I finally ventured out to Crescent Ridge Road yesterday

[Syrinx]

Crescent Ridge Road is the main street where Cottondale and Alberta come together with the Holt area.

I've been trying to get into that area, off-and-on, since the first weekend after the storm. I finally made it.

Large stretches of the street are virtually unrecognizable.

There used to stand a convenience store there, where you would turn to go into the public housing area known as Crescent East. Ages ago, when I was in high school, I had some friends that lived there. I think they've mostly moved on by now. But I still wanted to check out the place, and see what condition it was in.

I don't want to mislead anyone. I only went up Crescent Ridge, and back again. I did not ride up and down it repeatedly.

But on my one round-trip, I could not locate the entrance to the place. There's just not much left to give a frame of reference.

I think I did spot the childhood home of my high-school girlfriend, and probably the love of my life. There was nothing left, but a bathroom, or maybe a closet. She doesn't live there anymore, and I know both her parents have passed away.

And the home of my mother's best friend's parents was gone, as best as I could tell. Again, the complete lack of identifiable landmarks is disorienting in the extreme.

Neighborhoods of scores and scores of modest homes have been reduced to nothing.

The New York Times said that one-seventh of Tuscaloosa has been destroyed. I don't know how they came up with that figure, but I surely wouldn't say it is too high.

Maybe in the next day or two, I'll get up the nerve to drive into the heart of Alberta, or maybe onward onto 15th Street. But Wednesday, I confronted the area that is most personal for me. And I didn't like what I saw.

The link below is what I think is the video I watched of Crescent Ridge Road earlier. Being on dialup, I can't easily and quickly check it to make sure.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=video&cd=2&ved=0CDYQtwIwAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dht0Q5iun8i8&rct=j&q=crescent%20ridge%20road%20tuscaloosa&tbs=vid%3A1&ei=9L3LTea4AseWtwfOnNTrBw&usg=AFQjCNE8Mdz59GWUTxKaLMVlKeeOY4hdyQ&cad=rja