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Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 8:52 am
by dws1982
Pictures
I opened this album up so anyone could see it whether they're friends of mine or not. That's just what I saw in my neighborhood. You can look around on news sites and see a much more comprehensive picture of the damage. If you look at the facebook page for WHNT NewsChannel 19, you can get a pretty good look at the storms, and the damage.
It was a rough day yesterday, but living a few miles from a nuclear power plant has one big advantage: We're never out of power for very long. Almost all of North Alabama is out power, but we aren't. Planning to open up the house today for people out of power who might need somewhere to go for awhile.
Today all of the cleanup begins (and they'll still be trying to get into houses where people are trapped), and at least there's good weather for that. They're now staying at least 131 dead in Alabama alone.
Thanks for the thoughts and kind words.
Edited By dws1982 on 1303998983
Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 12:39 am
by Damien
Been thinking of you all day, Daniel. I'm glad you're okay but so sad about all the devastation around you.
Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 12:22 am
by Big Magilla
And my sister wonders why I don't move to her tornado prone area of northern Texas. She does promise that the recent tornado damage to her house will be fixed by the time I visit at the end of May.
The Alabama death count is now up to 61. I hope this is the worst we'll see for a long time to come.
Edited By Big Magilla on 1303985028
Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 10:12 pm
by dws1982
EDIT: Yahoo is already giving the count as 40 dead in Alabama, 64 total.
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All my life, I've heard adults talk about April 3, 1974, the date of the most violent storms they've ever seen. Ten or twenty years from now, all the adults will talk about April 27, 2011 the same way.
What a day. Started off with storms about 4:00 AM, then 6:00 AM, which I slept through. A big system came through around 9:30 AM, with tornadoes on the ground in South/Central Limestone County. (One about a mile from my house.) Schools were delayed a couple of hours, but by 11:15, we were out in the hallways because of a storms headed through Northern Limestone County. (Where my school is located.) Got home in time for the afternoon round, which was the worst. I saw a tornado pass just to the south of my house. We had golf-ball size hail. The street completely flooded over into my front yard (I live on a corner, in the lowest lot in the neighborhood), and eventually even the sidewalk was covered in water more than ankle deep. The backyard had water in it that would've come past my knees. (And it was flowing so fast that it would've easily carried me away if I had walked out in it.) Luckily, we didn't have any significant property damage anywhere in our neighborhood. A neighbor did have three large trees fall in her yard, but remarkably, every single tree fell away from her house. (A trampoline got demolished, but that was it.)
25 is a just a very early count for the number dead. There's probably more than that in Limestone County alone. My brother-in-law, in his last week as a police officer, is working tonight recovering bodies. He said he'll probably spend the entire night getting bodies that were trapped in houses and trailers. A whole trailer park was levelled, a church was completely levelled, and lots of people had their homes damaged, whether it was minor damage or worse. At least 200,000 people are expected to be without power tonight. (Luckily ours came back on about two hours ago.)
I took some pictures on my phone and I'm trying to upload them to my Facebook. I'll share that link when I can get them uploaded. For some reason, it's not connecting to send pictures through Facebook, although it's working fine for texting and calling.
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Storms, tornadoes kill 25 in Alabama
BIRMINGHAM, Ala (Reuters) – Tornadoes and storms lashed the South on Wednesday, leading to 25 deaths in Alabama alone over a 24 hour period, state authorities said.
"I can confirm the 25 deaths in Alabama were related to today's weather," Valerie Hayes, a spokeswoman for the Alabama Emergency Management Agency, told Reuters.
The deaths occurred in nine different counties across the northern and central parts of the state and nine people were also injured, she said.
The supercell thunderstorm that produced a tornado in Tuscaloosa in western Alabama was still producing a tornado-force winds three hours later in northwestern Georgia, said Josh Nagelberg, a meteorologist on the AccuWeather.com website.
"This could be the worst tornado in Alabama's history," Nagelberg said, adding that by 9 p.m. local time 0200 gmt the twister passed within a few miles of Rome in northwestern Georgia and appeared to be weakening.
The storms also forced the Tennessee Valley Authority to close three nuclear power plants in Alabama and knocked out 11 high voltage power lines.
Governors in Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee declared a state of emergency and in Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour declared a state of emergency for 39 counties.
Earlier, authorities put the death toll across the South at 25 over a three day period, a figure that included 11 deaths in Arkansas, six in Alabama, five in Mississippi, two in Louisiana and one in Tennessee.
Edited By dws1982 on 1303960876