Not sure of your age, didn't know if you were old enough at the time. Just knew this was such a rare thing in your neck of the woods that you would remember it if you were around or were somehow impacted.
I hope, you nor anybody else ever has to meet one of these beasts face to face either.
Just never turn your back on weather, regardless of where you live. It it looks threatening, pay heed, listen to the news and seek shelter. Better to look silly and paranoid and be alive than be a fool and ignore it and end up dead.
Down here, it's just part of what we live with. Scary yes, but you adapt and learn and pay attention. At least I do. Seeking the right shelter and doing it in time can pretty much save you from death with these things..... UNLESS it's a really big event, like the recent ones here, F5 scale. You don't survive F4 and F5 tornadoes unless you are actually underground in a tornado shelter. You might get lucky under a porch or in a deep, sheltered basement... but I wouldn't expect much if I got caught in one of these monsters.
A couple of weeks back we drove out to Pleasant Grove, one of the Birmingham suburbs that was hit hardest. WOW. Looks like a nuclear bomb went off. NOTHING left. Keep in mind, this tornado was over one mile in width, stayed on the ground for miles and had winds at or over 200 mph. NOT something you want to toy with.
Just to give you an idea, topography down here is very dense; lots of trees and vegetation and it's pretty hilly. To say it looks like Kansas now, or New Mexico, etc. is about right on, in comparison to what I described above.
These first two images I took from Google Maps (street view) of just a couple of Pleasant Grove streets. Most all of the streets in Pleasant Grove pretty much look(ed) like these two pictures. Lots of trees, simple ranch and country style homes ....hence the name Pleasant Grove.
BEFORE (click images to enlarge)
AFTER --
These are screen caps I took from the about 30 minutes of video that we took while driving all around this rather large suburb a few weeks back. There are a few new houses already going up..... but for the most part, it's just desolate and spartan.
I can't imagine who would ever want to go back there now.... I couldn't wake up and look out my windows and see just open nothingness every day. No way. I'd have to live somewhere else. And also the fact that a lot of people died there on that day.....doesn't help.
(click images to enlarge)
- One of the few trees that actually still had most of its limbs and some foliage left. Reason why, because all of the limbs and leaves, etc. were all pushed around to one side, wrapped, pinched back, however you want to say it. Hard to see, but if you look close you get the idea. Like it was made out of wet paper or putty or something pliable. And this community was established, from way back. These are (were) old growth, huge hardwood trees and pines.
NOW - we're through our first tornado season (we have two, spring and fall) but we're heading into peak hurricane season -- all eyes on the tropics....hopefully no hurricanes to deal with before the secondary tornado season arrives. Never a dull moment in the southern US, eh?
