Tuscaloosa Tornado
04-30-2011, 05:59 PM
#1
Tuscaloosa Tornado
For those of you that live under a rock, the south was rocked by some killer storms last week, with alabama getting the most damage. I live in Tuscaloosa and my house was roughly 100yards from the center of the F4 tornado that went through. I wasnt home at the time and am very lucky that our house recieved only minor damage (some roof and a couple broken windows), while the houses around us were destroyed. Heres a couple of pics I took after the storm, the devistation is just incredible.
The arrow points to my house
As of today there are 39 dead and 440 missing with over 1,000 injuried. What I can tell you is two of the areas heavily hit were the 10th avenue housing projects, and a area of town known as Alberta. These two areas house a lot of very low income housing projects and are basically wiped off the map. With over 400 missing over 72 hours out im sure the death count will rise dramatically over the next week or so, but I think they are keeping it low at this point to not cause a big panic.
I have heard some sickening stories from Alberta. It is a mostly black, non-product area of town best avoided. Stories such as looters stealing peoples stuff WHILE THEY ARE STILL THERE trying to salvage what they can. Stories about how groups are walking around giving out free water then these people turning around and reselling it for $4 a bottle to people directly affected. That one I am sure couldnt have last long, but the shear nerve of such a thing. Additional I heard multiple times about gangs using young children to ask women to take them to their house at some address, then gang members attacking these women. I doubt you will hear about any of these on the news but it is all over the place here. I for one hope they do not rebuild those ghettos so the same people can move back in, at least not in the 10th ave area, let them all move to alberta.
Local business have been fantastic; home depot is giving away free boxes, and countless groups are walking around with water and food for people working to clear debris. The national guard got here last night and there is an 8 oclock curfew to prevent looting.
A big issue is a lot of tuscaloosa's emergency service centers were destroyed in the tornado, as well as a police station, and the sanitary trucks. I have seen power trucks from very far away including Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio, Georgia, Flordia - basically everywhere to try and help.
Ive spent the last few days helping clear trees from peoples houses and such and am sunburnt as hell.
The arrow points to my house
As of today there are 39 dead and 440 missing with over 1,000 injuried. What I can tell you is two of the areas heavily hit were the 10th avenue housing projects, and a area of town known as Alberta. These two areas house a lot of very low income housing projects and are basically wiped off the map. With over 400 missing over 72 hours out im sure the death count will rise dramatically over the next week or so, but I think they are keeping it low at this point to not cause a big panic.
I have heard some sickening stories from Alberta. It is a mostly black, non-product area of town best avoided. Stories such as looters stealing peoples stuff WHILE THEY ARE STILL THERE trying to salvage what they can. Stories about how groups are walking around giving out free water then these people turning around and reselling it for $4 a bottle to people directly affected. That one I am sure couldnt have last long, but the shear nerve of such a thing. Additional I heard multiple times about gangs using young children to ask women to take them to their house at some address, then gang members attacking these women. I doubt you will hear about any of these on the news but it is all over the place here. I for one hope they do not rebuild those ghettos so the same people can move back in, at least not in the 10th ave area, let them all move to alberta.
Local business have been fantastic; home depot is giving away free boxes, and countless groups are walking around with water and food for people working to clear debris. The national guard got here last night and there is an 8 oclock curfew to prevent looting.
A big issue is a lot of tuscaloosa's emergency service centers were destroyed in the tornado, as well as a police station, and the sanitary trucks. I have seen power trucks from very far away including Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio, Georgia, Flordia - basically everywhere to try and help.
Ive spent the last few days helping clear trees from peoples houses and such and am sunburnt as hell.
04-30-2011, 08:14 PM
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Sorry to hear the bad news. Shame that there always seems to be someone trying to gain from these bad events. We had looters here in Nashville as well during all the flooding last year.
04-30-2011, 09:03 PM
#7
Richard, glad your alive man.
Kudos to you for bieng strong and helping out.
I honestly thought when i saw all that destruction, there would be ******* looting and robbing people. Its ashame to think like that but thats REAL life . I hope all those thugs in the projects got blown away and wont return .
God bless the people affected by this tragedy and the ones trying to help their fellow man out.
Kudos to you for bieng strong and helping out.
I honestly thought when i saw all that destruction, there would be ******* looting and robbing people. Its ashame to think like that but thats REAL life . I hope all those thugs in the projects got blown away and wont return .
God bless the people affected by this tragedy and the ones trying to help their fellow man out.
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04-30-2011, 11:19 PM
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a friend of mine posted this on a local forum....... the story kind of "struck" me, so i figured some of you might "enjoy" reading it too
As you all have heard or seen, I'm fine...
Glad to hear many others made it through okay. Sorry to hear about the ones who didn't.
30 minutes after the storm happened, my friends were with me surveying the damage in a Ford Explorer. We were all in shock still taking it all in when basically a US Marshall asked us to be his injured victim transport so from about 6:30pm until about 1am, that's exactly what we were doing.
When we first came upon each other, the first victim he described as a "Black female with a partial decapitation, but is conscious and breathing....I need help". We were able to make a route as far as possible in the truck and when we ran out of driving room, we picked her up out of the back on a door and carried her the remaining distance to the waiting medics.
I found out at 1:06am from the US Marshall that Lynette (The victim) was in stable condition and undergoing surgery.
She was one of the four victims that were severely injured that we've received confirmation made it to the hospital and are okay.
In total, we transported about 30 people.
Words cannot explain the things I've witness in the past 72 hours....
As you all have heard or seen, I'm fine...
Glad to hear many others made it through okay. Sorry to hear about the ones who didn't.
30 minutes after the storm happened, my friends were with me surveying the damage in a Ford Explorer. We were all in shock still taking it all in when basically a US Marshall asked us to be his injured victim transport so from about 6:30pm until about 1am, that's exactly what we were doing.
When we first came upon each other, the first victim he described as a "Black female with a partial decapitation, but is conscious and breathing....I need help". We were able to make a route as far as possible in the truck and when we ran out of driving room, we picked her up out of the back on a door and carried her the remaining distance to the waiting medics.
I found out at 1:06am from the US Marshall that Lynette (The victim) was in stable condition and undergoing surgery.
She was one of the four victims that were severely injured that we've received confirmation made it to the hospital and are okay.
In total, we transported about 30 people.
Words cannot explain the things I've witness in the past 72 hours....