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MADISON, Alabama – Bob Jones High School junior Elizabeth Story doesn’t remember much about losing her own home in Selmer, Tenn., to a tornado when she was “about 6 or 7.”

But she empathizes with the scores of people who lost their homes, family members and friends during the historic tornado outbreak that struck Alabama April 27.

“I have never really feared storms and I don’t think I will fear them now,” she said. “But I do feel for all those who have lost their homes and what they are going through.”

Last week’s deadly storms nearly hit home again with Story, who was concerned about two of her nephews who were trapped at school in Limestone County. Fortunately, they were safe, although a fire station next to the school was destroyed.

Story and her classmates returned to school for the first time Wednesday since the powerful storms struck.

Story’s English teacher, Robin Dauma, brought copies of The Huntsville Times to her classes and asked students to read at least one story and write a reflection on it or to write about their own storm experiences.

“That’s not enough, dude,” Dauma told one young man who had one paragraph written on the sheet he was about to turn in.

She wanted them to realize the importance of the written word.

“As a teacher, I feel it was important for them to write down their feelings,” Dauma said. “They write on Facebook and Twitter every day, but those things will be gone. If you don’t write it down (permanently), you won’t remember it.”

Dauma said it was imperative her students understand the important role newspapers and radios played during the storm, which prevented those without generators from having computer or television access.

“Newspapers are different from TV because of the in-depth coverage they provide,” Dauma said. “They provide information and chronicle the events that happened. Radio and newspapers were the only things we used to have and that’s about all we had this time.”

Dauma said Bob Jones’ Latin teacher, Ray Congo, and a cafeteria worker, Thenia Moore, lost their homes. She said the school is reaching out to help them through signmeup.com. She urges her students, their families and the community to donate gift cards and other necessities for the families of Congo and Moore.

Audrey Beitel wrote in her reflection about her family’s loss of two campers that were stored at her grandfather’s house in Athens. The house was spared, but the campers were destroyed.

“They were going to leave on a trip Thursday,” Beitel said. “We took all our vacations in the campers so that is sad, but it could have been a lot worse. We didn’t lose our home.”

Beitel’s family ended up staying with her grandparents, who had power, throughout most of the ordeal.

Franklin Okirie wrote that he feels “very lucky to even be alive,” and that it is “hard going to sleep at night knowing that others don’t have a bed to sleep in at night.”

Taylor Guinn wrote about he and his dad taking ice to a Toney neighborhood near Harvest where “the residents were not sitting around complaining, but they are moving on with their lives.”

He said he feels “some rage” when he hears people complaining about a loss of power. “They need to realize there’s more to life than being entertained by electronics.”

Story said despite the fact her sister, Angela Hawkins, is raising seven children alone in Limestone County, she has opened her three-bedroom home to the family of her son’s best friend who lost his home and whose sister is still in intensive care.

“My sister has a great attitude and is very positive,” Story said. “We all have a lot of gratification that everyone was safe.”

Complete coverage from The Huntsville Times

» Read all the tornado news from across the state
» See a list of open businesses in Madison County
» Sign up for free weather text alerts from the National Weather Service and al.com
» Keep up with the latest at the al.com Weather Center
» Get updates from The Huntsville Times’ Twitter and Facebook accounts
» Submit your damage reports, photos and videos

Tornado pictures and videos

» Your Alabama tornado pictures
» Birmingham News tornado pictures
» Huntsville Times tornado pictures
» Birmingham News tornado videos
» Huntsville Times tornado videos

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