Wednesday, April 27
Wednesday was a day of horror.
I’ve lived in Alabama since 1967, and never seen a day like Wednesday, April 27, 2011. I was living in the area at the time of the April 3, 1974 “Night of the Killer Tornadoes”, and I took refuge in our basement while Olen drove through the outskirts of the 1988 “Airport Road Tornado” in Huntsville.
This was different. For days, the local weathermen had been warning us of a system due to hit the north Alabama area on Tuesday night and Wednesday. We had heard this before…even a couple of weeks before, and those storms had not turned out to be as bad as predicted. Since both Barry and his wife, Tabatha, have degrees in meteorology, they kept us updated on the predicted weather, reminding us that somehow this predicted system was different. However, storm tracks change. We were “weather aware”, but not in a panic mode.
The exact times of these events may be off by a little because memories get blurred when you are totally traumatized, but the best I can remember, this a chronology of the events of the day. Our area was put under a tornado watch around 2 AM on Wednesday, followed by a tornado warning for Limestone County at 4:30 AM. When our weather radio went off and the sirens sounded, we got up from bed and dressed for the day. I checked e-mail and learned that Barry had been up monitoring the weather since they issued the watch. The particular tornado that the 4:30 warning was issued for was headed for the southern part of our county, so we did not take cover. It was still early but we ate breakfast and got ready for the events of the day.
The grandchildren went on to school, hoping to get to stay long enough to “count” the school day since the children had missed so many school days due to the snow and ice of last winter. However, that did not happen. Schools in the area went into a panic mid-morning, and many school administrators made poor judgments in an attempt to keep the children long enough to “count the day”. Many schools decided to dismiss at 12:30 or 1:00. Our grandchildren were dismissed at 10:30, which was cutting it thin, but got them home before they were in danger. Students in other schools were not as lucky. Many students were out in the storm headed home, and other schools went into “lockdown mode”, requiring students to remain at school until the threat was over.
The sirens sounded again around 11:00, as a tornado was sighted heading directly for our area. Olen’s parents called when the sky became inky black. I called Bonny and made sure she and her children were on the way to her neighbor, Joan’s, house where there was a basement. I ran to the storm shelter located between Barry and Tabatha’s house and our house, and helped get the children in the shelter while Olen drove around the corner and picked up his parents. We managed to get Mom and Pap in the shelter before the storm hit, and Norm and Barbara Jo and their girls made it from their house. All 14 of us crawled into the shelter and closed the door.
That storm may have been a tornado, but our area had mostly straight-line winds. When we got out of the shelter a few minutes later we had several small trees blown over, one broken, and several large branches down. There was debris all over our joint property, but no major damage in our immediate area. However, we had no power. We ate cereal and peanut butter crackers for lunch, but the weather radio still warned us that “the strongest part of the system still to come”. That hardly seemed possible since the wind and rain had cooled the air somewhat.
We decided to drive around the area and see if any of our friends or neighbors had damage or needed help. We heard that Gary and Debby’s house was damaged, so we called Debby. She told us that they had lost trees, but her house was ok. When we drove down the road in front of her house we noticed that their lovely tree-lined driveway and indeed bare, and there were two huge trees uprooted, one leaning on the corner of their house. We drove past the subdivision where Shirley lives, and saw a couple of uprooted trees. We saw quite a bit of evidence that a tornado had gone over us, probably not quite touching the ground, but close enough to grab the tops of trees and twist them out of the ground by the roots. We made a few photos and went home.
Our electricity was back on! We checked e-mail and found that the elders had already cancelled the Bible Study for that night, due to more dangerous weather heading our way. We were still hopeful that the worst was over, but we were deceived. Barry warned us that truly the worst was still to come. We began watching the local TV, which was broadcasting weather information wall-to-wall. We began to hear reports of major damage in areas like Tuscaloosa and Birmingham and some reports from damage in other areas of north Alabama.
Suddenly the radar began to light up with storms heading our way. The siren sounded once more and Limestone County was in the projected path of a tornado again. In fact, they used the term “training” to indicate that one super cell area after another was heading our way. Once again Olen drove to pick up his parents, I talked to Bonny, and then ran to the storm shelter in Barry’s backyard. Once again, Barbara Jo, Norm, and their girls showed up looking like a herd of deer in headlights. Emily had baked chocolate chip cookies between the storms, which was popular. After we had the children and Olen’s parents safely in the shelter, the rest of us stood outside the shelter and looked south…in the direction of the tornado. Barry had his laptop, and the local TV stations were describing the tornado as “massive and on the ground”. As we looked up in the sky we saw debris swirling above us as the sky to the south darkened. Just one mile south of our property we could see a tower with a huge radar dome on it that was used by our local channel 48 for weather radar.
The tornado was headed directly for that tower! There was a camera on the dome, and the pictures were frightening. Quickly we headed for the tornado shelter and closed the hatch and latched it. Using Barry’s laptop, we watched the horrible pictures of the tornado heading directly for us…and only a mile away. Then the power went off and we lost our signal at the moment the tornado hit the tower. We heard the roaring sound, hail on the roof above us, followed by howling wind and extremely heavy rain. When it sounded like the storm had let up a little, Barry looked out, and reported that our houses were still standing.
Barry also reported, “The WAFF radar dome is gone from the tower!” The storm had blown the huge dome off the tower and (we found out later) demolished the Bethel Church of Christ beside the tower.
I managed to get a call out on my cell phone and left a message for Lucy that we were safe. We contacted Bonny, and their family was safe.
Several of the adults could get the radar on their phones and they reminded us that there were other storms following that one. We stayed in the shelter. From time to time we could tell that yet another storm with a possible tornado was headed our way. Bonny called Olen’s cell phone. Bonny had brought a little girl home from school with her since the child’s mother could not get there in time to pick her up. Bonny had gotten a call from the little girl’s family telling Bonny that the child’s house had been badly damaged or destroyed in the storm.
The sirens kept sounding, and since there was no power in the area, policemen drove up and down the county roads with their sirens sounding to warn everyone to take cover. This routine of sirens, police warnings, roaring storms, torrential rains and hail with destructive winds continued for hours with one storm following another until 7:30 when we were finally able to safely exit the storm shelter.
We were all traumatized by the events of the day, but could look to the west and see the sunset. The horrible events of the day were finally over. However the total damage was only beginning to be discovered. Somehow Barry learned that our neighbors only a quarter of a mile away had major damage, so Olen and Barry walked to their house in total darkness to check on them. They had damage, but were ok. That was so close to us!
Of course we had no power and as darkness closed in we all went home and went to bed, but the sounds of ambulances on the roads near us were a clue to the total destruction in our area. At first we wondered how we would ever get to sleep, but found that we were totally exhausted and emotionally drained, so we slept hard.
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