We are nearly three months out from the tornado. I say “The Tornado” because in the collective memory of the people of this town, no other tornado could possibly have earned the title of THE Tornado. 
This was The BIG One, and it did a lot of damage, from which we are now slowly beginning to recover. But it occurred to me the other day, that as
many areas that were hit by The Tornado, there were many, many important structures that did not suffer direct impact. And that is a very good thing.
So I’m “counting my blessings.” Here’s the silver lining:
There are two hospitals in town, and one was on the very fringe of the tornado’s path, almost hit, but not quite. It remained up and running and available to receive people who were injured in the storm (unlike in the tornado that hit Joplin, Missouri, where the hospital was one of the major areas hit.)
Likewise, a police station, just missed. Water towers: all okay. And City Hall, not even close.
The tornado came very near, but did not touch any of the buildings on the University of Alabama campus—the single largest employer in the city. Classes were cancelled for two
days, and there may have been some tree limbs down, maybe a few broken windows, but no structural damage.
One elementary school was destroyed, but to the best of my knowledge, all the other public schools survived.
A shopping center at one of the busiest intersections in town was completely obliterated, but the Mall across the street from it suffered only superficial damage. Across from the Mall is a new shopping area, Midtown, that did not even exist when I moved here four and half years ago. Relatively new, it also was not touched.
Down 15th Street, a Wendy’s restaurant was recently knocked down and completely rebuilt.
That new Wendy’s, less than a year old, suffered minor damage but was quickly open again. 
And a good thing too, because we lost a number of nearby fast-food joints: McDonald’s, Hardees, Taco Casa, Milo’s, Guthrie’s Chicken. (Not to mention the devastating loss of Full Moon BBQ, and the Hokkaido Japanese Grill.) Two Arby’s in town were extremely close to the path of destruction, but not hit. The Tornado passed between them, as if they were goal posts for the winning field goal.
Another great loss
was the absolute demolition of Krispy Kreme Donuts. We had only one Krispy Kreme, and now it’s gone. And there are no Dunkin Donuts in town! (A situation, which I feel, needs to be remedied, sooner rather than later!)
But nowadays, when you drive past the place where the Krispy Kreme used to be, fund-raising organizations like kids’ baseball teams are out there selling boxes of donuts brought in from Birmingham. So everybody wins.
To me, it’s a sign of hope.
Yes, a lot of bad stuff happened on account of The Tornado. But there was a lot of bad stuff that COULD have happened, and didn’t.
We are the people of Tuscaloosa, bent but not broken, and we WILL have our Krispy Kreme donuts! Everything that was lost will either come back (like Krispy Kreme) or we
will have something BETTER in its place.
Shortly before the Tornado hit our building, it veered off of its northeastern course by about 30 degrees. It was almost hugging the edge of a big lake. As soon as it reached the end of the lake, it veered back and resumed its northeastern course.
If it had NOT veered back and continued on its north-northeastern course, it would have wiped out the hospital, the water treatment plant, and the prison for the criminally insane.
Insane criminals would have been free to roam through Tuscaloosa, and with everyone’s power & phones out, home alarm systems were disabled. Not that emergency services were available to respond anyway. A nightmare scenario averted.