Alabama Tornado's
 

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.

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.

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.

Outskirt communities of Birmingham:
http://d.yimg.com/a/p/ap/20110428/ca...P3anum8MT_ig--

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.

From TWC

Tuscaloosa tornado on Live TV:
http://s.imwx.com/img/images/news/ap...-2-600x405.jpg

University of Alabama:
http://i.imwx.com/web/news/2011/apri...17-600x405.jpg

http://s.imwx.com/img/images/news/ap...15-600x405.jpg

http://s.imwx.com/img/images/news/ap...12-600x405.jpg

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!!!

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

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.

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.

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.

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/

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.

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?

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

What state is that in?

Virginia... about 60 miles west of Richmond...

RTD says that one of those was not a tornado per an officer who was visually tracking it. He was quoted by his Chief as it only being a funnel cloud while over the college, once it left the college grounds he stopped tracking it. There is damage outside of the college that suggests it may have touched down but nothing confirmed. Could have been a Gustnado instead which can do some pretty good damage itself. It's just like a tornado except it's below the wind speed threshold and is usually with a funnel cloud.

Here's an RTD page with updates on everything. The Glade Spring one was stumbled upon by the responding officer when they got a call of a tree that had fallen onto a truck on 81. He realized real fast that he had come upon a war zone.UPDATE: Officials reduce death toll to 5 in Va. | Richmond Times-Dispatch

Just parked at the Flying J in McCalla, AL (deliver in Bessemer in the am). On the drive down, I didn't see a horrific amount of damage along I-65/I-20/I-59. Close to the 350mm in AL along I-65, there's a stretch where there's not a single billboard left standing, but the posts are still there. Around the 295mm, there's a stretch of about 2 or 3 miles where you have to be careful in the slow lane because of all the trees that are blown over. Just north of Birmingham on 65, you can see a *LOT* of trees down. I didn't see anything at all on the 20/65 stretch, but it's only, what, 10 miles I was on it?

The Petro at exit 100 on 20/59 is closed today. Not sure about the Loves at the same exit. The Flying J is open with no problems.

If you're running down south, be careful at pretty much every exit ramp that has a gas station close to the exit. Cars are backed up everywhere to buy gas. That's from about 20 miles north of the TN/AL line, all the way down. I didn't see any truck backups for fuel - only cars. There's a lot of cars parked on the shoulders the entire drive as well. No idea why though. The people are still in them. Only thing I can think would be running out of gas.

It sure has been a nasty spring so far. I was in NC right after the tornadoes there a couple of weeks ago. I can't remember this much wind into the end of April like this. March sure, but it usually dies into April. (or maybe my memory is suspect)

YouTube - Aftermath of tornado glade spring,va 2011

YouTube - Aftermath of tornado glade spring,va 2011

glade spring around petro

Michigan, they normally see storms like this in the South in the winter months but nothing as severe as these have been. Even into the summer time they still see some nasty storms but these were some serious potent storms that are normally reserved for the Plains. The weather folks are blaming La Nina for causing these storms. What has made it worse on this particular outbreak is that in the Deep South you have a lot of single wide's and double wide's which have no basements. Normally getting in the center of the house is the best place but when an EF5 comes calling your SOL no matter what. The best place then is underground or hope you get lucky as the one guy in Tuscaloosa did. He jumped under his porch and lived, his neighbor and kids did the same but they were all killed.

This is now the deadliest outbreak, 318 lives, in the US since 1932 when a monster tornado took 332 lives in..........Alabama.

You sure know a lot about tornadoes. I don't know what an EF5 is but I'll be glad to take your word for the fact that I don't want to be around one. I was just talking about how windy it's been driving my truck this spring. It must be the La Nina.

So I just checked messages and my boss is telling me that I might have a pickup in Decatur, AL on my way back home next week. He's not sure though. He says they haven't answered their phone for the last couple of days. Scary stuff. They're really nice people and I hope they're ok.

EF SCALE EF Rating 3 Second Gust (mph) 0 65-85 1 86-110 2 111-135 3 136-165 4 166-200 5 Over 200

I try to understand them as much as I can Mich. I really want to get out on the Plains and do some chasing to see some from a distance.

An EF5 is the worst of the worst for Tornado's. Google Greensburg, Kansas for an idea of how bad it can be or simply look at the pics from Tuscaloosa. Prelims say that they got a 5, wind speeds can reach and exceed 200 mph. Anything in the path of a 5 can suffer complete destruction.

Enhanced Fujita Scale - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As for Alabama, phone lines and cell towers are down everywhere from reports. Decatur was in the path of a possible tornado that was being tracked into Huntsville where the National Weather Service office tracking it stopped tracking it. They ran and hid when they realized they were in the direct path.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to them. What a tragedy. Everything gone, in a matter of minutes. I know how they feel. I was only 6, but we are 1979 tornado survivors. Only thing we had was what we had on.
I was telling a friend of mine that I think they moved tornado alley to the east. It's still early in the spring, we could see some ugly weather yet, but we haven't had near as much storms in the last couple years.

I heard a reporter (or someone) who said he'd covered the Greensburg disaster and that Tuscaloosa was unbelievably worse! Wow.

Tornado footage from Tuscaloosa...
 

Here's some video shot by a couple college students as the tornado swept thru Tuscaloosa. The end is the kicker...

YouTube - F5 Tornado in Tuscaloosa

They call this area of the country Dixie Alley and a report was released on Monday that stated Dixie Alley was more dangerous than Tornado Alley and has been for some time, just 2 days later it appears to have been proven true.

I don't doubt it. Everything is crazy now days. Like I said, we haven't seen the storms the last 2 or 3 years, like we normally do. We have rain in the forecast this next week. We'll see if we get any. Probably not :lol:. We need rain, badly. Fires everywhere! Everything's burning up!

I've been mulling it over for a few days about putting in an underground shelter here at home. Wednesday night was not a fun one at all trying to get some rest. Put something in underground where we can go and have no worries. Thinking of something similar to a fallout shelter, generator underground that is set to run on natural gas to give us power. Water tanks underground and piped in for water with a toilet and small sink to wash our hands or take a sponge bath to conserve the water that hooks into the existing drainfield. Of course I'd have to toss in water purifier's every now and then to keep it safe. Go ahead with an NBC air unit in it also. Figure a 20x20x7 tall would be more than enough as some NBC units can put out enough air filtered air for 3500 cubic feet, my dimensions equate to 2800. Just have to get an engineer to help direct me so I can do it myself for the most part.

That's fine if you're looking to spend a couple of weeks inside there. In most cases, tornadoes don't last that long. Only real problem you would have is if some of the debris were to come down and block you way out. My relation in NE called them a "root cellar". About 10 feet long, about 8 feet wide, and maybe 7 feet high. If they went in for a storm, it usually only lasted an hour or so. Unless, you're expecting a month long barrage of funnels dancing around you. On the other hand, if the weather hits you dead center, it would give you a place to lay your head till the house is ready to live in again, so maybe not too bad an idea.

Good thing I'm retired. And not in that area. If I were still driving, there's little doubt that I would have been right in the middle of all that when it came along. More than likely, I would have been coming down I-81 and planning to stop at the Petro, or I would have delivered in AL and would have been heading west through Tuscaloosa. Over the years, I've dodged enough conditions like that, I don't mind missing it now. Coming south in LA, toward I-10, I got a look at a funnel over my left shoulder. It was moving away from the road I was on, but it had just formed. Never did find out just how big it got to be.

No. I don't mind missing all the excitement. I've got plenty of stories about close calls with the weather. It's your turn to dodge and deal with it now. I wish you all the best. And, you're right. The season just got started. Over the next couple of months, those things are going to work their way north. If this is any indication, you all could be in for an active season.

And, me???? I just keep a lookout for "WATERSPOUTS".

these acts of god been happening far to often around the world lately as we all know to well, our hearts here go out to those of you affected,on a lighter note cant understand why so many go to church supporting the guy.just a idea from over the pond

mitch said:

Yes, mate. Thanks for reminding me/us of the recent quake in NZ, and the epoch flooding a few months ago in Australia. Did y'all get MY/our check? :p [just razzin ya.]

And who has sent a check, or would it matter, to Japan? Or Chile? Or Indonesia?

We thank you, mate. How are Y'all doing? My dad just got back from his 3rd or 4th "mission" to Haiti. Find a church to INVITE him (and his group) and maybe I'll quit trucking and come along. Always wanted to see what the world looked like from Down Under. :lol2:

When "the Ancients" were faced with such devastating forces of Nature, they couldn't understand them, either. So.... they created a GOD for EACH one and they sacrificed VIRGINS (for reasons unknown) to "appease" them!

With the help of SCIENCE, we all now know what causes these things, and so... we've "retired" those GODS. In fact.... we've placed the blame for ALL these "natural disasters" on that ONE "god" of our creation... and serve him MOST because he represents the ONE thing we don't have a scientific explanation for.... life AFTER death.

That IS the question of our day. And... WHAT if we find the answer? :eek2:

What pond? [chuckle, chuckle, grin] You mean you'ze blokes over there have IDEAS????? :eek2::lol::lol:

we have some ideas but when we down under we got to look up to you jokas, be good idea to bring back the gods with the virgins i think .the pond idea was brought up by michigan driver haha