You Grow Girl™

Today I arrived in Memphis, Tennessee to help with a situation involving my very old southern grandmother here. Earlier this week, just six hours after I booked my plane ticket to come here, Memphis experienced the worst storm it had seen in 100 years. Winds were literally 100 mph, which is the speed of winds in a level 2 hurricane. The city is being described as a war zone, and even now on my arrival almost four days later the description still fits. Although 70% of the city lost power (and the majority is still out), relatively few buildings were seriously damaged and only a handful of human lives lost. The trees-- oh, the poor trees-- are what suffered. I've never seen anything like it-- absolutely everywhere huge trees of all kinds, many 4 or more building stories tall, are snapped in two. Drive down almost any street in the city and every curb is piled six feet tall with the aftermath-- it is unreal and tragic. Just thinking about what those trees, the really old ones, had seen was overwhelming-- the history of the city was alive still in their branches, the way it is in my 90 year-old grandmother. The parallel between her losing her memory to Alztheimers at the same time these trees lost their memory to the storm is solemnly appropriate.

The utility company has some striking pictures on their website. http://www.mlgw.com/restoration_photographs.htm, if you're interested.