Storms in MS/AL/GA today

Steve

Steve

En-Route
Joined
Feb 23, 2005
Messages
4,178
Location
Tralfamadore
Display Name
Display name:
Fly Right
Bad deal. Glad you and the immediate family are OK.
 
It just missed us by a few miles. The small community down the road...not so lucky. Two dead and lots of property damage. Getting woke up at 12am by a tornado siren and grabbing blankets to go to the middle bathroom...NOT fun.
 
tdager said:
It just missed us by a few miles. The small community down the road...not so lucky. Two dead and lots of property damage. Getting woke up at 12am by a tornado siren and grabbing blankets to go to the middle bathroom...NOT fun.
Click to expand...

Glad to hear you're OK Tom. I stayed up until 1AM watching Channel 2. Fascinating how good weather radar has become: to actually be able to see the rotation & funnel clouds and give people advanced warning. Amazing.

Called my friend near Hunstville who got me into flying and he said stuff is wrecked all over there and that some of the main power feed lines from the nuclear plants are down. Tons of people without power over there, and it may take them up to two weeks to repair it!

Lance F needs to check in. I saw a pretty good size one go right over Covington around 1AM or so.
 
rpadula said:
Glad to hear you're OK Tom. I stayed up until 1AM watching Channel 2. Fascinating how good weather radar has become: to actually be able to see the rotation & funnel clouds and give people advanced warning. Amazing.

Called my friend near Hunstville who got me into flying and he said stuff is wrecked all over there and that some of the main power feed lines from the nuclear plants are down. Tons of people without power over there, and it may take them up to two weeks to repair it!

Lance F needs to check in. I saw a pretty good size one go right over Covington around 1AM or so.
Click to expand...

Missed us here on the SE outer edge of Fayetteville. I was up following storms online and on TV. Chan 11 is horrible, by the way.. All they wanted to talk about was "When will the storms hit Atlanta downtown" and "Remember when those storms came through in 1998? Let's show some video from that." Meanwhile, Chan 2 is showing the debris that is being sucked up on radar and using wind shear velocities to actually give people a heads-up. If you ever get a chance, you should compare Chan 11's radar to Intellicast.com WxMap. There is an eery similarity in appearance - not to mention that a little icon would pop up on the online radar saying "Possible tornado" and 2 minutes later, Chan 11 would say "There may be a tornado here." Thanks for the 'insight'... Idiots..

The little town in Alabama where I played basketball (Phil Campbell) in college is darn near wiped off the map. My former coach's aunt and daughter were killed in the storm. Very small close-knit community, so they'll pull through, but it will take some work to get there.
 
One friend north of Birmingham, AL lost his house. Nothing left.

Another friend outside Birmingham, AL had moderate damage but 2 blocks away there is nothing. Talked with him this afternoon and they're still digging out bodies.

A terrible day indeed and prayers are extended to all involved.
 
Finally got word from BHM relatives that they are ok, but major damage a mile from their house and no power yet.

Remains to be seen if the Wings over Cullman Airshow will remain on schedule for the 21st of May.
 
I was again working trackside on the railroad in Leeds, Al about 15 miles from the Eastern edge of Birmingham. On Tuesday after the 5AM storm it took the railroad folks about 5 hours to be back in service. After Tuesday's afternoon storms in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham it was a while longer. There were reported approximately 1,200 trees across the tracks where the storm crossed between us and West Birmingham.
Back home in Atlanta tonight and it's just as well. Hotel rooms in Alabama are at a premium right now as you can well imagine.
 
Saw chopper footage of Tuscaloosa. Never saw anything like that from a tornado. Looked more like a hurricane.

Or a war.

Hundreds dead from tornados. Never heard of such a thing in my life. Damn.
 
steingar said:
Saw chopper footage of Tuscaloosa. Never saw anything like that from a tornado. Looked more like a hurricane.

Or a war.

Hundreds dead from tornados. Never heard of such a thing in my life. Damn.
Click to expand...

See if you can find pictures of Xenia, Ohio in 1974. Devastating.
 
Hit my hometown (where I grew up) in Alabama like an H-bomb....:sad:
This was devastating beyond words, friends couldn't even find there shoes after it hit...Prayers to all affected. I watched most of it live from my layover on the internet tv feed (glad to see James Spann still the wx guy abc3340)..totally terrifying to watch from 2500 miles away.

please consider donations to the Red Cross.org
 
Last edited:
steingar said:
I lived in Ohio at the time. Xenia was tiny. This is amazing.
Click to expand...

yea these F5's seem to usually devastate massive areas of unpopulated land, or hit towns like Greensburg, KS or Parkersburg, IA. Not very often they manage to whack a huge city. Very sad
 
5675435419_67e4e8a9ab_b.jpg
5675435419


This is how close it came to us...the red circle is Mallards Landing.


 
I just finished cutting the grass about another 25-30 miles further along the direction of the path of that tornado and was amazed how much shingle and fiberglass insulation is in my yard.
I'm 23 miles East of the eastside perimeter around Atlanta.
 
tdager said:
5675435419_67e4e8a9ab_b.jpg
5675435419


This is how close it came to us...the red circle is Mallards Landing.
Click to expand...

I just got back from a trip that took me south on I-75. There is a swath where it crossed the interstate. Looks like someone took a huge weed-whacker and make a 1/2 - 3/4 mile swath about 20ft high. Haven't been in the air to survey from above yet.
 
one of my daughters called this afternoon and said the west bound lanes of US82 west of TCL around mile marker 33 were blocked due to a "landslide". the AL DOT website called it a "slope failure". traffic was backed up for quite a while, with many vehicles obviously packed with personal belongings trying to leave storm the affected area. :sad:
 
My uncle works for a large natural gas company in Alabama. He is based in northwest Alabama, but they are sending people to Tuscaloosa to help clean things up there. He said the cleanup crews are still finding bodies in the rubble. Expect the death toll from this one to continue to climb for a while.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top