TUSCALOOSA, AL -- The progress made nearly six months since the Deep South tornado outbreak April 27 is remarkable. But there is clearly still a long way to go.
While at the National Weather Association convention in Birmingham a few of us drove over to Tuscaloosa. I wasn't sure if we should. I'm sure the people there are tired of gawkers. But we wanted to see up close what's left. I still don't know if it was right to go. At least 52 citizens lost their lives as a result of the EF-4 tornado.
Click here - for television coverage right as the tornado is moving through Tuscaloosa.
We were told where the tornado's path would be evident. It clearly was, but I'm not sure we were ready for this -- an apartment complex that looks like it was hit yesterday. On destruction the scale of this it takes months and months to clean up but it was sad to see simple household items strewn across a parking lot.
This jug of milk is probably from one of the kitchens, lying there six months. Nearby there's a freshly cleared lot. In front stands an elementary school sign.
Driving across Alabama's beautiful hilly terrain you can see where there is a void in the tall trees, where the monster twister took down everything in its path. Elsewhere are trees that somehow withstood the tornado but lost all leaves and branches, just some new growth over recent months.
But it's not all destruction. We found several new structures built. There were people out working on construction, utility lines and cleanup. It was inspirational to see this. We ate at the Arby's, just down the street from the University of Alabama. It was a normal day in a college town with a great football team.
Around town we found places we take for granted of always being there -- the bank, the corner pharmacy -- now open in the form of a trailer, operating in the parking lot of damaged buildings. The national spotlight is gone but the recovery process is clearly a long one. I visited just one of the many communities hit by tornadoes this spring. Look at the reports of tornadoes from April 27 alone:
Not every red dot was a killer tornado but there were many. At the conference we heard other unimaginable stories. In Smithville, Mississippi nearly each tornado victim was found naked; the tornado had ripped their clothes off. Forensics experts were called in to confirm a Ford Explorer had been thrown into a water tower and landed hundreds of yards away. One presenter said the amount of debris removed from the Joplin, Missouri area after their May tornado is roughly twice the amount removed from the World Trade Center after September 11.
Brad Panovich from North Carolina has a
great assessment of one of the other killer tornadoes that day, in Pleasant Grove.
This is
one website I know aiding in disaster recovery, #wearealabma. Please share any others.
The NWA conference featured several presentations on the historic Deep South Outbreak. This was all great information. Perhaps the most important event I witnessed was a town hall meeting that polled regular citizens, survivors of the tornado, of how they handle this type of weather information. They were asked how they prepared, what they knew, why they acted how they did. The town hall was just a step in the larger process of social scientists gathering the needed info so we can better cover this type of weather.
