for the tornado in our area to pass. The tornado came very close to us, completely flattening a mattress factory and several other buildings less than 2 miles away. The building our church meets in is next to the mattress factory, and while the room where our church meets was untouched, the front porch of the building is now behind the building in a heap and the other room had extensive roof and water damage. We are very grateful to the Lord for His protection over us and our church building! The tornados were very severe, and over 30 Tennessee deaths have already been reported, 3 of them just across the river from us.

At our grandparents' house, the power was knocked out almost immediately, so even after the storm had passed, we were unable to find out what was happening with the election! The suspense was terrible! Through friends and relatives who began calling to make sure we were okay, we found out that Gov. Huckabee was doing well in southern states, but that the races were still too close to call. On our way home, we heard on the radio that Georgia, Alabama and Arkansas had been called for Gov. Huckabee, but we were very anxious to find out about Tennessee. We also were eager to find out if our district had gone for Huckabee, if Daddy and Melissa had been elected as delegates, and what the delegate count was for Huckabee, McCain and Romney. A tornado had passed very close to our home as well, but the Lord had protected everything here. However, we soon discovered that we were in as much ignorance as before about the election results, because the storm had knocked out the internet provider in this area and we had absolutely no access! :( We had no cell phone service either. From the radio, we finally learned that Gov. Huckabee took TENNESSEE, which helped make a happier ending to such a tragic night.

Our high-speed internet is still down, but we finally got some dial-up this evening. It's terribly slow and problematic, so we may not be posting for awhile. When everything is back up again we'll post pictures of the tornado damage and the Super Tuesday numbers and percentages. The votes from our county weren't even counted until today due to the complications with the weather.