I was out at lunch. It is still a mess here in Birmingham. Our main highway has few working traffic lights. The side streets that I would otherwise take to my house are covered with trees and/or power lines. One saving grace for those without power is that the storms cooled things off around here.
I got out of Alabama. I am back in KY. I drove past some trees which were twisted in half and the billboards were ripped up and folded in half.
Neighborhoods near me are wiped out. There is a shopping center destroyed. One of my compressor stations got hit pretty hard, it lifted the entire steel building off of it, and bent some seriously huge mufflers downwards.
My best friend lost his house and his entire neighborhood is gone in Pleasant Grove, AL. Meanwhile, my daughter goes to school at Berry College which was also hit. All were scared, but safe.
The only thing they found of my friend's family's belongings was one of their kid's pillow.
Tough night. I'm heading to AL to help.
Some intense coverage of the Tuscaloosa tornado:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ohIVzIZLuQ&feature=player_embedded
This includes a section that shows rare, sideways funnels that sprout from the main wedge, starting at hte 1:20 mark.
Incredibly violent.
SVreX wrote: My best friend lost his house and his entire neighborhood is gone in Pleasant Grove, AL. Meanwhile, my daughter goes to school at Berry College which was also hit. All were scared, but safe. The only thing they found of my friend's family's belongings was one of their kid's pillow. Tough night. I'm heading to AL to help.
Pleasant Grove is the next town over from me. I was there this morning. It is awful.
Im glad for all the safe people down there. Looking at the damage, it dwarfs the destruction we saw in NC a couple weeks ago.
oldsaw wrote: Some intense coverage of the Tuscaloosa tornado: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ohIVzIZLuQ&feature=player_embedded This includes a section that shows rare, sideways funnels that sprout from the main wedge, starting at hte 1:20 mark. Incredibly violent.
wow...just wow...
Any donations to the Red Cross are always a good idea. There has been collections of food,water,and materials here to ship down to Franklin Co, AL. The majority of the deaths were not in cities but in very rural areas here that have been used to tornados for years. One of my patients had his house completely destroyed. He got lucky with only a fractured ankle. It's a really tragic scene here in Alabama tonight.
If you are interested in making a personal contribution to assist the United Way’s relief efforts throughout the region, please go to United Way website and click on Donate under the Tornado Disaster Relief section.
My wife is actually handling the donations, so I know they will be property used.
Four of my coworkers lost their houses.
I am trying to collect water and food in my home town to take back down.
Otto_Maddox wrote: If you are interested in making a personal contribution to assist the United Way’s relief efforts throughout the region, please go to United Way website and click on Donate under the Tornado Disaster Relief section. My wife is actually handling the donations, so I know they will be property used. Four of my coworkers lost their houses.
Done,I usually don't do cash contributions but with the GRM connection this charity is a go for me.
In reply to TRoglodyte:
That is great!
My wife is going to be working the disaster hotline phones this weekend. I am signing up to be an on the scene guy since my heavy lifting abilities outpace my social skills.
Talked to my friends today who lost their house. They said they have to go to the post office tomorrow and cancel their mail.
They were there today and saw the mailman driving down the street trying to deliver the mail. THERE'S NO HOUSE. THERE ARE NO HOUSES LEFT IN THE ENTIRE NEIGHBORHOOD!
Does this sound ridiculous to anyone else, or is it just me?
Anyone have any info on the New Market, AL area?
cardiacdog wrote: I am pissed that natl media evidently is still more concerned about a stupid wedding.
I'm pissed that Int'l media coverage is still harping on about a freaking wedding, and yet not a word on this.
The videos posted are incredible, in an awesome power-of-nature kind of way, and at the same time, horrific.
I hope all you GRM'ers in the affected area made it through unscathed.
I was in the bank yesterday. One of the tellers was talking about how two of her family members up in Ringgold had lost their houses. And she then said, "..at least they're alive. I feel so bad for those folks over in Alabama.", and everyone in the bank nodded in agreement. We spent some time in the tub when the sirens went off, but didn't really get touched (small hailstones) Red Cross/United Way, here I come.
I graduated from UA in '02, now I live about 30 miles north of Birmingham- my house and family weren't affected by any of this except for the power outages. Let me just say how incredibly surreal it is to watch video of Tuscaloosa getting sucked off the face of the earth- that's not just a random place, I know right where all that was filmed. I hurt for the people there, as well as everywhere else that was affected by this system(Pleasant Grove, Cordova, Cullman).
Red Cross got a healthy donation from me last week, and I think they'll be getting some more from me next payday. Probably for a while.
I was out of town on business when it hit. I live just outside of Huntsville. Called the family and there were ok and no damage. Came home Friday to no power. Just got power back, earlier than expected. A big kudos to the power workers and all who helped, great job to them.
I am heading to Tuscaloosa early tomorrow morning with a bunch of other guys through the United Methodist Church Relief Organization. They asked me to be the chainsaw man (I take that as a compliment). I drove all over town yesterday looking for a chainsaw. I finally found one at a Home Depot where they had a new pallet full of them.
Everywhere around me still has trees and power lines on the ground. I have to go out to the interstate to go anywhere. And we only got a little tornado around where I live (EF2).
Ok here. Just lost power. Came on last night about 10PM to much rejoicing throughout the neighborhood. Having no power for4-5 days is a small inconvenience compared with losing your home or even worse you life.
I just now got internet back, and was without power for 5 days. At work we had no power for 7 days. My office is about a mile from where most of the tornado damage occured in the Huntsville area. In fact Wed. around lunch I was in the parking lot talking with a few other guys and you could see one coming up behind the building across the street. It touched down a short time later and took out a gas station and grocery store.
One of the guys I work with was an idiot and watching one go through the field behind his house...until he saw the water in his pool being sucked up. It emptied about 3 feet of water in a few seconds as he ran to his house. Other than that and a gazebo getting relocated to a new county, he had no house damage.
Other than power, my house had no damage. We were very fortunate as there are many damaged houses and numerous trees down.
Worse yet, if you look at video from Tuscaloosa, McFarland Blvd., one of the main streets there, is not recognizable at all. Very sad.
A friend of mine in the northern Birmingham suburbs had no damage--but his lawn was littered with debris, mail, books, etc. from Tuscaloosa—100 miles to the southwest. Yikes.
My brother lives in Madison AL, and fortunately he, his 1.5 year old and wife are OK. They had a harrowing day of huddling in a closet, and a tornado passed through their backyard uprooting a few mature trees, but they are OK. A subdivision a couple of miles away wasn't so lucky, they had several fatalities.
He sent me this first person account yesterday. Scary stuff!
http://www.facebook.com/notes/randy-robbins/there-and-back-again-a-hobbits-tale-4272011-please-take-this-with-a-sense-of-hum/10150291433407524
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