Whether its the weather......

I've been talking to my brother the last few weeks, his town was nearly obliterated by a series of tornadoes. He was said he saw funnel after funnel blast past his home over head and heard the rumble as things were flung around him as they eventually touched down, multicolor clouds along with rain and hail.
It appeared the majority of the destruction was in one part of the county. He said about 2 weeks prior he was in that very area helping someone move a new bed in, now you wouldn't be able to locate the house or the neighborhood.
The weather men had been predicting some nasty weather days before and suggested schools to close early so either parents and or children wouldn't be on the roads. The storms started early that day and near evening he lost power, that's all nothing more.... He was lucky. Figuring that the power would return sometime in the next day or so, he planned on waiting it out. One night possibly two without electricity couldn't be so hard. Later the utilities company said it could be up to a week before power was restored. For entertainment and information he had a battery powered radio a huge book he planned on reading, the phone lines were either damaged or flooded with other callers. One radio station decided to use as an information grid instead of music, they some how had power. Apparently the main electrical towers had been damaged causing a massive outage of his county and the surrounding ones.
He said the first night was nothing much of him sitting there listening to the radio station and people calling in to report they had no electricity or what damage they might have had or seen. He laughed at some of the repeat calls of people asking when the power would be on. Worried about the elderly that called in asking how they would keep oxygen or other medical equipment running.
The next day he had planned on going to the local market to purchase some ice to keep the frozen items fresh in his freezer, nothing was open. The stores that were open by generators quickly ran out of supplies, there was a slight panic and a run on a few items. Then things began to get a little sketchy, there were reports of long lines at the gas pumps. With no power there was no way to run the pumps or cash registers. Some wanted gas for the home generators, some just wanted to top off their gas tanks. He decided not to venture out. Later that night they informed everyone there would be a curfew from sundown until sun up. The police patrolled the streets, there was two reports of burglaries and one ended badly.
His second night he began to get bored and finally got a call through to my oldest brother. They wanted him to come and stay until things improved. He wouldn't be able to leave until morning and really didn't want to, some of his friends were going to volunteer to help clean up and he wanted to do that. That night people were calling in the radio station suggesting where you could get gas or hot food or generators, still the reports of damage came in as well. People would call in asking where to purchase an item close to them and in a few minutes someone else would call in with the information. The whole town was pulling together, the DJs would cheer if they heard of a town or street that had their electricity returned. He would think “Hey that's not too far away and his hopes would rise”.
On his third day he decided that things were improving enough at least so he could drive out and get to our brothers home for a nice hot shower and food. He felt like a cheater leaving, normally it takes him three hours to drive out but this time it took over seven. Traffic was at a stand still in many areas. His attitude changed as he reach their home to food and decent rest.
That night we spoke on the phone a while and you could hear the concern in his voice over the families that had absolutely nothing, his meager three days without lights would be nothing in comparison to their lives. Without television he really had no idea of the destruction that was around him and was amazed to see what damage was really out there.
Now hes back home and making a plan of attack, next time he would be totally prepared. I cant wait to hear what hes got planned.