Tornado’s and Such
Years ago, when we were Newly Weds, and living in Alabama for the first time, we experienced our first Tornado.
On the afternoon of November 15th, 1989, Bill had just arrived home from class (we were in Huntsville while Bill attended a Military Basic Officer Course). He no more than walked in the door than the rain began to hammer down. We both commented on how he had gotten ‘lucky’ to have just missed the rain.
We then heard a siren begin out side somewhere, and as was normally the case, we figured that with the first rain drops, a car had gone off the road. This seemed to happen any time it rained, it had seemed to us, having come from up north, that southern drivers did not handle weather well.
When the siren continued, and seemed as though it was going in circles, I wondered if perhaps the police officers, could not find the vehicle involved in the accident, and were in fact driving around and around the block looking for it.
As the rain continued, Bill and I were standing looking out our large picture window, from our apartment, watching as the storm progressed, and the sky became very dark. The sirens continued, and I wondered at the location of this mysterious vehicle the police could still not locate. At some point I remember making the comment that, “the sirens kind of reminded me of those old German war movies.” Never once did it cross my mind, that the sirens in those old WWII movies, were air raid sirens and they meant Duck and Cover!
Having personally grown up in S. Calif, we had earth quake drills at school, where we would climb under the desks, and sit curled in a ball with our arms over our heads… I no longer remember what kind of alarm or warning bell would sound to alert us to do this drill. And I had no idea that the sirens going off around me, had anything to do with a tornado, or even a bad storm. I was VERY unprepared!
We continued to stand at the window and watch as the storm blew through. Then, after what seemed like no time at all, the sky lightened back up the rain stopped and the sun came out and blue sky’s could be seen. At some point during the storm, the power went out, (not that we were listening to the radio or t.v. for news reports, it was just a bad rain storm as far as we knew), we weren’t concerned, and just went back to our every day cares. It wasn’t until later that evening we heard from neighbors that it had been a tornado and that power lines were down all around us. We were without power for 4 days. It was mid November and chilly. One day I did go on post to one of our friend’s Shannon – one of Bill’s classmates – apartments to do some laundry. The house mom, who took care of the building and looked out for the residents, got mad at me for using their laundry facilities. I was too afraid to just speak up and tell her I was seeking shelter from the cold and no power back at our place and Shannon had let me spend the day and use her facilities.
It wasn’t until the next day that the reality of what we’d done began to hit us! The storm had touched down on the corner of Redstone Arsenal and Zierdt Rd. Then had gone over the arsenal and touched down again at South Memorial Parkway and Airport Rd. Pretty much a straight line across post to Airport road. We lived in an apartment on Newson Rd. south off of Drake Ave, and on the map in a direct line with where the tornado touched down on Zierdt rd and at Airport Rd.
After seeing all of the destruction from that storm, I was very freaked out! Some of the images that I saw (wish I’d thought to take pic’s to document it myself), were the fact that there used to be a little florist with a green house sitting right at the north corner of the parkway and Airport rd. After the tornado, the green house covered in Plastic, was still standing just fine, but right behind it the firestone tire place got hit and then it hopped across the street and flattened the strip mall along Airport Rd.
A few other things I remember vividly about that tornado damage were the car (I think it was a vw bug, but not sure) sitting abt. 20 feet up in the air on a power transformer box. It was crazy! Also, the apartments up on the hill going up airport road out to Jones Valley, were just cut in half! I remember you could see right into what had once been people’s apartments and homes!
Suffice it to say, when we moved back to Huntsville in 1993, and we heard tornado sirens, my little family and I were huddled up in the bathtub together. We didn’t go so far as to pull a mattress over the top of us, not that we really had that as an option since the only mattress in the house was a crib mattress, (we had a water bed at that time, so no help there).
So here we are back in Alabama, for the third time… I have been grateful for the advances in technology that make Doppler radar warnings so accurate! We usually will turn on the t.v. and watch the storm track report to see if WE really need to take cover. So often it is just south of 565 and the Airport. We’ve seen lots of trees and fences blown down over the years, but not really any serious damage from tornadoes near us over the past years.
I spent Wednesday April 27th, on the road to Montgomery, Alabama. Three other friends and I went down with many other supporters from all over the state to attend the Senate health Committee hearing on our bill to legalize Certified Professional Midwives and license them in our state. We have been working on this bill actively since about 2002. Each year we hope it’s our year! I have been to Montgomery several times over the past few years. One year it was just Liam in a sling, one year I took a few of my older children with me as well and we ‘marched’ at the state house. It has been interesting seeing up close a bit more about how our government really works.
Anyway, we had our bill SB 238 up before the Senate Health Committee, and so off we all went to Montgomery. The day before, a friend told me she’d heard it was supposed to be really bad weather on Wed. but no one knew what that would really mean until after.
(I just got this in an email a week later)
CURRENT THINKING IS THAT THE GREATEST TORNADO POTENTIAL WILL EXIST
LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND EARLY THIS EVENING FROM COLUMBUS MS EWD TO
BIRMINGHAM AND HUNTSVILLE AL. THIS AREA IS CURRENTLY SOUTH OF THE
ONGOING MCS WHERE DESTABILIZATION SHOULD BE MOST FAVORABLE. AS
SUPERCELLS INITIATE IN ERN MS AND TRACK ENEWD ACROSS THE HIGH RISK
AREA LATE THIS AFTERNOON...A TORNADO OUTBREAK IS EXPECTED. A FEW
LONG-TRACK STRONG TORNADOES AND POSSIBLY A VIOLENT TORNADO OR TWO
MAY OCCUR AS THE LOW-LEVEL JET STRENGTHENS EARLY THIS EVENING. HAVE
ADDED A 45 PERCENT SIG-TOR AREA WHERE CONFIDENCE IS THE HIGHEST
CONCERNING THE POTENTIAL FOR LONG-TRACK TORNADOES. LARGE HAIL AND
WIND DAMAGE WILL ALSO BE LIKELY WITH SUPERCELLS THAT DEVELOP.
Tornado potential for the remainder of the day.
We all got up early, and went on our way to arrive in Montgomery in plenty of time. While on the road, my husband called to let me know that highway 65 was backed up near the Jasper exit - nearly to Birmingham) from downed trees. Luckily we’d left early to give ourselves plenty of time. We did sit for a few minutes and traffic was slow once it got started again. There were lots of trees that had gone down and both the north and south bound lanes had been stopped while they made a quick path through all the debris (or Derbis – as one of our friends quoted from someone in her past).
We got through that part of the road, and rain earlier as well, to clear roads and sky. We arrived in Montgomery, found our way to the Statehouse, and went in to ‘work’. We spoke with our Representatives, and urged them to please support and back up SB 238 to allow for licensing of CPM’s. We then found our dear friend JCM, one of the people/MW’s, who has worked tirelessly for the past several years on our bill. She reported to us that a tornado had hit down in Cahaba Heights - Birmingham, a street over from where she lives around 5:30 am… she had gotten up, and put on her brave face even in the face of storm damage to her neighbors, as well as dealing with other personal life crisis, and had gone to ‘work’ in Montgomery for the day.
I think we were all a little shocked to hear it had hit down so close to our friend’s home somewhere we’ve all been at multiple times. And after seeing the power that had torn down all those trees along the freeway as we’d driven down it gave us a real respect for the storm that had already hit. We heard on the radio and though family back home to expect more storms that afternoon. Just after our Senate hearing I had heard from Amanda that they were letting schools out early and sending the kids home, before more storms hit. So, we finished our day at the state house, got some lunch (one of the mom’s with us was pregnant and NEEDED to eat some food!), then we got back on the road to head home.
As we drove further and further North, we began to hit some rain, and we got several phone calls from our husbands telling us of the storm updates back home. We turned on the radio to listen to storm reports, but we couldn’t’ hear about home until much later… we were getting Birmingham news. As we drove further we heard more and more reports of bad damage being done from tornados across the state. We heard about the one that hit Tuscaloosa, and I immediately texted to see if my daughter Rebekah and her husband Chris were alright. Thankfully they were, but the tornado touched down a block from their apartment, and took out blocks and blocks of the city. It was pretty scary to think about how close they were to it! They had hunkered down in their apartment, but they live on the 2nd floor, and wouldn’t have been protected if the path of the tornado was any closer to them! Amanda told her if ever another comes through they were to go downstairs and knock on ANYONE’s door to try to help protect themselves from the storm!!!
Between phone calls from our husbands, we’d listen to the news reports and hear of tornado's or possible tornado's that had come close to Athens, Harvest, Toney, Madison and Huntsville, where we all live. Then, as we got closer to home, we were coming up toward Cullman and heard that another tornado was approaching it as well. We pulled off the road, along with quite a few other cars full of travelers to try to stay out of the storms path. We were all sitting in a little rest stop welcome center pavilion. (Exit 300) They had enough back up generator power to light the bathrooms, so that was good, but meanwhile there we all were. When should we go? What should we do? We contacted our friend K in Cullman to see if perhaps we could wait out the storm at her house, but, as it turned out she and W had had to stop their car and lay down in a ditch on their way home to avoid a tornado's path on their way home and no one in Cullman had any power.
We felt an urgency to get home to our families and homes… We each had our phones out trying to keep in contact with our families. We were mothers fearing for our families back home, and a little bit for ourselves as well.
Lisa – had three children at home alone, who were running out of phone battery power, so unable to get in contact with her kids. She started calling on friends and her pastor to try to go check in on her kids for her.
Jeni – who drove her new Suburban that day (thank you so much for that!!!), had her 5 children in 2 or 3 different locations, around Huntsville and Madison, with family and friends. Her husband was working in B’ham for a couple of days, so he wasn’t home either, and nervous for us and them as well.
Hannah – our sweet pregnant momma – was actually having some contractions by this time. She was 36 weeks, and the driving for 4 hours and the walking around the Statehouse, and the stress of the storms was not reacting very well for her. At one point she was talking to her hubby while he drove home from work, along 53 North. He was talking to her, told her the sky was turning green, he said, wow that was close!, and told her he had to go… that really put stress on poor prego momma! Then for a long while (perhaps close to an hour) she could not get in contact with him.
When she did get through to him I’m not sure if it helped or not since he reported that he’d been on the edge of the tornado that took out a bank, and gas station and some other things at Jeff Rd and hwy 53! It had actually picked his car up off of the ground and shook it around and then he was back on the ground. Very frightening experience for him and very much for his sweet prego wife as well!
As for me, I heard that my two older girls had gone to hang out with friends after they got out of school early, so my three youngest were home all alone. This made me very nervous. My husband was at work still since every time he thought he’d head home another storm front would come through and he’d have to stay put until the next break in the storm. SO… my brave little children were huddled in the bathroom, coloring, and eating snacks. Hannah had called and asked for my computer password so they could watch the news, since the power was out, and they couldn’t watch t.v. to see the storm path, and the sirens had stopped working, when the power went out at the Browns Ferry Power Nuclear plant. Finally Bill was able to make it home in the 20 minutes between storm paths.
Meanwhile, we had pulled off in Cullman, and then after getting back on the road, we drove further north, we watched and heard as the storm was building up again and so we pulled off the road in Priceville, just south of Decatur and watched with a lot of other people as a large wall cloud/shelf cloud, crossed the River and headed toward Huntsville, just south of 565 again.
As we watched we listened and the reports that another large storm path was heading from the Tuscaloosa area to Birmingham and then this siren went off, and we all thought it was an odd sounding siren. Not the regular tornado siren sound that we are all accustomed to, but a strange sound… then an announcement comes on that said there was a chemical leak and to evacuate the area immediately! Not only do we have all of us sitting there together, but we had a prego mom and beloved Pumkin seed/baby to think about! We couldn’t let them ingest anything from a chemical leak!
We figured we had to get back in the car and on the road, but which direction should we go?!?!?! If we go back south, we know there is a large mile wide cloud coming on a path through there, and we would be that much further away from our homes and loved one’s, so we headed north. We watched as that big black cloud was hovering over 565 going toward Madison and Huntsville. We tried to decide if we should go on 565 since Lisa’s car was parked along there, where we’d met up at this morning, and we’d already heard that a tornado had touched down at Wall Triana and 72 – Oh well, that’s where I had left my van at that morning, when I met up with to car pool. So we decided that we’d take 65 North and exit at Hwy 72. Somehow we’d missed some of the reports that 72 had been hit, a couple of times and we most likely wouldn’t have been able to get home going that way anyway!
So there we were driving North on 65 we made the decision to pass the exit to 565, and then we got stuck in traffic. Shortly we heard that two 18 wheeler trucks have gone off the road, and that is why it’s all backed up. We decide we can take the Browns Ferry Exit. Now, I’d never taken it before in my life , I’d been planning on it in the recent past, just never got around to it. But over all Browns Ferry comes out by my house, so I figured we might have to do some twist and turns but hoped it would get us home…
We are sitting in traffic and the weather clears a bit… I remember that several of us commented on how eerily still it had gotten, then the sky begins to get dark, the wind begins to whip the trees around and the rain starts pounding us again. At one point we hear a large clanking sound, like we’d been hit with a rock, but on the roof, and perhaps it may have been a rock, or some debris (derbis), but then we heard another one, we wondered if it was hail but never saw any other evidence of hail. Of course in the aftermath and hearing peoples stories I hear that Hail is part of the storm front as the tornado gets ready to touch down… So there we sit, and I start praying as we can go nowhere, we are in stopped traffic and I just feel like another tornado is about to hit us! I was trying to not show how scared I was and keep conversation light, but I was so afraid! I really thought that was going to be it! Then the rain let up a bit, and the clouds passed by and it got a bit lighter, and I thought we’d be alright.
We eventually passed one of the overturned trucks, it was an oil tanker, all twisted up, I wondered at which direction it had actually been heading in the first place. Then we finally came up to the Browns Ferry Exit and so we took it. Well, we took the exit but somehow didn’t’ realize how badly that area had been hit, even though we had heard while waiting in Cullman the power was out at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant, and Lisa had talked with a gentleman who’d worked there for years and asked questions about it’s safety features and could it leak like the Fukashima Nuclear plant in Japan. I don’t know exactly where the Nuclear plant is located off of the Browns Ferry road, and exit, so we just took it anyway, otherwise we were trapped on 65 N and we all just wanted to get home to our families and off the road!
Well, as we drove evening came on, and we found ourselves driving past what had once been homes and there were trees down everywhere and debris strewn about all around us and houses smashed and some completely gone down to the foundation. We were driving through flood waters up to the bottom of the suburban. We certainly were glad that Jeni had just bought the suburban and that she’d been willing to drive. I had been willing to drive my van, but it certainly wouldn’t have fared as well as the suburban, and not in Hannah’s car. Not to mention the fatigue and stress of having been the driver in all of those storms all day long, the rain, wind and then all the debris, etc… Thank you Jeni so much for getting us through it all and bringing us home to our families!
We’d also heard reports of flooding becoming worse and worse, throughout the evening and next day with all the rain from the storms. I have often watched the news, and seen people who have been trapped in flood waters. They are climbing on top of their cars and having to be saved by someone in a boat, or air lifted out. I have wondered how does this happen? Can’t they see the deep water and avoid driving on that particular road or in that area? I have a lot more compassion for them now! There we were, driving on what seemed our only option of roads, and suddenly we were in flood waters. The fields were completely full and covered with brown rushing water. I had driven part way out from home on Browns Ferry Rd recently so I knew there were several bridges along the way and all of those area’s were completely flooded. The water was up several feet on the road, and just rushing across, and we couldn’t even see the actual road at all. We were following other cars and following the lights of the other cars as it got darker and darker as night came on, and we just hoped they would stay on the road so that we could follow them. I supposed it was nearby residents that had gone out and were cutting of branched from all the downed trees so that there would be at least a one lane passage and then we’d have to take turns going through that stretch of the road. http://www.ready.gov/america/beinformed/floods.html
At that point I’d lost track of time and I have no idea how long it actually took us to get home from this point. That drive seemed to take us forever! We still had to get people back to their homes and cars. I had told Bill about leaving the van parked at Mc D’s on 72 and Wall Triana, so he got Amanda and they went to pick up my van. It was fine, as was Mc D’s, but there had been a tornado that had hit the next corner south at Gooch and Wall Triana. It had knocked out a bunch of power lines, and torn up trees! One of our friends M, who lives on Gooch had been driving home and had been almost at the corner as it hit there and he watched as it came almost directly over his own home then hit down at that corner tearing up trees all over the place. His house was essentially fine, (small damages to the siding and flashing on the roof), right next door however is another friend of ours N&A, they had been in the closet or bathroom taking cover with their 4 children, and could hear the storm outside, and hear trees snapping, and then they heard parts of their house being torn up. Luckily for them it was just roof tiles that they lost and the storm went a bit farther before touching down completely at the corner, but they lost fence and trees and roofing tiles. Now several days later they have flooding inside their home form the roof damage. What an experience, and so close to home and to good friends, but all are safe.
Anyway, back to getting home and getting our friends home. Once we arrived at our house, we decided to have Jeni take Lisa to her vehicle, since even though Jeni lives north and just up the road from Hannah, her house was empty and her small children were at a friend’s house to the south, and closer to where Lisa had parked that morning. We sent them on their way, and they all made it home fine. We had heard however that the road North up Old Rail Road Bed Rd was flooding and had trees and power lines down and it was nearly impassable. Hannah had talked with her husband who said he’d come get her, but I didn’t want to make him get back out in the storm after having been in the edge of that tornado he’s experienced, and besides he has a car and we have a truck. So Bill put his chain saw and gloves in the back of the truck and I put my birth stuff in the back as well since Hannah was still contracting some, just to put her at ease. Then we headed out. The drive was definitely not a fun one. The road was bad. Lines were down everywhere. Emergency crews were out cutting back the trees. Along the way were a couple of cars here and there that had been hit and smashed by trees as they came crashing down. The drivers had left them – I certainly hope the people of those vehicles were alright and had made it to safety from the storms. We also saw more homes that had been smashed and destroyed as well as another or more swept from the foundations.
We were able to get Hannah home and her husband was so happy to see her safe and well! We went inside and we listened for baby, all seemed to be well, and once the storms were finished and she was reunited with her hubby, things seemed to calm down for her a bit, and I suggested he give her a massage and that she get some rest. We got back on the road and made it home again to our family.
In the dark of night it’s hard to see all the destruction clearly. I am so thankful my family was safe and that our homes are still intact. I feel for those who are suffering from loss of homes and loss of family and friends in all of this. They had already said that it would be days before power was up and going again, and as much as we wanted to help until they had things organized they asked that volunteers just wait. There were going to be plenty of opportunities to help out, it might take months to clean up and recover from the storms.
We got up on Thursday morning, and we went looking for gas. Bill had called the gas station on post and they confirmed that yes they had gas and that their pumps were working. So rather than clog up the already over burned communities to our North in Fayetteville, TN or over to Athens to our West, or further, we thought it would be helpful to go on post where the military could help us. After driving there they had lost power or something and the gate guards were turning all but essential personnel away at the gate. Still needing gas, we went ahead and drove out to Athens. We found a station that was operational, so we got in what seemed like a short line. Shortly after getting in that line we saw a tanker truck pull in and so we knew they would have ample supply. However, after sitting in line for a long time and we got closer to the front, we saw that they were only pumping from one gas pump and had one line coming from each direction (yes, cars had lined up going the wrong way across the highway to access the gas station). Anyway we were just happy to be able to get gasoline. It took us an hour and a half or a bit more, plus the drive time, but we were filled and able to go forward.
The mayor made an announcement that basically said, there were limited resources and the entire county of Madison, Alabama was without power, and some areas surrounding Madison, in an effort to conserve, water, food sources, gas, etc… if you were able to leave the area to go. We had just the previous weekend gone to Atlanta to the Temple open house, and had spent the day at Stone mountain State Park, where we ended up buying a year pass, so we decided to go back. We would still be paying for food (which we’d have to pretty much go in search of and eat out at home), and we’d have a hotel bill, but we could keep the kids occupied, and have plenty of water, gas, food, etc. So once we got home from the outing to get a full take of gasoline, we packed up and got on the road. On the one hand we felt a little guilty, and when they did get some work parties organized on Sat, we weren’t here to help out, but we had done what was asked, we left so more resources would be available to those who couldn’t leave. If we had had only older children, or no children like we did back in 1989 when we were here for thee other tornado, we would have stayed and we would have tried to help, but this time we did what we felt was right for our family.
Poor Liam, was supposed to have his birthday party that night at Chuck E. Cheese with his friends from school. I knew I was going to be gone and busy on Wednesday, so I had worked really hard on Monday and Tuesday to prep things in order to be able to throw his birthday cake together on Thursday. With the storms and the change of plans, while packing clothes, I also packed up part of the cake and decorations that were already made and took it with us. 
I’m sure we will remember Liam’s 5th birthday for a long time to come. After spending the day at Stone Mountain, we got back to the hotel, Sariah and I put the cake together and decorated it and we had his birthday in the hotel.
He was very cute all day in his Birthday Boy T-Shirt.
Not having unlimited resources, we knew we had to come back home at some point. We thought about me and the kids heading over to visit friends of ours in N.C., and were grateful they would have been willing to put up with us, but after driving 4 hours to get home from Atlanta on Sunday, May 1, 2011 and knowing some people were starting to get power back up, we decided that driving to NC to spend only a day or less, if we had to be back for school on Wed – if power was up by then, that we ought to just stay home and work on clean up.
It's been a couple of weeks now, and it has been interesting to see how the storms affected us. We've had a few cloudy and or rainy days in the past week or so, and it sort of freaks me out. I was walking on the treadmill at the Gym at the new Y one morning and it got dark and we heard some Thunder and it was a little disconcerting how uptight I felt. My chest got all tight and I was just gripping the handles on that treadmill very tightly… I wonder how long I'll have this kind of reaction when a thunder storm heads my way.
It has been so sad to see all of the destruction. I honestly can't truly imagine the massive amounts of destruction near Rebekah down in Tuscaloosa. Around here we have lots of destruction, but it is so spread out. Every where you look, everywhere you drive there are trees down and holes in roof's, piles of trees sitting by the roadside. We have been able to help for a couple of weekends now, to go out and clean up trees from people's yards, some are our neighbors, in our neighborhood, others - neighbors in the community. I have felt some survivors guilt at how our lives, once the power came back on and I cleaned out all the refrigerators and freezers, have just gone back to normal really. There are people who have no homes or the home may still be standing, but the inside is just ruined and they have to move out while it is cleaned up and put back together. These people are so brave and working so hard to move on with their lives.
A friend of mine wrote this blog post about her tornado experience... as I read it I had tears streaming down my face. April 27th, 20011 is a day I will not soon forget. You can read her story here -
http://mayfield-6.blogspot.com/2011/05/april-27-2011.html
I have lots of pic's too, and will be posting them some time soon.
