Alabama Tornado's

[Malaki86]

Wow - just checked out the news about the tornado's down south. Tuscaloosa has at least 32 confirmed dead. I'm scheduled to deliver in Tuscaloosa tomorrow - I'm just south of Louisville now (under a tornado watch as well). Have to wait until morning to have our customer service try to contact the consignee to see if I'm actually delivering this load or not. I tried to find a map of what part of the city the tornado actually hit, but can't locate anything yet.

My prayers are out to anyone affected in this latest rash of storms.

[GMAN]

Power is off all around Chattanooga, TN. It has been off for at least a couple of hours. They are not sure when power will be restored. It is probably the same storm. Hopefully, the power will be back on shortly. There was plenty of wind and the media were telling residents earlier to find shelter. I don't recall them ever telling people to find shelter. I have no idea the extent of damage, other than the electric is out. Evidently, it is a large storm. I spoke to a driver earlier today and he told me that his wife said there were tornado warnings over part of Pennsylvania. Be careful.

[Orangetxguy]

Power is off all around Chattanooga, TN. It has been off for at least a couple of hours. They are not sure when power will be restored. It is probably the same storm. Hopefully, the power will be back on shortly. There was plenty of wind and the media were telling residents earlier to find shelter. I don't recall them ever telling people to find shelter. I have no idea the extent of damage, other than the electric is out. Evidently, it is a large storm. I spoke to a driver earlier today and he told me that his wife said there were tornado warnings over part of Pennsylvania. Be careful.

The article I just read said the there was a possible tornado in your area this evening, over by Tiftonia.

Storms kill 72 around South, including 58 in Ala. - Yahoo! News

Mal.......The article doesn't say what all was damaged in Tuscaloosa....but there was plenty of it for sure! Be safe! There were tornados in the Huntsville area.

[GMAN]

The article I just read said the there was a possible tornado in your area this evening, over by Tiftonia.

Storms kill 72 around South, including 58 in Ala. - Yahoo! News

Mal.......The article doesn't say what all was damaged in Tuscaloosa....but there was plenty of it for sure! Be safe! There were tornados in the Huntsville area.

Tiftonia is on the other side of town from where we live. Huntsville is only about 100 miles away. It is amazing that there are so many tornado's nearby. We are not accustomed to having tornado's. I am sorry to hear about so many death's.

[Mr. Ford95]

Outskirt communities of Birmingham:


I have a pic of downtown Tuscaloosa from a friend but I can't get it to load on here, looks like a bomb went off near the Home Depot on either University or 82.

[Mr. Ford95]

From TWC

Tuscaloosa tornado on Live TV:


University of Alabama:






They are saying the same cell hit Cullman first with a small little twister that tore up a church before unleashing the monster on Tuscaloosa and eventually Birmingham. The pics of McFarland Blvd and around Tuscaloosa look like it was every bit of a 4-5. 15 confirmed dead by nightfall in Tuscaloosa alone, today they will begin really searching and it's expected that the death toll will rise.

[Malaki86]

Getting ready to head that direction right now. I have to call back into dispatch after 8am so they can get the CSR to try to contact the consignee. I won't even think of going in there unless I get an all-clear from the customer.

Unreal

The only bright side is that the weather looks a lot better over here today. But, those storms are in NC, SC & VA now.

The area I'm delivering to is pretty much the north-east section of Tuscaloosa, south of the river. Looks to be about 2 miles off the US-11 loop.

If I do go in, I'll try to get some photo's. I didn't bring my camera, but can use the EVO.

[Malaki86]

Was just getting ready to leave the rest area and dispatch called. They said for me to not go past Glendale, KY until they have 100% confirmation on the situation there. We have a drop-yard in Birmingham, but they don't know the status of that yard, either.

Gonna be a fun day.

[Mr. Ford95]

NE Tuscaloosa is destroyed, you'll be lucky to get near there. Birmingham, Pratt City in particular is also destroyed.

As for the weather people saying the same one hit Cullman first, they were wrong geographically.

[Malaki86]

One of the photo's (I think the Home Depot one) is roughly 1 mile from the delivery location. With a 1-mile wide tornado, the place will be lucky to still be standing.

I love dispatch shift changes - just sent a message to my day-shift dispatch to see if they've heard what I'm doing with this load yet. She asked why, and why was I parked with a 13:00 appt today 400+ miles away. I told her to look at any news website and she'd understand.

[Hawkjr]

one hit the petro in glade spring va at exit 29 off of I-81... 7 people died but they have yet to confirm if thats from the truck stop or nearby mobile home... said it flipped over 40 trucks!!!

[Mr. Ford95]

Richmond stations were saying a tornado tore across Goochland last night. Another hit Quantico Marine Base yesterday afternoon after it went over my place and dropped a funnel cloud. Report of something being tracked right now near Doswell, Va. I'm looking at a seriously nasty wall cloud from that one. Very sleepless night last night with sirens going off. Roll Tide Bama, roll tide

[GMAN]

one hit the petro in glade spring va at exit 29 off of I-81... 7 people died but they have yet to confirm if thats from the truck stop or nearby mobile home... said it flipped over 40 trucks!!!

I just spoke with a friend of mine who lives near the Petro. He said that there were over 20 people missing or dead in the area. According to what he heard, a semi was pushed through the building. Apparently, there isn't much left.

I was talking to a driver this morning and he has a friend who was at the Petro when the tornado hit. He said there were trucks over turned and leaning over next to other trucks all over the stop. He said they are not allowing any traffic into the Petro. They are expecting it to take at least 24 hours to get things cleared.

[GMAN]

I spoke with my wife a short time ago. I had a huge tree in my back yard that fell and took out the power and perhaps one vehicle. I called my insurance agent and he told me that 4 tornado's hit around Chattanooga and so far there are 24 reported dead. I don't have any photo's, but damage is severe. Fortunately, the tornado's hit areas that were not as densley populated. Damage could have been much worse. Bradley county just north of Chattanooga also had at least 1 tornado.

[Malaki86]

I'm sitting at our yard in Nashville now. Apparently they couldn't even get in touch with the people who run the drop yard in Birmingham. With the original del going to Tuscaloosa, I told them that even if the place was untouched, it's hard to tell what the roads would be like, or if they would even let me through.

Looks like they rescheduled the load to deliver in Bessemer, AL tomorrow, but still waiting on word for that.

Years ago, when I was at USXpress, I was on the hurricane dispatch when Hurricane Wilma came through. They had us staged at the naval air station in Jacksonville, FL, parked on the runway. I was the end truck in the row. I have no idea what the wind speeds were that night, but I know that my truck was slamming sideways into my neighbors trailer the entire night. I woke up seasick from it. I couldn't imagine being sound asleep if a tornado went through the lot and started flipping trucks. Unbelievable.

Hope all the drivers made it out safe.

[Malaki86]

Link for information about the Petro in Glade Spring:

Tornado in Glade Spring VA - CNN iReport
Glade Spring Storms - Video - WCYB Tri Cities

In fact, just do a Google for 'tornado glade spring, va" - bunch of links

This link has photos of the Petro. Scroll down through the galleries. It's the 3rd or 4th down.
http://severeweathereventapril26.tumblr.com/

[Mr. Ford95]

Mal, do they realize that the places may not even be there anymore? Even if they are still there albeit damaged, there is no power or telephones right now. The best they can hope for is cellphone contact but even that might be down given the scope of this disaster if the emergency personnel have taken over those signals to coordinate rescue efforts.

[Malaki86]

That's what I had to explain to the dispatch this morning. I flat-out told them that I wasn't going into a disaster area without specific knowledge as to whether it was safe or not to do so. I've been in disaster area's before (post-Wilma) and it's no fun dodging downed power lines, trees across the interstate, cars upside down in the highway, etc.

Not only that - even if the place hadn't been touched, had power, phones, etc, who's to say how many people went into work themselves?

[Hawkjr]

my girlfriend goes to longwood and they got hit twice!! the tornado touched just north of town in farmville, in my county, Cumberland and it tore a house up and some trees... they video they have is pretty good stuff

[Malaki86]

What state is that in?