RELENTLESS A2 The Huntsville Times, Thursday, April 28, 2011 » For breaking news, photos & videos, visit

news, photos & videos, visit al.com

ABOVE AND BELOW: Anderson Hills was hit by a tornado Wednesday which some neighbors said tracked along similar lines to the tornado which hit in 1995. Across Ala-
bama 53 from Anderson Hills, the former Piggly Wiggly, now Shop & Save, was completely leveled along with a Sure Save pharmacy and Texaco gas station. This is the
former Piggly Wiggly. (Photos by The Huntsville Times, Dave Dieter)

Homes damaged, ‘some just gone’

By Keith Clines
Times Staff Writer
Harvest – Levon Green
and his daughter, Neysa
Green, 14, took cover in a
small bathroom in their
Anderson Hills home
Wednesday afternoon as
the world swirled around
them.
“It didn’t sound like a
train, but it was close,”
Green said a few hours
later while emergency ve-
hicles swarmed the affluent
neighborhood on Alabama trees and scattered debris ond time Anderson Hills home in 1995. Tempo Circle resident,
53. throughout the streets. has been devastated by a “This was much worse also said leaves and debris
The Greens made it out Across the highway, a con- tornado. A May 1995 tor- than the last time,” he said were blown into the house
of their Tempo Circle home venience store/pharmacy nado also destroyed several as he stood in his driveway he shares with his mother.
without being injured from and a supermarket were homes and claimed one with his car covered by He said they got less than
the apparent tornado. But destroyed. life. much of his missing roof. five minutes’ notice that
others in north Madison An emergency worker The Greens didn’t live Ellis had his pet dog on a a storm was approaching.
County were not as lucky. on the scene, who declined in Anderson Hills in 1995, leash, but said he had sev- They took shelter in a bath-
Officials said there were to give his name, said he but other residents survey- eral cats that were missing. room, and Wilburn covered
two unconfirmed deaths stopped counting the dam- ing damage Wednesday af- Green said the storm act- his mother with his body.
from the storms that raked aged homes in Anderson ternoon said Wednesday’s ed like a tornado because “Next thing we knew, the
the county. Hills because “so many storm was worse than the leaves and debris from out- roof was coming off and
The winds tore off the were damaged and some 1995 tornado. side blew into the house in glass was breaking,” Wil-
roofs of several Anderson were just gone.” George Ellis said it cost a circular motion. burn said. “In less than 20
Hills homes, felled large Wednesday was the sec- him $190,000 to repair his Eric Wilburn, another seconds, it was over.”

LEFT: Pam Brooks looks over

what is left of her home.

“This was
much
worse
than
the last
time.”
George Ellis
 RELENTLESS A5 The Huntsville Times, Thursday, April 28, 2011 » For breaking news, photos & video, visit al.com

Anderson Hills was hit by a tornado on Wednesday. Some neighbors said the storm tracked along similar lines to the one which hit in 1995. Across Alabama 53 from
Anderson Hills, the former Piggly Wiggly, now Shop & Save, and a with a Sure Save pharmacy and Texaco gas station were leveled. (The Huntsville Times, Dave Dieter)

A Jet-Pep gas station

approximately 3 miles
north of Arab was
damaged as storms
moved across North
Alabama Wednesday.
(The Huntsville TImes/
Bob Gathany)

4:34 p.m. National 4:53 p.m. National the ground just north of Madison County. of this location. Weather Service doppler
Weather Service doppler Weather Service Huntsville. tracked a “large and
radar indicated a tornado doppler radar indicated 5:47 p.m. Local law 6:13 p.m. Tornado extremely dangerous”
near Harvest. a “large and extremely 5:23 p.m. Tornado enforcement officials warning issued for tornado near Sylvania
dangerous” tornado warning issued for reported a tornado near Madison County. and Rainsville.
4:37 p.m. Tornado 16 miles southwest of Madison County. Nixon Chapel, about
warning issued for Wilburn and Cordova. 11 miles southeast of 6:24 p.m. National 6:55 p.m. Tornado
Madison County. 5:30 p.m. Tornado Arab. Weather Service doppler warning for Madison
4:56 p.m. Tornado warning issued for and law enforcement County.
4:39 p.m. Tornado warning issued for Madison County. 6 p.m. Over 250,000 officials were tracking
warning issued for Madison County. Birmingham residents are a “large and extremely 7 p.m. National Weather
Madison County, 5:33 p.m. National reportedly without power. dangerous” tornado Service doppler
local emergency 5:05 p.m. Tornado Weather Service near Fyffe and indicated a tornado near
management tracked warning issued for doppler indicated 6:05 p.m. National Rainsville. Decatur.
a “dangerous” tornado Madison County. a tornado between Weather Service
near Harvest, 9 miles Harvest and doppler radar indicated 6:28 p.m. National 7:12 p.m. Tornado
north of Madison. 5:11 p.m. Tornado Meridianville, and a tornado near Speake, Weather Service doppler warning issued for
warning issued for tracked a tornado 16 9 miles east of Moulton. indicated a tornado near Madison County.
4:48 p.m. National Madison County. miles west of Douglas, Triana.
Weather Service and a tornado was 6:10 p.m. National 7:42 p.m. Tornado
doppler radar indicated 5:16 p.m. National reported on the ground Weather Service doppler 6:33 p.m. Tornado warning issued for
a tornado near Lim Weather Service doppler near Blountsville. radar indicated a tornado warning issued for Madison County.
Rock, 8 miles west of radar indicated a tornado near Neel. Debris was Madison County.
Scottsboro. near Meridianville, and 5:43 p.m. Tornado reported to be “falling Compiled from staff and
a second tornado on warning issued for from the sky” northeast 6:35 p.m. National wire reports
 RELENTLESS
An apparent tornado hit downtown Cullman at about 3 p.m. Wednesday. (The Birmingham News/Mark Almond)
One dies in Cullman At least 63 people
ByJeremy Gray
and Greg Richter
News staff writers
Sonya Nix had just barri-
caded herself and her em-
ployees in a storage room
when the tornado tore into
her downtown Cullman
consignment shop, Better
Than Before.
“I felt a cold blast of air,
and the pressure in my
ears changed,” Nix said as
friends and family began
boarding up shattered
shop windows.
Barely half an hour had
passed after the storm
subsided before people
Nix said she’d never met
began asking her how they
could help.
“We have some wonder-
ful people in Cullman,”
Nix said. “I’m just thank-
ful none of my employees
were hurt.”
There was one con-
firmed fatality in Cullman
County, however, when a
20-year-old man died af-
ter a tree fell on the car in
which he was a passenger
on Cullman County 576.
Hanceville Police Chief
Mark Bowers said the man
had not been positively
identified as of Wednesday
night.
The tornado that tore
through Nix’s shop also
ripped half the roof off the
Cullman County Court-
house and decimated the
First Baptist Church-Cull-
man.
Downtown railroad
tracks were covered in
storm debris, and trees
that once made up the
downtown skyline were all
but leveled. Windows were
blown out of every build-
ing within two blocks of
the courthouse.
The Cullman County
Emergency Management
Agency also investigated
reports of tornado damage
at the Cullman Regional
Medical Center, said Cull-
man County Emergency
Management Director
Phyllis Little. A spokes-
woman for the medical
center said there was no
significant damage.
“There is some debris
around the hospital, and
they are trying to deter-
mine if any damage from
the hospital contributed
to the debris,” said Lindsey
Dossey, public relations
director for the hospital.
There was no shortage
of debris in the streets of
Cullman. Splintered trees,
bricks ripped from walls,
toppled signs and even a
crumpled cell phone tower
littered the streets.
The three-story First
Baptist Church lost one of
A6 The Huntsville Times, Thursday, April 28, 2011 » For breaking news, photos & videos, visit al.com
An apparent tornado hit downtown Cullman at about
3 p.m. Wednesday. (The Birmingham News/Mark Almond)
its back corners; the roof
of a newly built fellowship
center was heavily dam-
aged; and three stained-
glass windows were blown
out of the 60-year-old
sanctuary.
“The children’s worship
center is annihilated,” said
Brian Witcher, minister of
music at the church.
Standing near a pile of
shattered stain glass that
once bore the image of
Christ on the cross, Pas-
tor Edwin Hayes said he
believed the community
would pull together to
help each other out in their
time of need.
“God’s people will come
together,” Hayes said as
people began making re-
pairs to the sanctuary.
“God’s people are at their
best when circumstances
are at their worst.”
News staff writer Kent
Faulk contributed to this
report.
dead across state
By Mike Oliver
and Carol Robinson
News Staff Writers
A devastating daylong
sweep of tornadoes ripped
through Alabama on
Wednesday, killing at least
63 people while smash-
ing houses, businesses and
government buildings.
The worst path of de-
struction started in Tus-
caloosa and cut across the
heart of metro Birming-
ham, a path where at least
26 lives were lost. A second
tornado in Walker County
killed 13.
Rescue crews worked late
into the night to free those
trapped in homes and busi-
ness and to dig through the
rubble for bodies.
Gov. Robert Bentley de-
clared a state of emergency
and mobilized about 1,400
Alabama National Guards-
men. The damage was so
widespread that it’ll likely
be days before the full death
toll and property destruc-
tion are assessed.
Hardest hit was metro
Birmingham, where least
26 people were confirmed
dead as of late Wednesday
– 13 in Walker County, 11 in
Jefferson County, including
a child whose parents have
not been located, and two
in St. Clair County.
“We are going to retrieve
the bodies we can right
now,” said Jefferson County
Chief Deputy Coroner Pat
Curry. “In a situation like
this, the first step is to make
sure we have a positive ID.”
Fifteen deaths were
counted in Tuscaloosa
County and more than 100
injuries.
Massive outbreak
“This is probably one
of the biggest outbreaks
in the Southeast in quite
some time, and that’s say-
ing something given the
recent ones we’ve had,” said
Tom Bradshaw, National
Weather Service meteorol-
ogist in the Southern Re-
gion headquarters in Fort
Worth.
The enormously wide
tornado that roared
through Birmingham
about 6 p.m. was from the
same supercell system that
produced the tornado that
touched down just south
of downtown Tuscaloosa,
said Jim Stekovich, me-
teorologist in charge of the
National Weather Service
Birmingham office. “We’ve
had – just as predicted – a
massive outbreak of strong,
violent tornadoes today,”
Stekovich said.
An all-day event
In the Birmingham area,
the severe weather started
about 5:30 a.m. with winds
as high as 100 mph ripping
through parts of the city,
toppling trees and knock-
ing out power. By nightfall
power was out to 370,000
customers statewide, and
more than 170,000 in met-
ro Birmingham, Alabama
Power reported.
That early storm was just
a prelude to what weather
forecasters had been warn-
ing for days. Schools were
shut down and many took
a day off from their jobs in
anticipation of the events to
come. People stayed glued
to the radio, and many
watched tornadoes touch
down live on television,
striking Cullman, Tusca-
loosa and Birmingham.
The storm damage in Jef-
ferson County will surpass
the destruction of 1998,
Emergency Management
Agency authorities said, re-
ferring to the April 8 twist-
er that claimed 32 lives and
injured 261 people.
“That was one path.
This damage is more wide-
spread,” said Allen Kniph-
fer, Jefferson County EMA
coordinator. It’s not just
that Jefferson County was
hit, but the whole state was
hit hard, so the impact will
be worse, Kniphfer said.
Among the dead is a
child at Children’s Hospi-
tal whose parents have not
been located, authorities
said. At least eight people
were killed in the west Jef-
ferson County town of Con-
cord and at least one was
killed in nearby Hueytown,
authorities said.
Birmingham Fire and
Rescue Batallion Chief
Matt Russell said every
available firefighter and
rescue worker was brought
in for the storm.
There were 180 people
working from Birmingham
and two each from the sur-
rounding municipalities
in Jefferson County. “It’s
a massive effort. There is
a possibility that people
could still be trapped. Day-
light will tell us more.”
Russell said they have
been overwhelmed with
reports of damage and in-
juries.
“For us to respond to
specific addresses, we do
not have the resources to
do that right now,” Russell
said. “We’re going to get
boots on the ground as soon
as we can. We will set up a
grid and we will search,
neighborhood by neighbor-
hood, street by street and
house by house.”
“It has been a disastrous
day,” said Jefferson County
Commissioner Joe Knight.
“But now it is time to help
our neighbors.”
Some good news
Amid the wreckage, there
are many stories of tragedy,
but also stories with happy
endings.
In Hueytown, Jason Wil-
son was in Jimmy’s Auto, a
repair shop his family owns
on Allison-Bonnett Memo-
rial Drive, when he heard
the sirens. He gathered his
family, including his 7-year-
old son and 10-year-old
daughter, and rode it out in
the shop.
About an hour afterward,
he stood in the parking lot,
stunned, looking at the roof
of the store, now a waist-
high heap of metal and
insulation. The roof had
been blown off the building
as they huddled inside, he
said.
Wilson, his wife, his fa-
ther and his two children
escaped without a scratch,
he said.
Police were limiting ac-
cess to the area to residents
who needed to check on
their homes, and the roads
were littered with metal
roofing material, insula-
tion, shattered glass and
demolished signs.
In the initial minutes
after the tornado struck,
rescue vehicles could not
pass through the debris on
Hibernian Street in Pratt
City.
Birmingham Board of
Education President Phyl-
lis Wyne’s house on Dugan
Avenue was destroyed in
the tornado. She was not
at home when the tornado
hit, she said.
Contributing to this re-
port were News staff writ-
ers Joseph Bryant, Bob
Carlton, Victoria Coman,
Malcomb Daniels, Stan
Diel, Kent Faulk, Izzy
Gould, Jeremy Gray, Alec
Harvey, Don Kausler Jr.,
Dawn Kent, John Reimer,
Greg Richter, Jeff Roberts,
Carol Robinson, Anne Rui-
si, Thomas Spencer and
Val Walton.
 RELENTLESS
Cars pull off I-65 as a wall cloud passes over the road toward Madison. (Robin Conn, The Huntsville Times)
Tornadoes from A1
Arab, an apparent tornado de-
stroyed Ruth Trailer Court in
Arab, slinging mobile homes off
their foundations. Emergency of-
ficials in Marshall County said the
storms killed six in Arab.
Rusty Russell, director of the
Huntsville-Madison County Emer-
gency Management Agency, said
six tornadoes touched down across
the county Wednesday. Harvest-
Monrovia and Toney were the
hardest hit locally, he said.
Ground zero seemed to be the
corner of Jeff Road and Alabama
53. Roofs were peeled off homes
in the Anderson Hills neighbor-
hood, which was also struck by a
tornado in 1995. Nearby, a super-
market was flattened.
A boat and trailer
came to rest in the
front yard of the
home of Jimmy King
in Arab after a storm
early Wednesday
morning.
(The Huntsville Times/
Robin Conn)
Editorial from A1
will be completely restored, and
we hope, with you in the commu-
nity, that some portions will come
up quickly. But until that happens,
now is the time we must show the
true character of our community
A7 The Huntsville Times, Thursday, April 28, 2011 » For breaking news, photos & videos, visit al.com
Russell called it the worst severe
weather outbreak in the past 15
years, with powerful storms roll-
ing through time and time and
time again. “To have six confirmed
tornadoes in one day is just unbe-
lievable.”
Those who made it through the
storms unscathed still had prob-
lems: no power.
All three reactors at the Ten-
nessee Valley Authority’s Browns-
ferry Nuclear Plant in Limestone
County shut down simultaneously
around 4:30 p.m., taking 11 major
power transmission lines out of
service.
With TVA unable to get elec-
tricity to municipal power provid-
ers and electric co-ops, the entire
region went dark. As the day pro-
gressed, and the tally of Huntsville
Utilities customers without power
by supporting our neighbor.
Again: stay home. Gather with
your neighbors and figure out how
to help each other. Share non-per-
ishable food. Offer a blanket or
bottle of water. Share a hug and a
friendly smile.
We’re all in this together.
City, county and state officials
are working with the Tennessee
rose from 35,000 to 60,000 to the
entire county, residents went fum-
bling through drawers for flash-
lights and candles.
Battle described the power out-
ages as “massive.”
Police called in extra officers to di-
rect traffic at busy intersections, but
there weren’t enough cops to cover
every corner. Police spokesman Har-
ry Hobbs said motorists should treat
intersections as four-way stops until
the power comes back on.
The day of terror started before
dawn, with the first of an estimat-
ed 75 National Weather Service
tornado warnings over a span of 16
hours. The copycat storms seemed
to target the same communities
over and over: Moulton, Tanner,
Harvest-Monrovia, Meridianville,
Guntersville.
Because the early tornadoes
Valley Authority to get power back
on line. The National Guard will
be called in to offer support.
Those steps will help, but there
is no support like that of a com-
munity.
To all in North Alabama: We
share in your grief the lives lost, we
feel for those whose homes have
been destroyed and we encour-
delivered only a glancing blow to
Huntsville, Battle sent city em-
ployees to help harder-hit areas.
Public works and landscaping
crews helped clear trees in Har-
vest-Monrovia. More public works
employees, plus 10 police officers
and two dump trucks, spent part
of the day in Guntersville. Hunts-
ville Fire & Rescue’s heavy rescue
team was dispatched to Cullman.
“We’ve been very fortunate com-
pared to what our neighbors are
going through,” Battle said while
tracking the storms in the base-
ment of the EMA office.
Russell, the local EMA director,
said he was especially concerned
about the storms’ aftermath in
Cullman and Marshall counties.
“I’m praying for those people, be-
cause they don’t have the resourc-
es that we do.”
age everyone -- everyone -- to tap
into the best sides of themselves to
support your neighbor.
We all take pride in our commu-
nity’s southern hospitality. Let’s
live up to that standard.
By Kevin Wendt for the edito-
rial board. E-mail Kevin at kevin.
wendt@htimes.com
Schools
will be
closed
today
By Pat Ammons
Times Staff Writer
pat.ammons@htimes.com
Parents were on their way
to pick up their children as
damaging winds and tor-
rential rains hit Madison
County, prompting school
officials not to allow the
children to leave.
“The policy needs to be
nailed down so parents
know what to do,” said
one mother of a student in
Madison County Schools.
“I would like to know how
many parents were out on
the road desperately trying
to pick up their kids” at the
height of the storm.
Schools opened two hours
late on Wednesday because
of early morning storms, and
afternoon storms led school
officials to close schools early,
dismissing students at 12:15
p.m. That was about the time
another line of storms en-
tered the county.
Once the storm hit, trees
and power lines went down
and students were stuck.
At Buckhorn High, where
storms destroyed an awning
and smashed a front door,
the students and teach-
ers had to remain in the
hallway, waiting until the
storms had passed.
It was the same story
across the county.
“As soon as we got to
school, we were sent to the
hallway,” said a Sparkman
High sophomore. Once the
first storm passed, the stu-
dents were allowed to go to
class, but they were soon
back in the hallway.
“First they told us they
couldn’t let us go because it
was storming,” the sophomore
said. “The second time they
said trees were down” so no-
body could leave unless their
parents came to get them.
Huntsville and Madison
County schools will be closed
today.
 Anderson Hills was hit by a tornado
on Wednesday, which neighbors said
tracked along similar lines to the one
which hit in 1995. Across Alabama 53
from Anderson Hills, the former Piggly
Wiggly, now Shop & Save, along with
a Sure Save pharmacy and Texaco gas
station were leveled.
(The Huntsville Times, Dave Dieter)
A8 The Huntsville Times, Thursday, April 28, 2011 » For breaking news, photos & videos, visit al.com
RELENTLESS