So watching the storm coverage yesterday & today brings back memories of being in Alabama first hand for the outbreak on April 27, 2011. 8 EF4 and 3 EF5 tornadoes just in AL alone! 62 confirmed tornadoes and 253 dead, again, just in AL.
My dad had just moved from the town of Hackleburg a few months prior. Two weeks after the storm, we drove to where he had lived. I literally had chills run down my back. I stopped the car where his driveway would have been and had to look around. There was NOTHING there. The acres of wooded property to the west and south boundaries of his property was now open field. There was a foundation where the house once stood. Very little debris at all. It was as if it had just been removed ( no clean up had barely begun at this point ). I just stood there memorized at the total and complete devastation the tornadoe left behind.
People were missing in the town. One guy that went to church w dad found a leg in his back yard. I saw a flat bottom aluminum fishing boat applied 15 up a tree like it was foil. Just folded in half around the tree and pressed.
There was a backhoe at the gas station in town that no one knew from where it came.
This was just one of the three EF5 tornadoes that touched down that day.
This area was hit by one of the strongest tornadoes ever in 1974. Just 35 miles away in Guin, AL. Dr Fujita himself surveyed the damage in Guin and was reported in the Birmingham paper (dad still has a copy) that he suggested categorizing it an EF6!! Winds estimated at 325+ mph.
And this is the reason people in this area call their underground storm shelters "hidey holes" Hahaha
Thoughts and prayers for all those in Nebraska, Iowa & elsewhere suffering today.
My dad had just moved from the town of Hackleburg a few months prior. Two weeks after the storm, we drove to where he had lived. I literally had chills run down my back. I stopped the car where his driveway would have been and had to look around. There was NOTHING there. The acres of wooded property to the west and south boundaries of his property was now open field. There was a foundation where the house once stood. Very little debris at all. It was as if it had just been removed ( no clean up had barely begun at this point ). I just stood there memorized at the total and complete devastation the tornadoe left behind.
People were missing in the town. One guy that went to church w dad found a leg in his back yard. I saw a flat bottom aluminum fishing boat applied 15 up a tree like it was foil. Just folded in half around the tree and pressed.
There was a backhoe at the gas station in town that no one knew from where it came.
This was just one of the three EF5 tornadoes that touched down that day.
This area was hit by one of the strongest tornadoes ever in 1974. Just 35 miles away in Guin, AL. Dr Fujita himself surveyed the damage in Guin and was reported in the Birmingham paper (dad still has a copy) that he suggested categorizing it an EF6!! Winds estimated at 325+ mph.
And this is the reason people in this area call their underground storm shelters "hidey holes" Hahaha
Thoughts and prayers for all those in Nebraska, Iowa & elsewhere suffering today.
