Pittsburgh Native Living In Aftermath Of Ala. Tornados
ALLISON PARK (KDKA) -- A Pittsburgh native is living through the devastation caused by tornados in Alabama.
Kyle Ryan, 36, is a realtor in Gadsden, Ala. She and her husband, Don, who's from Pittsburgh, have three children.
"You know I hate to say this because I know it's totally different, but it's almost the same feeling I got from 9/11," she told KDKA's Mary Robb Jackson by telephone.
Kyle's family is safe, but some of her friends were not.
"Lori, lost her sister and brother-in-law and they have three children. One child is at UAV, which is a hospital in Birmingham in intensive care and the other two are at smaller hospitals," she said.
"My family's down there, my brother, my nephews, my great nieces and nephews," Dee Ryan Smith, Kyle's aunt, said.
She works in Allison Park and has been watching the news very differently.
"All of a sudden you start hearing and you start seeing and it hits people that you love and care about and it's really scary," she said.
Kyle's home is two hours from hard-hit Tuscaloosa, but as she and her 10-year-old son Donnie cleared their yard of debris, they were astonished by what they found.
"And we found bills from Tuscaloosa – that had a Tuscaloosa address on it," she said. "Finding baby clothing that still had the tags on it from the Big Lots in Tuscaloosa."
There is much work to be done. Kyle says what is most needed are water supplies because so many towers were blown down and money to rebuild. The Red Cross is accepting donations.
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