Started By
Message
re: Five years ago today....
Posted on 4/27/16 at 9:47 am to RollTide1987
Posted on 4/27/16 at 9:47 am to RollTide1987
That weekend I went to Verner Elementary, on the other side of TTown, to load some books and supplies in my car and take them over TMS. TMS is really close to where the damage hit and when I was taking the stuff over I missed the exit and drove right through wreckage. My power had been out a while so this was the first I had seen of the damage. I was so used to tornado warnings so I had kinda been desensitized to them but ever since then they always scare me
This post was edited on 4/27/16 at 9:48 am
1
Posted on 4/27/16 at 9:49 am to Glorious
quote:
I was so used to tornado warnings so I had kinda been desensitized to them but ever since then they always scare me
Still remember how when I was there we would race out of campus buildings when we heard a Tornado Warning so that we wouldn't get stuck there for an hour.
My brother called and said they had a warning and shrugged it off and I told him that I was watching the tornado on television and this was real and to get somewhere quickly. He was at a friends in the Downs about to get in a car.
Just.........yea.
Posted on 4/27/16 at 9:52 am to Herman Frisco
Actually it was during the summer visiting family, may have been my grandad's birthday.
Posted on 4/27/16 at 10:04 am to RebelFreeze48
You need to read To Heaven After the Storm. Writing by a 7 year old girl after her parents were killed that day.
Posted on 4/27/16 at 10:06 am to GIbson05
quote:
You need to read To Heaven After the Storm. Writing by a 7 year old girl after her parents were killed that day.
Damn - just that picture makes me tear up.
Posted on 4/27/16 at 10:09 am to RollTide1987
I was at work in Tuscaloosa just off the interstate when it came through. They let us leave about 6pm due to the plant having no power. I live in Northport so I have to cross the river. Couldn't go down 359 because the recycling plant was in the middle of the interstate. Greensboro and 10 Avenue were closed because Rosedale Court was strewn everywhere. Sitting in traffic I watched hundreds of people walking up toward 35th street with a looks of fear and disbelief. Everything they had was gone in an instant.
Posted on 4/27/16 at 10:11 am to SummerOfGeorge
quote:
My brother called and said they had a warning and shrugged it off and I told him that I was watching the tornado on television and this was real and to get somewhere quickly.
I was in my office on the south side of campus at the time. Totally oblivious to the weather. All of the sudden someone pops in and tells us we need to get downstairs. Ended up watching the tornado on someone's tablet while being able to faintly hear it outside until the power went out.
I'm a compulsive weather watcher now.
Posted on 4/27/16 at 10:16 am to RollTide1987
This is how close the tornado came to the campus. You can see Bryant Denny stadium & the University almost in the middle left of the photo.
Posted on 4/27/16 at 10:18 am to Dodgson
Smithville, MS is a very small town that is basically located along this road from Fulton to Amory.
The EF-5 tornado when right along the road for almost the entire length of the town.
The EF-5 tornado when right along the road for almost the entire length of the town.
Posted on 4/27/16 at 10:34 am to SummerOfGeorge
quote:
Damn - just that picture makes me tear up.
quote:
What adds to Ari's remarkable story is the subject of her book, titled "To Heaven, After the Storm." On April 27th of last year, Ari, along with her mom and dad, Shane and Jennifer Hallmark, her grandparents, Phillip and Ann Hallmark and her two cousins, Jayden and Julie, sought shelter in a bathroom to ride out an EF-4 tornado that came through the Ruth community of Marshall County.
Her book talks about it all. "When we were in the bathroom," she says. "And when we were in the hospital. And when we got out of the hospital."
Only she and her cousin Julie survived. However, Ari says for a while, she joined her family members in Heaven. She describes in vivid detail seeing her father Shane, who had been bald all of her life, with hair.
She writes that, "my daddy did not have his glasses. And he did not have the marks where they were."
She says an angel came to her and told her it was time to go back. She says she then remembers waking up in a field near the house.
quote:
The proceeds from Ari's book will help a ministry for other children dealing with death. Her therapist suggested the idea.
Posted on 4/27/16 at 11:05 am to RollTide1987
That day changed my life forever, for sure.
Posted on 4/27/16 at 11:41 am to scrooster
quote:Same here - I watched that thing on TV and it honestly looked like it was headed straight to downtown B'ham with a mission of destruction.
Damn ... time flies. I remember exactly where I was when the big one hit and ran down I-20.
Posted on 4/27/16 at 11:47 am to RT1941
Posted on 4/27/16 at 11:50 am to SummerOfGeorge
There's still a ton of work to do in Alberta City and down on the Greensboro Ave east area.
Posted on 4/27/16 at 12:00 pm to RT1941
Posted on 4/27/16 at 12:19 pm to SummerOfGeorge
That was a crazy day. I was working down in Alabaster at the time, and they knew bad conditions were coming and sent us home early. I made it to my mother in law's place in Hoover. I remember watching all the coverage. A crew from my work went over to help clean up in the Fultondale and Forestdale area the next week. It was Cinco De Mayo, so about a week later. The left side of the street I was working on was demolished. The right side, mostly untouched. I remember standing in a yard next to a chain link fence that was still there somehow, and 10 feet away looking down into the basement, which was all that remained of the house. And 20 feet away from that a house may have had a broken window and a few shingles loose. The path was easily identifiable, and I had never seen anything like that in person. Then about 10 days later my wife and I took the Amtrak down to New Orleans and rode through parts of Tuscaloosa. The whole train just got so quiet and somber witnessing the destruction.
Posted on 4/27/16 at 12:23 pm to RT1941
quote:
Same here - I watched that thing on TV and it honestly looked like it was headed straight to downtown B'ham with a mission of destruction.
I was in Preston Place at a buddy's apartment on Grace Street right behind the Locker Room, Tuts, Publix, etc.(I lived in Preston Place too, but the complex on Reed Street), and I remember the massive thing appearing on the news broadcast camera that overlooks downtown and the river...then our power went out. Thought it was coming right for us. We stepped outside to look at the sky(stupid, I know) and we immediately went back inside when we saw what the clouds were doing. We took cover in the back bedroom.
It was over just like that, and we were unsure how extensive the damage. We knew it was bad, but until we walked over to 15th street the next day, we had no idea how bad it truly was. Like someone else sad, it looked like that whole area had been victim of an artillery barrage. Crazy, apocalyptic shite.
Posted on 4/27/16 at 4:19 pm to SummerOfGeorge
quote:
You need to read To Heaven After the Storm. Writing by a 7 year old girl after her parents were killed that day. Damn - just that picture makes me tear up.
From Arab. Close friends with my son. She's such an outstanding young lady in every way.
Posted on 4/27/16 at 7:15 pm to Roll Tide Ravens
quote:
Ohatchee
My good friend's house was directly hit there. He lost an arm but him and his wife are alive to tell about it. I was in Hazel Green that day at my parent's, I could hear the tornado hitting Harvest. We kept getting wall clouds overhead, but luckily we were spared any damage.
This post was edited on 4/27/16 at 7:21 pm
Posted on 4/27/16 at 7:52 pm to RollTide1987
APTV has a really cool documentary on about the Tuscaloosa tornado.
Page 2 of 3
Popular
Back to top
Follow SECRant for SEC Football News