[k7baixo]

Let’s hear your stories. We survived this one. My grandfather built that church in the first picture you see. My brother & sister were in another church about a block away. I was home studying for finals...ok....waiting for M*A*S*H to come on....and studying. We didn’t know it at the time but it went over our house. We heard it of course ....but with power and phone service out, we could only guess it was a tornado. We got in our little home’s center bathroom and got in the tub.

When my grandparents finally got to our house two hours later and told us what happened, we got my mother up and took her to the hospital. She was an RN. My grandfather was in shock. All he could say was, “Brent’s gone. There’s nothing left. My father stayed at the hospital to help get the generator running. My brother and I hooked up with a bulldozer and we used flashlights to help him clear the streets into the hospital.

I was 15 at the time and lost my job at the grocery store. Federal disaster relief came in and instead of earning $48 a month, I got paid about $36 a week in unemployment disaster relief. When school started back in Sept, that all ended. It was at least another year before I found another job.

[harry chickpea]

Originally Posted by k7baixo

Let’s hear your stories. We survived this one. My grandfather built that church in the first picture you see. My brother & sister were in another church about a block away. I was home studying for finals...ok....waiting for M*A*S*H to come on....and studying. We didn’t know it at the time but it went over our house. We heard it of course ....but with power and phone service out, we could only guess it was a tornado. We got in our little home’s center bathroom and got in the tub.

When my grandparents finally got to our house two hours later and told us what happened, we got my mother up and took her to the hospital. She was an RN. My grandfather was in shock. All he could say was, “Brent’s gone. There’s nothing left. My father stayed at the hospital to help get the generator running. My brother and I hooked up with a bulldozer and we used flashlights to help him clear the streets into the hospital.

I was 15 at the time and lost my job at the grocery store. Federal disaster relief came in and instead of earning $48 a month, I got paid about $36 a week in unemployment disaster relief. When school started back in Sept, that all ended. It was at least another year before I found another job.

Pictures? Don't see them or links in your post.

My GF was at the police station just north of Airport Road when that tornado came through the training area to the south severely injuring a K-9 handler officer. She was one of the first out to handle the aftermath. At the time, officers weren't allowed to take their patrol cars home. If that tornado had gone a few hundred yards further north, she noted that there would have been no police cars available, as they were all parked there. She has lots of stories, including such simple ones as confiscating batteries for flashlights out of ruined structures, and larger ones like a car turned into a junkyard cube, and woman in a car on top of a sign at Whitesburg where the drive in was.

One of her big warnings was that the tornado had passed over the city dump, which meant that everything affected after that had all sorts of pathogens. People who were injured may have literally had garbage driven into wounds.

I had a EF 0 a half mile south of me, but this area doesn't generate tornadoes regularly. There are mammatus clouds that form, but not much else.

I was glad when one of the local TV station weather forecasters admitted that there WERE preferred tornado tracks, due to local topography and conditions. I was tired of arguing that obvious correlation against those wanting to say that tornado strikes were random.

[1973PINTO]

i was in church during the great outbreak of 74 .. as a storm was raging the preacher was trying to calm down the congregation by assuring us that GOD was watching over us and if he so desired he could end our fears with a snap of his finger .. as he said that he snapped his finger ,, in that instant the power went out and the roof of the church lifted up about a foot then settled back down ..you never heard so many GOD fearing people screaming and being very afraid .. lots of strange things happened that night .. some people i know were killed .. belongings of theirs was found nearly 100 miles away by relatives of mine who knew them as well ..a small church in tennessee not far from me was leveled and only the preacher was killed .... iv`e seen two tornados pass my home within a 1/4 mile ..

[k7baixo]

Originally Posted by harry chickpea

Pictures? Don't see them or links in your post.

My GF was at the police station just north of Airport Road when that tornado came through the training area to the south severely injuring a K-9 handler officer. She was one of the first out to handle the aftermath. At the time, officers weren't allowed to take their patrol cars home. If that tornado had gone a few hundred yards further north, she noted that there would have been no police cars available, as they were all parked there. She has lots of stories, including such simple ones as confiscating batteries for flashlights out of ruined structures, and larger ones like a car turned into a junkyard cube, and woman in a car on top of a sign at Whitesburg where the drive in was.

One of her big warnings was that the tornado had passed over the city dump, which meant that everything affected after that had all sorts of pathogens. People who were injured may have literally had garbage driven into wounds.

I had a EF 0 a half mile south of me, but this area doesn't generate tornadoes regularly. There are mammatus clouds that form, but not much else.

I was glad when one of the local TV station weather forecasters admitted that there WERE preferred tornado tracks, due to local topography and conditions. I was tired of arguing that obvious correlation against those wanting to say that tornado strikes were random.

Hhmmmmm....at the top of the opening page, you should see this:



Church was just starting- one person log a leg at this church. My grandfather took the blame....from himself to himself. No one blamed him. This was one of the biggest tornadoes to hit the state!

James Spann was a high school kid...and a ham radio operator. He’s mentioned this tornado many times since. That weather station in the link is only about three miles from our house.

Lots of people earned their stripes that night...before and after the tornado. I had finals that week so it became a pattern: go to school (we went to one in Marion AL), take an exam or two, go to Brent, work a few hours clearing debris, go home, study by candle, get some sleep, rinse and repeat. It was 5 days before we got power but I don’t remember any particular hardships.

Oh yeah....the color of the sky before the tornado....a sickly, weird color of green. The sound: like a freight train without the bells.

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by harry chickpea

Pictures? Don't see them or links in your post.

My GF was at the police station just north of Airport Road when that tornado came through the training area to the south severely injuring a K-9 handler officer. She was one of the first out to handle the aftermath. At the time, officers weren't allowed to take their patrol cars home. If that tornado had gone a few hundred yards further north, she noted that there would have been no police cars available, as they were all parked there. She has lots of stories, including such simple ones as confiscating batteries for flashlights out of ruined structures, and larger ones like a car turned into a junkyard cube, and woman in a car on top of a sign at Whitesburg where the drive in was.

One of her big warnings was that the tornado had passed over the city dump, which meant that everything affected after that had all sorts of pathogens. People who were injured may have literally had garbage driven into wounds.

I had a EF 0 a half mile south of me, but this area doesn't generate tornadoes regularly. There are mammatus clouds that form, but not much else.

I was glad when one of the local TV station weather forecasters admitted that there WERE preferred tornado tracks, due to local topography and conditions. I was tired of arguing that obvious correlation against those wanting to say that tornado strikes were random.

My son and I were at Randolph School having basketball practice when that one came through. We had to take cover at the edges of the practice area, but we never felt any impacts from the storm itself. Not far away, Jones Valley Elementary school was flattened. I had stepped outside around 4:30 and saw the mammatus clouds but really didn't think much of it. That was about the time the tornado was roaring through Airport Rd, just a few blocks away. We weren't allowed to leave until 7:30, 3 hours after. That's when we knew how serious it was - Drake Avenue was total chaos, with people literally driving up on curbs to get around traffic, presumably in an attempt to get to medical care.

Only 45 minutes earlier, my wife and son had been at the McDonald's at Whitesburg and Airport. It was destroyed in the storm, so we were quite fortunate.

[Southlander]

Thank God, I've never been actually IN a tornado. 1974, I was a senior at the University of Alabama and on duty at the newspaper, the Crimson-White, that night. We joined hundreds of other students trying to give blood that evening, but they couldn't take everybody. My fiance (now husband) had taken a group of fraternity brothers and a trailer to south Tennessee to collect aluminum cans from a trash heap behind a dive bar. One of the beer companies had a contest gong and they wanted to get enough for a color television. That evening they decided to spend the night at a frat bother's house in Sheffield instead of driving on back. Good decision, they would have been right were a tornado crossed the road had they driven back to Tuscaloosa that night. 2011, I started to work about 1:30 p.m., stopped to get the mail and saw the sky was a peculiar yellow. I went back in the house, called and said "I'm not leaving today." Daughter and grandson came over and stayed with me. Her husband worked at Huntsville Hospital and he was there about 3 days before leaving. Now power for almost a week...we were one of the last to get power. The big lines coming from Browns Ferry had been reduced to rubble. Landline phones still worked. When it happens again (and it will, one day), VOIP phones will be out as well.

[k7baixo]

Great job watching and recognizing the signs in the sky. Boy, I’ll never forget the color of the sky just before the Brent tornado hit. Sickly yellow/green. We also saw several rabbits scurrying across our backyard as if being chased.

My cousin lost his home in Tuscaloosa. Once he retired, they moved to WY. Lol Their rational: they wanted to live in a different part of the US while they were still young enough to enjoy it. When they got there, his wife’s baking talent led them to open a small bakery where they now work baker’s hours for 5 days a week. Sheesh.

[k7baixo]

Well, the house across from the one I grew up in was hit today as was the Sawmill Restaurant, south of Brent on Highway 5. From there, it went on the southeast side of Centreville where the area near the airport sustained heavy damage. I hope everyone is OK.

[MinivanDriver]

Originally Posted by k7baixo

Well, the house across from the one I grew up in was hit today as was the Sawmill Restaurant, south of Brent on Highway 5. From there, it went on the southeast side of Centreville where the area near the airport sustained heavy damage. I hope everyone is OK.

The damage videos from Brent/Centreville are incredible.

[k7baixo]

Originally Posted by MinivanDriver

The damage videos from Brent/Centreville are incredible.

Apparently, the old weather/radar station that lost it’s radar in 1973 was hit again tonight. There was a building there that didn’t survive.

Funny thing, my great grandfather’s old homestead is about a mile away, in the same ridge. I always thought that would be a great place for a home. Not so much now.