American Studies student reflects upon disasters ravaging field trip destinations

Forty-six of us American Studies students sit on a Denver-bound Southwest Airlines flight from New Orleans. Things are uneventful, until the plane encounters some heavy turbulence. The cabin rocks as if it were a car on a rocky road, and a student opens up one of the shades and notices that strangely, there is zero visibility outside the window even though we are 38,000 feet in the air. The fasten-seat-belt light goes on, and the flight attendants take their seats.

Suddenly, the Boeing 737 begins shaking side to side and hits a massive bump that throws everyone off their seats for a brief second, spills drinks, and sends a loud “whoa” in unison across the cabin. Minutes seem like hours, and the turbulence continues to rock the plane. After it ends, the captain announces that according to his radar, there will be a five-minute window before we fly back into turbulence. Passengers rush to lavatories while the seat belt light is temporarily switched off to relieve themselves.

We didn’t know it at the time, but we had just flown through northern Texas, the site of a developing storm system that would move east towards Tennessee and Alabama a few days later. In the course of three days, the tornadoes created by this storm system killed 344 people and racked up $6 billion dollars in damage.

On the ground portion of the trip, however, the weather was of little concern. With sunny skies and bearable Southern humidity for most of the entire American South Tour, both American Studies classes enjoyed favorable weather. All the while, I couldn’t manage to forget the images on television of last year’s floods in Tennessee.

While we toured Nashville, we passed through places that were damaged by the flooding, including the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Bridgestone Arena. Throughout the trip, however, all was well, and we arrived home safely on April 25.

Just four days shy of our visit of Birmingham, Alabama, a tornado devastated the nearby city of Tuscaloosa, AL, and later tore through the northern suburbs of Birmingham on April 27. Given the sheer unpredictability of tornadoes, our very presence in the proximity of the area under tornado warnings would have been of dire alarm to MVHS and our parents.

This area wasn’t small, either. It encompassed all of Northern Alabama and parts of Tennessee. Storm maps boasted tornado tracks that stretched from Louisiana all the way to Ohio, blanketing the relatively small area the American Studies classes had traveled in.

The storms that ravaged the south with tornadoes also brought torrential rain, which overwhelmed the Mississippi River, causing flooding a week later in Memphis, Tennessee, nearly missing Downtown Memphis by a few blocks.I remember being told during the tour that one would have to walk over a hill on which the historic Beale Street runs over to see the Mississippi River. Just a month later, the same area along the river has become inundated by floodwater. Fortunately, the part of Beale Street that we toured has been spared.

In New Orleans, we were right along the edge of the Mississippi River, touring the French Quarter, the cultural center of the city. Despite the costs of flooding millions of acres of farmland and rural communities, the opening the Morganza Spillway in Louisiana spared Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and other cities downstream from the watery fate Memphis suffered.

Looking back at all the places we visited on the trip that had to be saved or rebuilt by the hardworking residents and relief groups, it is a time of reflection upon how lucky our American Studies classes were to be able to return home safely in a season known for floods. We should be glad that in the future, these landmarks will still be there for other tourists and future American Studies students to enjoy.

As for the South, the storm continues. Just on May 23, Joplin, MO, was destroyed in a tornado. By hours, days, or weeks, somehow, we escaped. But it is difficult to shake the feeling that it could have been us. In the spirit of human empathy, MVHS sends its most heartfelt prayers to the growing number of storm victims. Hold on. Stay safe.

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