As I sit down to write this post on my mother's couch in Madison, I have to admit that I don't know where to begin. I anticipate writing a few posts over the next little while. Today, I plan to write about the tornado itself and the day it hit. Next, I want to write about the recovery efforts I've witnessed, and have been a part of. Finally, I want to write about graduation and the like.
By now, twelve days after the tornadoes that devastated my home of Tuscaloosa and much of the state of Alabama, you've likely listened to or read many accounts of the storms from all over. My personal account likely won't be eloquent, but it will be real.
I've had almost two weeks to process everything, but I don't know that any amount of time would be enough. I don't think I can ever comprehend why what wikipedia calls "a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air" had to hit the place I've called home for the past four years.
I'm really not selfishly asking, "Why me?"; I'm asking, "Why us?". On the one hand, I must question why so many of my friends and I were put through such a horrific ordeal only a week and a half before many of us were scheduled to graduate.
On the other, much more dominant hand, though, I am asking, "Why not me?" and, "Why not us?". I am fortunate to have escaped the tornado with no bodily harm to myself or to any of my friends. This would not have been the case if I had lived even 100 yards (or even less) down the road... or across the road.
So here are a few technical details before I delve into my experience with the storm. I'm no meteorologist, so I'm trusting the numbers I've found on the Internet. The National Weather Service officially classified the tornado that ripped through the Tuscaloosa and Birmingham areas as an "upper end EF-4." Peak winds were 190 MPH (That's MILES PER HOUR. What goes that fast?), 10 MPH below what is required to be considered an EF-5. It was up to a mile wide at points and stayed on the ground for 80 miles. According to one article I read, it caused approximately 65 deaths and 1,000 injuries.
By themselves, those numbers are already overwhelming. But the scariest part is that the tornado that hit Tuscaloosa was not the only tornado that day; it wasn't even close. There were hundreds of tornadoes across the Southeastern United States (with Alabama being the hardest hit state) on April 27, 2011. Different sources have reported different totals, but around 200 tornadoes is the number I've seen repeatedly (possibly with some of those on the 26th or 28th). The one that hit Hackleburg and Phil Campbell, two towns I'd never heard of before the storms, was an EF-5 over a mile wide that was on the ground for around 130 miles.
Another scary number is the number of deaths: 340. I know some people are still missing in Tuscaloosa, and I'm sure it is the same throughout the Southeast. That number could very possibly rise. And it's even harder to process when you realize that each of those deaths represents a person with a family and a life and a future. There's the real path of damage these twisters left in their wake.
April 27, 2011, was a normal Wednesday. My first class on Wednesdays this semester was rock climbing at 11; we didn't have class because it was dead week, so some of my classmates (including Laura) and I decided to go to El Rincon for lunch. I had huevos rancheros and a margarita, a nice last meal before the storm.
I went back to my apartment, tried to nap, and ended up watching the weather with Scotty. I had class at 3:30 and 5:00, but I decided not to go because the weather looked scary. Jonathan didn't want to go to his 3:30 class either, so he came over to ride out the storm with us.
We continued watching James Spann. He kept showing footage of the tornado that had struck Cullman earlier that day. Then he started tracking a dangerous storm cell that was going to hit the northern part of Tuscaloosa County. He emphasized that The University of Alabama was not at risk from this storm.
But before I knew it, we were at risk from a second storm. Eventually, The University of Alabama was under a tornado warning. At 3:44 PM (what was supposed to be 14 minutes into my first class), I received an e-mail that classes were cancelled until 4:45 PM (15 minutes before my second class). I couldn't believe the University was taking things so lightly; in my opinion, classes should've been immediately cancelled for the remainder of the day. (Tuscaloosa City and County schools did not go to class at all that day!) I had no desire to put myself in extreme danger just to attend my last economics class of the semester.
Scotty, Jonathan, and I continued to watch the weather, and our e-mails. Finally, at 4:27 PM (around the time I would normally be leaving for a 5 PM class), we received an e-mail saying classes were cancelled for the rest of the day.
I was so relieved classes were cancelled that I barely thought about the reason why. It's not that I wasn't taking the tornado warning seriously; it's just that we'd had numerous "warnings" the days and weeks leading up to the storm. (I'd even driven in a tornado warning to see Guster in Birmingham!) We were all just a bit too desensitized to the tornado sirens, to tornado warnings. I think the same must have been the case for the administrators who waited so long to cancel class. Surely they didn't mean to put students in danger; they just didn't want to overcautiously cancel classes. They were lucky this storm didn't hit campus, or the number of senseless deaths would surely have been even greater.
Next thing I knew, James Spann was talking about the city of Tuscaloosa. He showed footage of a tornado from a camera downtown; I thought the tornado itself was downtown. Instead, this tornado that touched down at 5:13 PM was headed right for me. I was eating a piece of string cheese (that I still had in my hand long after the storm) in my dining room, as far away from the windows as possible, when Scotty told me he could see the tornado outside our apartment even closer than it was being shown on TV. I was hesitant when Scotty said we should run from our 2nd story unit to the single story clubhouse, but I threw on my shoes, locked the door, and we all literally ran for our lives from the rapidly approaching tornado.
As we bolted into the clubhouse, a nice man/angel pointed Jonathan, Scotty, and me in the direction of a closet in the workout room. We joined about 10 other people and a dog in this little space, closing the door behind us. It couldn't have been more than a minute or two before the tornado hit. Everyone talks about the sound of a tornado, like a train, and I'm sure I heard that sound. But what I'll never forget is the sudden, rapid changes in pressure. All of our ears were popping over and over as if we were in a plane constantly changing altitudes. It probably only lasted 30 seconds, but it was the longest 30 seconds of my life. We had no idea if the roof above us may get sucked off at any moment... we had no way of knowing what was happening outside.
After we felt the storm had passed, some of the braver occupants of the closet decided to go outside and assess the damage. Scotty was one of those people; I was not. Scotty called Mom as he walked outside, and fortunately he was able to tell her we were safe before the call was lost. There were tornadoes in North Alabama as well, and Mom didn't know she had to be just as worried about as as she was for herself. I would much rather Dan Satterfield talk about the danger in Huntsville than say that 15th Street had just suffered a direct hit from a tornado. It was for the best, although the lack of information and contact over the next few hours was dangerous. As soon as the storm passed through, I tried to call my older brother Kenny to make sure he was safe wherever in Tuscaloosa he was.
Scotty came back in and told me a lot of cars were missing windows. When he said that included mine, I almost cried. Little did I know at that point how lucky we had been.
I walked outside and saw debris everywhere. Every car along our building was missing windows along the left side, and some had broken back or front windshields. My car was parked along a different building, and it was even worse off. My back windshield and right side windows were gone, and most of my car had taken a beating from flying debris. I couldn't help but be emotional; again, I didn't know how widespread the damage really was.
Then I went to see our condo. Amazingly, only our living room window was broken, and it wasn't even completely shattered. Inside, I could see that the ceiling was leaking in a number of places from shingles being ripped off our roof. But we were so lucky that our condo was one of the least damaged in the entire complex. Huge trees had fallen on some cars outside, and a few condos had their roofs completely ripped off. Just feet from my condo!
People from University Downs were walking down the entry road to our complex to see 15th Street, but I was scared that there may be another tornado coming. Again, we had essentially zero information beyond exactly where we stood. I went back into the clubhouse with a number of other people in case another storm was on its way.
It's hard to remember the exact timeline of events right after the storm. All I know is that at some point Kenny showed up and Scotty brought him to me; I gave him the biggest hug you can imagine while I cried into his shoulder. We were grateful that all three of us (and our honorary brother Jonathan) were safe. Kenny had gotten a ride from a total stranger just so he could get to us and make sure we were okay, and I'm so glad he did.
Eventually, I did walk to 15th. The car dealership next to our condo I walked past along the way was really bad off. Huge pieces of metal had been twisted and torn off the back, and every car in the lot was damaged. When I made it all the way to 15th Street, I couldn't believe my eyes. Across 15th Street, the Forest Lake area looked terrible, and almost no trees were left standing. The intersection of our entry road and 15th was trashed, with wires downed everywhere. To the right of us looked okay, but we knew it was worse to the left. We couldn't see over the hill down to McFarland, so nobody knew the full extent of the damage in that direction. But it looked bad from what we could see.
I kept trying to call my family. I was able to post a status on facebook to say we were okay, but no calls or texts would go through. I did get some texts and voicemails, but I just couldn't get anything out. Eventually, thank God, Scotty got a hold of Dad. He was without power as well and was without adequate information about Tuscaloosa. I think Scotty was the one to tell him the city where three of his children live had taken a direct hit. I'm glad I didn't have to relay that information myself (though I did have a chance to talk to him later that night).
My friends and fellow section members Marcus and Grayson showed up after walking from Midtown. They said the damage was impossible to describe. I wanted to see, and rashly decided we all needed to leave my apartment. I packed a backpack of clothes, grabbed my laptop, and made my way to Midtown (with Scotty, Jonathan, Marcus, and Grayson). All I can say is that Marcus and Grayson were right. The damage was indescribable. Businesses and restaurants were flattened. Cars were flipped over or crushed under debris. We could see all the way to Home Depot because nothing was standing in our way. I couldn't understand where I was exactly because there were no landmarks. It was just devastation as far as any of us could see.
As we walked, I got a call from Kenneth and Joey (also friends and members of my section). It was the first call that had gone through on my phone, and I emotionally told them everybody I was with was okay. I was relieved when they told me who all they knew was okay as well. Campus wasn't hit (thank God), so our younger friends were fine. They told me their place had power and water if we needed a place to stay, and we all eventually took them up on that.
It was getting dark at this point, but we surveyed the damage from the top of Midtown. It was mind-blowing. Tuscaloosa was totally unrecognizable. Unfortunately, the condos had no power or water and were in a heavily impacted area, so we knew we had to leave. Marcus tried to drive the five of us in his Camaro to Joey and Kenneth's place in Northport; but it started raining, he didn't have his glasses, and he couldn't see anything because there were no lights and we were blocking his rear view. Thank goodness Laura was able to come get us and drive us to Northport.
It was like a whole other world over there, untouched and seemingly unaffected by the deadly tornado. The only thing they didn't have was cable, so we still had very little information on what had happened. It was days before I found out the sheer magnitude of our tornado... and then of the innumerable tornadoes outside Tuscaloosa. We ate and talked some and tried to process what we had just experienced, but it's something you can't put into words. Certainly none of us could.
We all slept restlessly for a few hours that night. Unfortunately, when we woke up, we knew it hadn't all been a terrible nightmare.
I took these pictures right outside my condo. For a number of reasons, I didn't take pictures as I walked along 15th that night.
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