That day, James Spann saved thousands of lives by his coverage on air, but felt remorse for those he couldn't save. He is the very definition of a hero.
He is a hero, but it’s hyperbole to say he saved “thousands of lives.” There’s never been more than 161 deaths by tornado in the US. And that was a rain wrapped night tornado.
I'm sad he carries unnecessary guilt for the events of that day, & I hope in the intervening years, he's been able to unpack & come to terms with the trauma. He *saved* lives. I was an Alabaman at the time, (Gulf Coast where the huge storms didn't reach), and I know for certain that people in & around North Alabama credit him for ample warnings. It is refreshing, however, to come across a person with such a strong innate sense of responsibility, in this era where nothing ever seems to be anybody's fault 🙄 and nobody takes ownership of their mistakes or bad acts. God bless Jim. ♥️🙏🏻🙏🏻
As a 20 yr old Brit I backpacked around the States for a year and the warmest, friendliest and most embracing people were in the South. I was fed by complete strangers who overnight became my extended family and to this day I keep in touch with almost all of them and returned to visit them. It's tragic to see this devastation but I believe the Mayor when he talks of the people's resilience.
The south is often given a bad name by statistics, "The high rates of murder, STD's, ect." Most of which are within 1% of the "better states:" They won't say that though. The southern part of the united states is for sure the friendliest, and despite being in the top 5% of this nation academically and being a state champion in tennis, a sport controlled by wealthy private schools I've never myself considered moving from the Mid-south. Might be the higher class of living for a lower price. You can live here on 70k a year like you live on 500k a year in California.
I used to manage a truck stop restaurant. We got lots of people from other countries. I loved helping them choose an authentic southern meal ! We love company in Alabama !
@@sarameierhofer3887 it needed to be said cause we have so many sever storms here in alabama and loads of tornado warnings that you get used to it and a lot of people think we'll this happens all the time no big deal but after 62 touched down 2 being ef 5 and 4 of them being ef 4 and a death toll of 252 that's woke everyone up many of us just relied on the old school air raid siren around the state but we all realized when you hear it you either have 5 minutes or to late cause it's on top of you I seen this thing personally thr film don't do justice I would rather have a year of nightmares than to ever see one again thats was also the last day I stopped being a storm spotter as well
As a lifelong Alabamian, James Span was our man when it comes to dangerous weather. A Meteorologist and a master of his craft, his voice and presence was a comfort during dangerous storms. His methods and his system was/is highly technical and he has a way of explaining everything so that it makes sense to the layman. It was always as if he knew where our homes were and that a storm was about to hit that exact area and what time.. literally.. He would name subdivisions and streets. He's that good. "Span is the man".
The only downside to Mr. Spann is that he gets my family in Alabama all worked up when I hurricane is coming my way in Florida. We had a cat one hurricane coming our way and I had to spend half the day explaining to out of state family that our afternoon tropical storms are nearly as bad as a cat 1 hurricane. I live just north of Tampa and the eye of Irma came right over my area. So, I took the chance to let the dog out lol. I can tell you this though, tornadoes are far more terrifying than any hurricane. You can see a hurricane coming days in advance.
I was 11, and I’ll never forget it coming my way towards Bham. Lost two of my elementary school friends, and we couldn’t go anywhere for a week. Even in a concrete basement, you could feel the amount of power it held. Will never forget those lost, and those who helped. God bless.
@@CHARLIE_H1 And now Greenfield. I feel like there are elements of certain names which show up again and again in powerful tornados. Greensburg, Parkersburg and Hackleburg all had EF5s. Smithville and Rainsville, both EF5s. Greenfield and Greensburg were all but wiped off the map by violent tornados.
The fact that the football team rallied around this event and won the championship that year just made it more emotional and helped the city and university heal.
The football team from Auburn were the first ones to get on a bus and head to Tuscaloosa to help out. They put their rivalry aside and went to help the Crimson Tide and its school.
@Lucaswhite41 Have you been watching this season of American Idol.? There is a 15 year old young man on there who is a Bama fan. When he walked out after being told that he had made the top 24, he yelled, "Roll Tide, top 24!" I have always said that I would rather die than say those two words. But that night, I made an exception. BTW: War Eagle!!!
32:56 was absolutely heartbreaking. The little girl fell down the stairs, and all that her mother (and most people would’ve) thought was that she had concussion. Then to hear that she had actually been suffering from pneumonia from the tornado and passed away soon after was shocking. I can’t imagine what her mother went through. Seeing your young child slowly dying right in front of you, while not knowing that this would be some of the last hours/days you’d have with her.
In high risk tornado areas, it should be mandatory for all homes to have a solid shelter that could withstand the highest wind speeds a tornado can produce.
I live in tornado alley and I won't say where for safety but some of us don't have the right soil to safely have a shelter it could easily expand and contract making the shelter victim to cracks and fractures I do believe we should be able to get above ground shelters for a good price if someone is low income and can't afford the thousands of dollars they cost
I live in a manufactured home and it is so expensive to have a shelter built. Even the above ground ones are expensive. We were told that it is about $10,000 to have a decent size shelter built underground on our property. It was a disheartening feeling being told that because there is nowhere else close by to take shelter. We live in Alabama. You would think they would implement something to help people with building a shelter.
The residents of Moore, Oklahoma learned this lesson from the EF5 tornado that devastated their city on May 20th, 2013 wherein seven of the twenty-four fatalities were children who were killed at Plaza Towers Elementary School from a collapsing cinder block wall. The residents of Moore adopted a mentality of "Never again!" after May 20th and the city council of Moore voted unanimously in favor of tougher building codes that require all new structures to be bolted to the foundations, hurricane clips to better secure the roofs, continuous plywood reinforcement, less space between the bolts, reinforced garage doors, stronger windows and storm shelters. Nowadays, all of the schools in Moore have storm shelters. After the May 3rd, 1999 tornado hit Moore, Oklahoma; only three schools in Moore had storm shelters: Kelley Elementary School, Westmoore High School and Moore High School.
I remember this day! We went outside to look for the storm when it got closer to where I live and started seeing all kinds of debris falling from the sky I got real nervous thinking it was headed my way so I hunkered down until it passed over when I stepped outside there was debris everywhere but not damage to the property. I remember finding pictures from yearbooks, shingles, leaves, limbs a big 6ft piece of fiber glass in the yard sheet metal and bank checks that had Tuscaloosa on them and I live over a hundred miles away from there.
I have seen the episodes of "Real Time Tornado" that profiled the tornadoes that tore through Tuscaloosa AL, Joplin MO, Henryville IN, Hattiesburg MS, Moore OK, and Washington IL and every time it amazed me how the people of these communities managed to put aside their differences and work together to clean up the devastation and rebuild their communities. The tornado that tore through Washington, Illinois on November 17, 2013 is extremely shocking to me because you really don't expect a tornado to happen in late November. Because of this tornado; the residents of Washington had gone from being excited for Thanksgiving and Christmas to feeling a sense of helplessness, confusion and heartbreak. To add to their misery; it snowed a few days after the tornado. It seemed like Mother Nature was determined to shit on the residents of Washington.
I was a senior in High School at Holt high. We were hit directly, buried under debri 🙏🏾 thank the universe for Life. I don’t take it for granted. 5:13 pm. The time is etched in my memory forever. We were in the hallway, I can’t describe the feeling of being hit directly. It really does feel like the force of a vehicle on impact. Godspeed 🙏🏾
I went through holt last year there is so much as of now that is still untouched like it just happened it will really humble you I'm glad you made it just hope we never see one like it again
I remember this day. I was seven years old and we got sent home from our schools fun day. I remember looking to the sky thinking how warm it is, but the wind was so cold. A little after we got home we went to the shelter and the sky was a shade of green I will never forget. In the end my house was destroyed and so was my grandparents. I lost an aunt, but if I would have stayed at home and in bed I would’ve been crushed by a trailer. Never really been good with big storms since.
I'm so sorry for your loss. But one way you can tell if a tornado is about to strike is if the sky becomes a sickly shade of green. In an episode of "Storm Stories" that profiled the August 28th, 1990 tornado that devastated Plainfield, Illinois; a woman named MaryPat Gabor tried to calm down her young sons when they were jolted awake from their afternoon nap by hail hitting their roof. MaryPat looked up at the sky from the window of the front door of her house and she described the sky as a shade of green that to her was "pea soup green."
This is one of the most soul crushing videos that I have ever watched. So many innocent lives taken in a moment. However watching the incredible stories of heroism and empathy really give you faith in your fellow man. Just a horrific disaster in so many ways. Bless all of the 1st responders and neighbors that did everything in their power to save and help the victims.
I don't understand why Mike Wilhelm felt the need to apologise for saying (during his recording) a prayer for the ppl this thing was going to hit/affect. I think it shows his love, concern and compassion for ppl and I, most definitely, hugely respect and appreciate that. Bless ya Mike. 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍 You're a good man.
@@kisaysotherwise I'm not so worried about him seeing my comment, I am crushed that he has passed away. I am not massively religious but I will always respect other people's beliefs and feelings and Im sure that he said what he said out of love for people, people he didn't even know. Our world needs more people like Mike and so it's devastating news to hear that he is no longer with us. Even though it is tragic news, thank you for telling me. Sending my thoughts, condolences and love to all his family and friends, from Nottingham, England. God bless him.
Watching this after 12-10-21 Tornados that smashed through 8 states killing many. My heart goes out to everyone in this video and everyone who's ever been through something like this.
The comment "Alot of people are gonna die today and they just don't know" it could very well have come true. Sadly many lives were lost but at the same time soooo many lives were saved. James Spann (GOAT of Meteorology) and Jason Simpson did an AMAZING job doing a marathon that day. They stayed on top of the storms giving almost pin point locations of where the tornadoes were located and where they were heading. MANY MANY lives were saved by them.
Storm passed a few miles away from me but seeing it on the horizon and knowing exactly what was happening on the ground is a moment I will never forget and hope to God I never see again
I'm right there with you I live just on the other side of fultondale where it finally dissipated last year I drove a rollback wrecker and I picked up a car in holt just outside of t-town its litterally like an outdoor museum there is so much left destroyed from that day it looks as if it just happend
There’s lots of tornado stories but one I personally experienced and will never forget. Being raised in Texas tornado are a part of life. One year I was staying with my parents after my divorce in a Texas town. We heard tornado sirens and took shelter but fortunately fir us it left our town with out damage. However, we received a call a small Texas town my aunt and uncle lived it was decimated. They were asking fir volunteers help. We went to their town and to our astonishment my aunts house was mostly gone except… in the kitchen was their dinner table where they were eating . The entire table with their meal was untouched. Glasses of tea. Plates with half eaten meal and all serving dishes u touched. The rest of the house just gone! We did find them in a shelter. In months after that Texas citizens from all over the state came and rebuilt their town including their home. True story
Your story reminded me of a similar story from the EF5 tornado that struck Moore, Oklahoma on May 20th, 2013. This story is that of Robin Dziedzic; a fifth grade teacher at Briarwood Elementary School. The day after the tornado Robin returned to the school as a means of accepting what had happened to her and her students. Robin was shooting video footage of the aftermath of the tornado on her phone and the eeriest part of her video was seeing the clock in her classroom stopped at the time the tornado hit the school and the binders of her students sitting on top of their desks undisturbed.
I remember this day like it was yesterday. I was a student at Hillcrest in Tuscaloosa, a senior. A literal week before this storm, we had a different tornado hit. Utter devastation and got hit a week later by an even bigger storm. I volunteered with a friend with search and rescue. I was approached by a little girl… who was looking for her mom. When I asked her where her mom was, she responded “I saw the tornado take her away”. I remember all lost children were sent to a PARA facility to keep them dry and safe until family could be found.
One of the parameter that Spann was talking about was Violent Tornado Index which they assumed was a 0-10 scale. It popped up on screen as 12. Spann and his assistant were stunned.
We were lucky the fatalities didn't top a couple of thousand, considering all the chaos caused by all of the crazy things including no electricity before, during AND AFTER the tornadoes, almost state wide and we were lucky to be able to shut down Browns Ferry Nuclear plant without a another disaster on top of the 62 tornadoes. Alabama folks caused thousands of Tennesseans to have shortages of everything including food, hotels, motels, gas, and you name it. Yeah. We were DAMN LUCKY that only 252 died.
Another thing that saved many lives in Tuscaloosa is due to the Nick Saban efect. The city had expericend a renaisance which meant much of the the substandard housing had been replaced, due to the Nick Saban effect.
As a native Alabamian, I will never forget this day! I moved from Tuscaloosa to Huntsville the year before, & the devastation of that day all across the state still haunts me. 💔 Every severe weather day makes me (& most others in the state) wonder if this is another day like April 27th.
I can express how I feel the same about the weather, although I'm from Canada, I've had a close call with a tornado when I was younger. It nearly hit my home and was in the corn field right next to it and I was the only one on that side of the house asleep when it hit that night. Ever since then, during the summer season I'm absolutly terrified if it gets even cloudy out. For us our tornado season is usually in the summer. And for the past couple years we've had some pop up around or in the city I live in, each time I had to give my family crap to get into the basement instead of being outside looking at the sky. My close call as a 6 year old kid has forever changed me to be more on alert during bad weather expecially in the summer months.
R.I. P Mike Wilhelm -the guy who said "Jesus Help em" while filming that video that was filmed for a news station, of the tornado going into Tuscaloosa. Mike Wilhelm was also interviewed for this documentary. I don't know how he passed but heard from what James Spann was saying that Mike passed away (in a different video)
@@heywoodfloyd9 Liver failure doesn't have to mean that someone was an alcoholic, lets not speculate on things or people we know anything about, particularly those who aren't here to defend themselves.
To this day, anytime I hear thunder or even see lightning, my PTSD kicks back in. All cause of what happened on this day, I kept thinking "We're going to die.". As an Alabama native, my heart weeps every year for those who lost loved ones on April 27, 2011.
I definitely get that. Anyone whose never been hit by a tornado doesn’t understand. Ppl give me a hard time for taking extreme precautions. I don’t fuck around with tornados anymore
I'm from Missouri and this brings back horrible memories of the Joplin tornado that killed so many ppl. It literally took out half the town and red cross had to come and help ppl. Mother nature is beautiful but deadly.
The tornadoes that tore through Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Joplin, Missouri were both devastating and fearsome wedge tornadoes. The story Sharon Allen told of treating a college aged boy who ultimately lost his life from the Tuscaloosa tornado reminded me of the story of Will Norton. Will Norton lost his life in the Joplin tornado. He was on his way home from the graduation ceremony for Joplin High School's class of 2011 with his dad when he was sucked out of the sunroof of his SUV and drowned in a pond. However; the Norton family keeps Will's memory alive through the Will Norton Miracle Field. This is a baseball field and playground built for disabled children to give them a place to play. I hope to someday go to the Joplin area and leave a bouquet of roses on Will's grave to pay my respects.
Most tornados go through the middle of nowhere and just damaged trees. It’s always a horrible site when they go through populated areas. If this tornado would’ve gone just a couple miles south it would’ve went through Birminghams most populated areas and who knows what the death toll would’ve been. Scary stuff!!
This was the day before my 16th birthday. I live south of Montgomery so this was all happening about 100 miles north of me. Even where we were, we were under tornado watches and had a really bad forecast but it all stayed north in the Birmingham/Tuscaloosa part of Alabama. I remember watching this live on WSFA (Montgomery's news channel) like it was a movie; it was hard to even comprehend that it was real because those tornados looked like they were CGI because of just how big they were and with the multiple vortices. Seeing James Spann take off his suit jacket is always a REALLY bad sign. Pretty much everyone in Alabama knows that at this point. Ever since this happened, everyone in the state is terrified of bad weather. Prior to this, most of us just were like "eh, it's spring time, we always get tornado warnings and nothing ever happens" but now we all take it so seriously.
Much like how it was with the residents of Moore, Oklahoma. The residents of Moore never imagined the possibility that a tornado as strong or as violent and destructive as the one on May 3rd, 1999 could ever strike their city again. Unfortunately, this came true for the residents of Moore on May 20th, 2013. Prior to the May 20th tornado; the website for the city of Moore said that there was a less than 1% chance of the city being hit by a tornado as strong or as violent as the one on May 3rd, 1999.
A couple years ago I found a tornado documentary on my recommended and as I looked through more of them, I found this one. I shared it with my mother and she thought it was interesting, just as I did. We don’t live in Alabama, but close to it, and we feel heartache for the people who died in the storm, however this has to be the one tornado documentary I keep coming back to. I suppose it was too interesting to put down. By far my favorite one ever.
Well now pretty much everyone has a smartphone, there's always gonna be footage of these things now. So scary for people like me in the UK 🇬🇧 who can hardly comprehend the fear, terror and utter destruction 😳🥺
I was born and raised in Birmingham Alabama. I'll never forget being a kid when the tornado sirens would go off. Grabbing our pillows and running for the basement. My stepmom still lives in Tuscaloosa. It truly breaks my heart. ROOOOL TIDE ROOOOL 🐘
I live 2 hours north of tuscaloosa. A checkbook from someone in Tuscaloosa dropped into my yard. It was weird. We went outside and there was no rain just wind and I could see a black wall a couple of miles away. And then debris started falling from the sky.
2 Hours is the Phil Campbell - Hackelburg area, where the Deadliest tornado of that day occurred. Probably the one you saw, that one was a literal wall of black. Checkbook could of either gotten slingshotted from the TSC-BHM tornado into the PCH, or was just someone from Tuscaloosa who got hit in your area. Both very likely considering how wild that day was.
@@TweezersUnlimited yeah I’m thinking it was from farther away since we also had debris from damaged homes like roofing material etc. no homes were affected near me. It was a very strange day.
I'm from Tuscaloosa, I was there. It was a small one before the big one. Everybody pull together for each other. We always had them. I could at 5yrs old remember a train sound outside the house. It be so calm then it happen. God bless Tuscaloosa, God bless us all.
I survived this exact tornado as a student at the University of Alabama. The accuracy of the aftermath was real. My experience was very much like this from start to end. Still lives with me to this day. Seeing the movie Twisters is one thing but living it is another. My last day of college.
James is a very unique weather man. It will be very hard to adjust when he retires. My mom lived on the southwest part of Birmingham and she could hear the roar. There was roofing material in her yard. Many people will never forget that day.
Oh shit, THIS was right before Joplin? It almost looks like a giant drill bit tearing into the landscape Two very different tornados doing so much damage. it's just a miracle that the rain wrapped monster in Joplin didn't cause even greater mortality. Guess that's true of both.
This was an awful day! This was not the only tornado this storm produced. If you look in the bottom corner of the news reports at the state map, you can see how many counties were under a tornado warning at the same time. We usually have to take cover once or twice a year from tornadoes but this day, we had to take cover 7 times! The sky above was constantly full of debris flying around. A day I will never forget!!!
Hey 👋 there have. You ever seen a tornado 🌪 in person before I'm just wondering 🤔 💭 OK 👍 👌 🙆♂️ Sr have a great 👍 evening it's 1:26pm in my state from Dayton ohio USA 🇺🇸
Wow. This is amazing. Tornados scare the shit outta me. Always have. I was fascinated by them as a kid - probably from The Wizard of Oz movie. But until my family relocated to Mississippi from D.C., Id never experienced a tornado warning. I was immediately initiated to the phenom at my new middle school when sirens went off and kids all jumped under their flimsy desks per school policy. (As if...) I was the only kid crying and trying so hard not to and the other kids were so calm and confused why I was upset. All I could think of was that witch on her bicycle riding through the debris filled clouds "I'll get you my little pretty and your little dog, Toto too!" Awful.
It was a gorgeous day. They told us in class we could either leave now or stay in the building, 100ft from Bryant Denny. I opted to stay…that building had survived the Civil War.
I wouldn't wait for the option I get a notification for tornado warning and I'm on my college campus and I'm close enough to make it to the building that has a basement I'm booking it to the basement especially since only one building to my knowledge has an inner room with no windows or second floor above the inner room at least the basement is below ground with only a lobby and bathroom on top but my college hasn't been around that long
I was in Athens Alabama when this system came through the state. The entire county lost power. I'm always amazed by storms and love to watch them roll through. I say that to try to get you to understand I'm not 1 to be scared by storms in the least. This system scared me to no end.
I still remember that day. I lived in Tuscaloosa my whole life, and that was one of the scariest moments of my life. I remember the thing I missed the most was the Chuck-E-Cheese that got blown away (I was like 4 or 5). I still get so scared whenever a tornado comes our way, which is pretty often sadly enough
it was coming straight for my town when it dissipated. my family was watching james spann when he estimated we had about four minutes to seek shelter-luckily we have a basement. it’s the first tornado i remember having to go to shelter for.
I was living in Hoover, AL (Bama born & rasied), and the morning storms had knocked our power out. We had cell phones but no way of recharging them so had to mostly stay in the dark as far as weather. I didn’t know how badly Alabama had gotten hit until that evening. That day was something I will never forget as long as I live. I later attended the university of Alabama for graduate school, and the things that changed from visits from years before to after these storms… still very apparent at that time and it was 3 years later.
As an archaeologist I had the opportunity to do an excavation in Alabama in 2011 as a kind of exchange of skills thing between the USA and UK. I had a dream before we left the UK that we were hit by a tornado and it terrified me. I brushed it off as my subconscious terror of being caught up in one. It wasn't terror so much as a premonition because we were in the 'super outbreak' of 26th to 28th April when multiple tornadoes either passed by or went straight over the cellar of the home we were using as a base for the month. We joked about the difference between our approach to archaeology - in that in the UK we are more likely to dig deep long trenches and the USA team would make piddly little box shaped things that didn't help in achieving the goal for the excavation - and the jokes turned to the fact that there was likely to be exactly the kind of trench we wanted to put in it just took a natural disaster to make it happen. Dark humour kind of comes with the territory in this field and it helped me immensely in that time. Never, ever, ever will I return to the high risk areas of the USA for tornadoes. I still have nightmares but now they are based in vivid detail after those two.
I lived in Alabama for 10 years and left and never will go back. They can keep their tornadoes. I think it's insane that so many cities are in the south. Concentrated numbers of people in tornado territory doesn't make sense.
@@D.Whitman-hd5csnowhere in the US is safe from natural disasters unfortunately. You just pick what you want to deal with. Southeast has hurricanes and tornadoes. The northeast has blizzards and hurricanes. The southwest has fires, landslides, earthquakes, and tsunamis. The Midwest has blizzards and tornadoes. The northwest has earthquake, landslides, tsunamis, and blizzards. Then pretty much all of them experience flooding. The US has a ton of weather. You don’t really escape it here.
Trying to prepare for such a danger someday just in case. Here are some things I'm noticing: A Helmet of any kind has never recommended but would be very helpful. One for everyone in the home, because walls come down, brick chimneys come down, metal signs and trees come down. This is perhaps the most called for time someone should own and use a helmet. Basements are without a doubt the safest place, but I'm in an area now without many basements. Exterior walls and windows seem to be quite dangerous, so interior-most rooms would be best, but it makes me wish there was some type of reinforced steel cage at the center of each house, bolted to the foundation. If it's hitting you, you don't have much time. Apparently seeing debris around the outside and hearing it get much louder are the main indicators people talk about in videos just before they get hit or take shelter. They say if you can't tell which direction the tornado is going, it's coming for you quick and I think that speed is 25-50mph. It looks tempting to watch what it's doing, but honestly you can't see anything up close. They actually look like they make more sense from far away, and after, but up close is like trying to see better in the dark by opening your eyes wider, it just doesn't really make a difference. Get somewhere safe and look at what it did after and if you're on the road, idk how to deal with electrical wire, besides avoiding the wires and water entirely, but what I can say, is that trees will block driving, so maybe having hard gloves and a chainsaw would help clear the way if you really want to get somewhere
When I tell you my jaw DROPPED hearing the little girl passed away, and not even from the storm. That had to have been so hard to go through as a parent
I lived in Forest Lake Apartments but moved in 2005. I'm thankful that my stepdad and mom moved me to Tennessee. I have cousins who live there and they survived, and friends too! And I went to school with Brad Lawrence. He and Josh are good neighbors to have in times like these!
My son was freshman at UA when this tornado came through town. I got a text from him a little after five, saying, "There's a huge tornado is heading this way." Before I could respond, my phone died. My wife and I live in Huntsville, in North Alabama, and we were already without power courtesy of another monster tornado that took out the No. Ala power grid...our land line was still operational, but when we tried calling him back, we got no response...pretty hopeless feeling, sitting in the dark for hours, not knowing what was going on...finally, he called us a little after 10, saying he and his friends were all at the UA Rec Center...we didn't have power for five days...when it finally came back on, we saw these images for the first time...
Honestly glad you didn’t watch it live. I watched it live and it felt like watching a movie. It didn’t look real and was hard to comprehend that we were seeing something that was actually happening live.
I remember this quite vividly, My town was smack-dab in the middle of the path of destruction. I was 6 or 7 at the time and I didn't know a single thing, I couldn't keep up with the weather as the power was going out. I was shockingly calm at the time, even during the time it was on top of my house. Before the tornado struck, I was in my brother's room watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory until I was told to go into the bathroom. Myself, my mother, and my father were huddled in the bathroom as the tornado destroyed a part of our house as the rest remained mostly unscathed. Little did I know that the room that was completely destroyed was my brother's room, the same room I was in before the tornado, if I were to have still been in there as the tornado hit I would have either died or been really injured. It was a miracle that we were all alive. When it was over with, I went outside and saw the small remnants of what was one of the vortices of the tornado swirling and dissipating and the sight of a large tree embedded inside the neighbor's home. The only thing remember that made an impact for little ol' me was when the tornado entirely sucked up a honeysuckle bush that we had and it made me really upset. Myself and my mother walked around the block and looked around the place, it was a mess of destruction and debris that had been spread all over the place, there was even a house that was completely on fire... It was as if I was in a nightmare... we then went home and slept through the rest of that tragic night... Nowadays, I still have the feeling of dread whenever there's a chance of tornadoes but from the whole ordeal, it stirred up my passion for weather and caused me to grow a fascination for tornadoes. Despite my storm anxiety, I still focus on the weather whenever there's a chance for really bad weather and stay with it until the threats over. I'll be honest, April 27 completely changed my life but I am grateful to be alive to tell this story. I apologize for rambling on and on, this day remains close to me and I will never forget it.
When you think humanity is so bad and no one cares anymore , you see a state, a city , a small town come together and help each other rebuild is amazing!
What is neat is to have this going and then open up another tab and bring up Tuscaloosa on that tab and follow the path of the tornado as per the video. You get to see visually the patch and relive it all over again.
yah watching it as well. 12/10 was worse then anything i can remember. the loss of lives was huge.. every house sld have under ground shelters in tornado alley, even schools. so scary to live out there. i live in California and the great earthquakes are far and few, at least 30 plus years before another one. our deadly season is fires, but tornadoes within minutes can flattened and take lives, you may only have less than 15 min to respond. with the fires we have alot of warnings before hand its coming. so scary, tornadoes are mesmerizing to see in person has every emotion you dont know the outcome. mother nature produces the unspeakable
I’m sitting here listening to that lady screaming and crying, just begging for help. I’m sitting here listening to her and I want to run there to help.
My first ever tornado I got to watch live infront of me, tears rolled down my face not from fear or anything else, it was indescribable, it feels like staring to God himself and the sound it makes is something u will never forget!
A lot of people say that Tornado Alley includes Alabama. Well, it doesn't. Alabama is in Dixie Alley, also known for tornadoes and some other severe weather including Hurricanes.
i literally lived in tuscaloosa when this happened and my mom has a video of the tornado from our friends house. I remember we ran to his house because he’s the only one that had a shelter and i was only 6 at the time. all i can remember was seeing a part of the tornado the trees were in the way and there were so many sirens going off
Make sure you have a storm shelter in your property / businesses. Especially if you live in tornado alley ppl. You can't hide on the surface in large storms.
A friend of mine was a teacher at UAB for children needing speech therapy, and had to herd an entire classroom down several flights of stairs to the basement. She said at one point, she looked out of a window and saw the tornado coming. But she saved every one of those children. I would have been too frightened to do anything.
I have seen five tornados in my life, growing up in Illinois. The closest one hit Whitey;s Ice Cream Parlor, in Moline Illinois I believe. We stopped off there after a Concert Choir, and it was two story building - with us down below. It ripped off the roof, put out the power, and then dropped down on a cemetery before the Mississippi river, which it crossed and dissipated... it actually uprooted fresh graves. The other four are not as interesting but yet probably an F1 passed before a barn house and my sisters house while I was in the hayloft. Things were flying everywhere, hay especially, but I was o.k. Forget the other 3, except I am familiar. F3 perhaps was the worse (no ratings were available then). Anyway, thanks WM for the posting. You did a great job of posting this. I hope you will do more.
I lived in Northport at that time, I remember this day vividly. My mom and I were the only ones home and we were hiding the best we could in the hall closet. James Spans voice, being the same as it had always been strong and steady kept my mom calm in turn kept me calm. We were lucky to have only had minor damage, but even to this day, the screaming of the winds, the darkness, the national weather service voice interrupting James Span, all of that is vivid in my mind.
The weather man did his best I'm sure, remember there was 250,000people without power befor e the storm started! Also the time that it hit, it was just a wicked tornado 🌪
The reason why people lost power is due to tornadoes that just hours earlier had caused unimaginable destruction in Mississippi ended up crossing into Alabama and destroyed numerous power poles. In addition; the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant had a very close call with one tornado that passed just barely to the south of the plant; sparing it, but the plant still had to go into S.C.R.A.M. mode. That was an extremely scary moment for the employees and managers of the plant.
I used to live in Knoxville, Tennessee at that time and i heard reports about debris from the tornadoes falling 200+ or so miles away from where they originated ... Pieces of shingles, pictures, bank checks, sheet metals, insulation from houses and everything were all falling all over from nearby Lenoir City 15 or so miles downstream from Knoxville in Tennessee... Those storms were so strong and we had larger hail and violent tornadoes hit around close to here that same night of the outbreak. I let out of school early when the storms were approaching and then got picked up early from the Boys and Girls Club by my mother who heard on the news that the weather was gonna get very bad immediately. Then we got food from Krystal's and she shown me a picture of one of the bigger storms that produced a large tornado not much further away, and then BOOM, tornado warnings kept going on and off all day and night long as it became to unsafe to head home and we sheltered with a family friend for the night til the storms passed. And then Knoxville itself had the worst hailstorm ever recorded with hail being as large as softballs and baseballs and damaged everything that all had to be repaired years later or so ... I was glued to the Weather Channel all day for the coverage of this historic outbreak cuz we were under the moderate risk for severe weather and then here in Chattanooga now where I'm at, it was under the high risk for severe weather where tornadoes were spawned in and around the area that also were rebuilt years later ... Dixie Alley period is vulnerable to strong and violent tornadoes cuz of trees, mountains, hills and terrains cuz the tornadoes are wrapped in rain and difficult to see. The Gulf of Mexico itself always fuels these storms violently for many reasons
:34. The old Tutweiler Hall. It stood there at University of Alabama through various weather events (like this one) and the Civil Rights Era, and recently was demolished to make way for a new women's dorm.
I remember watching this that day, on RUclips live... they were showing James Spanns coverage, and I recall thinking SO many people were going to die. Watching the coverage of that tornado from the camera so high up, as it came into Tuscaloosa was just mesmerizing. That thing moved with a PURPOSE. Even rewatching this now gives me the same sense of anxiety, as if I'm watching it happen all over again!!!!
I'm a Coloradan but when I saw that damage I started crying. I was very young when this happened but I wish I could go back in time to travel to Tuscaloosa and help out with the searching, or at least comfort people who lost everything. Absolutely heartbreaking.
Same, I've witnessed pretty weak tornadoes bit I could never imagine viewing something like this. I'm just lucky to live in a part of CO that doesn't brew strong tornadoes, the most you'll get is an F1 rope tornado.
My parents were in our home next to Cahaba Heights, I was in Montevallo, and one brother and my cousins were students at Alabama. There was one near Calera/Jemison that wasn’t being focused on and my dad called me to tell me to run across campus from my antique apartment to the sorority hall…I was too out of shape and made it Half way before a campus cop scooped me up and brought me to the SUB with all the other students that happened to be around. I don’t remember if I already knew about the TTown tornado at that point but do know a lot of us were desperate for news and our phones didn’t work down there. We had the TVs whenever the power turned on, but that’s it. Once we got the clear for our area I ran back to my place (it never hit Montevallo) trying to call around. No one in Tuscaloosa as far as we could tell we’re getting calls out. Both cousins lived in apartments while my brother was in an honors dorm, but he has a tendency to downplay everything. I saw the footage of it coming down McFarland (from a cam above the stttion, where morons were in trucks watching it while the anchor was basically crying trying to make sure someone went to save them from themselves). My parents were losing it, and at the same time a tornado came right through their area. James Spann told me that because they were so worried about my brother they didn’t say a thing. We got word my cousins were alive first, then my brother finally deigned to contact my parents. They summoned all three of us home the next day…my university has already cancelled classes and TTown was actively asking any students that COULD leave to do so to conserve town resources. My brother was lucky to have been on campus and to have a spot in a good parking deck so he had himself and his car and begrudgingly came home. He came in from the north and saw damage but I came in from the south and saw the area where I’d lived since 4tj grade looked like a completely unfamiliar area. Then my parents forced my brother to sit at the computer and watch the footage of the tornado in Tuscaloosa. I stayed for the show-I knew his reaction would be worth it. He had still not seen any footage of it, just the horrifying results on his way out. He and his friends had briefly wandered off campus, seen how real it was, and obeyed the EMS to get out of the way. But that was right by campus, so he didn’t see the worst. Watching his face drain completely of blood was satisfying for putting us through that worry. Unlike our cousins he HAD a full charge on his phone when it began and though towers were down a text would have gotten through eventually. My cousins’ did and they had to go to a phone store that had stuck as many chargers on the floor as humanly possible. My parents just wanted us home because they feared for 2/3 of us (last brother was with them and though they’re in Mountain Brook land of ROCKS therefore have no real basement they actually did make him run outside to it when it was headed right towards them…substantial structure damage but no humans or pets harmed so we were so lucky) and just wanted to confirm we were all good. It was the first time, ever, we had made anyone go into that basement despite the fact the house itself is absolutely a death trap in a tornado. Watching that thing live when we had power to have a tv we sickening, but the worst was the next day. Entire housing divisions just GONE, and people wandering aimlessly because they didn’t even know where their home had once stood. I live in the southern part of the state now but will remain loyal to James Spann forever. We already loved him, his suspenders, and his love of the word polygon, but he also could tell you off hand what specific neighborhood was about to ge hit not just a town. It’s Alabama, and those sirens are just part of the fabric of my life, but I had been fortunate because the over the mountain area rarely gets a tornado-for us with all of the trees straight winds can be worse. I don’t think I’d ever REALLY been scared by them before. And it was all day. All, day. All over the state. Even in 2011 phone footage spread so it wasn’t just the terrifying overhead shots we were seeing. The people just…wandering…she’s right they looked like zombies. Because they didn’t even know where they were…all the landmarks were gone. What we’re they going to do now? EMS was also hit and communications were down. Word wasn’t for sure as to the state of the hospital, and all basic services were disrupted. I know one of the reasons they asked in state students that had transport to leave town was because they were going to run out of water and cell signals were so overwhelmed they were basically useless. Food was a worry and with power lines down and random fires it was dangerous especially because it was mostly neighbors helping neighbors. Not professionals. TTown was so impressive. Obviously just having legions of Bama fans meant instant concern and help but huge groups of Auburn fans, players, etc. directly contributed too…obviously some things are bigger than football, but not much, down here. The other towns that were destroyed didn’t get that same immediate help, but people (newscasters especially) did an excellent job of reminding people that MOST of the state needed help. If you weren’t near Tuscaloosa there were plenty of others to help.
What’s even more unbelievable, is one the strongest fastest moving F5 tornadoes came through rural west Alabama that day, killing 11-12 ppl. An unbelievably strong and massive tornado, and almost nobody knows about it.
This doesn’t really get overlooked. It’s probably the most well-known tornado from this outbreak despite not even being the strongest of the day. It was one of the EF4 tornados while there were four EF5 tornados that day and pretty much all of them are less known than this one. Joplin also wound up with SO many fatalities and was also an EF5 so it’s no surprise people remember it so often.
Tell me about it. I want to watch the pilot episode of "Real Time Tornado" in it's entirety because it lasts only about thirty minutes at the most and the other episodes are forty minutes or so. The pilot episode of "Real Time Tornado" profiles the violent and destructive EF5 tornado that tore through Moore, Oklahoma on May 20, 2013. Edit: all the episodes of "Real Time Tornado" can be found on a streaming service called FuboTv. It's not as well-known as other streaming services such as Netflix or Hulu.
The only thing that bugs me are the people who are either outside or like by a window recording this when the tornado is right next to them, like if you see a tornado that close get to shelter!!!! Thats why so many people are killed because they wait last minute to get to shelter. Even if there is a tornado warning get to shelter like dont even worry about grabbing a camera like run to shelter!
Snowball Lane What Ian Malcolm said in The Lost World: Jurassic Park applies perfectly to tornadoes... “Oh yeah, ooohh, aaahh! That’s how it always starts. But then later, there’s running & screaming.”
Most people are killed because they don't take shelter at all. Because theyre used to sirens and "false alarms" they don't think nothing of tornado sirens.
Don’t forget the people who literally have no storm chasing experience and they think they’re Reed Timmer or something and they drive right towards the tornado
I’ll never forget the night after this happened. Once it got dark and you really couldn’t see what you were digging through you felt so helpless. That whole night felt like living through a nuke. It was wiiiiiild.
Should have been an ef5. No doubt about it. It did a crazy amount of damage over 1 billion and leveled not only houses but some businesses off their foundations. Should have totally been an ef5
That day, James Spann saved thousands of lives by his coverage on air, but felt remorse for those he couldn't save. He is the very definition of a hero.
James Spann is an incredible individual. He was on air when Selma, AL got hit earlier this month and likely saved lives again.
Huge respect for James Spann. Truly a legend.
He is a lovely person . also very caring .
If not he has fooled a lot of people in Alabama over the years .my town was spared that day . (Gadsden Ala)
He is a hero, but it’s hyperbole to say he saved “thousands of lives.” There’s never been more than 161 deaths by tornado in the US. And that was a rain wrapped night tornado.
I'm sad he carries unnecessary guilt for the events of that day, & I hope in the intervening years, he's been able to unpack & come to terms with the trauma.
He *saved* lives. I was an Alabaman at the time, (Gulf Coast where the huge storms didn't reach), and I know for certain that people in & around North Alabama credit him for ample warnings.
It is refreshing, however, to come across a person with such a strong innate sense of responsibility, in this era where nothing ever seems to be anybody's fault 🙄 and nobody takes ownership of their mistakes or bad acts. God bless Jim. ♥️🙏🏻🙏🏻
As a 20 yr old Brit I backpacked around the States for a year and the warmest, friendliest and most embracing people were in the South. I was fed by complete strangers who overnight became my extended family and to this day I keep in touch with almost all of them and returned to visit them. It's tragic to see this devastation but I believe the Mayor when he talks of the people's resilience.
thanks for the southern support, i actually am from Georgia USA
The south is often given a bad name by statistics, "The high rates of murder, STD's, ect." Most of which are within 1% of the "better states:" They won't say that though. The southern part of the united states is for sure the friendliest, and despite being in the top 5% of this nation academically and being a state champion in tennis, a sport controlled by wealthy private schools I've never myself considered moving from the Mid-south. Might be the higher class of living for a lower price. You can live here on 70k a year like you live on 500k a year in California.
I used to manage a truck stop restaurant. We got lots of people from other countries. I loved helping them choose an authentic southern meal ! We love company in Alabama !
@@tracyfrederick5606 aww that's lovely 😍
That’s just southern hospitality darlin! Cheers from Texas
Sharon Allen the nurse has such a soothing and comforting voice, perfect for a nurse. What a Southern Belle.
Sharon Allen definitely has the voice and personality of a sweet Southern woman.
I agree! I bet she’s so sweet with children! I had to go to the ER once and I had really sweet women taking care of me!
She seems like such a sweet soul 🤍🤍
It was heartbreaking hearing her say she felt like she didn’t do enough ;(
Why are yall talkint about the nurse 😭 THERES A FUCKING F5 TORNADO
"A lot of people are gonna die today. They just don't know it yet" That's haunting
Shiiii this comment Fr tho
It sounds sensationalist but sadly it true and hopefully being so blunt will save lives!
That should be a line they say on the news to get people’s attention during severe weather
Like, who says that out loud though?
@@sarameierhofer3887 it needed to be said cause we have so many sever storms here in alabama and loads of tornado warnings that you get used to it and a lot of people think we'll this happens all the time no big deal but after 62 touched down 2 being ef 5 and 4 of them being ef 4 and a death toll of 252 that's woke everyone up many of us just relied on the old school air raid siren around the state but we all realized when you hear it you either have 5 minutes or to late cause it's on top of you I seen this thing personally thr film don't do justice I would rather have a year of nightmares than to ever see one again thats was also the last day I stopped being a storm spotter as well
As a lifelong Alabamian, James Span was our man when it comes to dangerous weather. A Meteorologist and a master of his craft, his voice and presence was a comfort during dangerous storms. His methods and his system was/is highly technical and he has a way of explaining everything so that it makes sense to the layman. It was always as if he knew where our homes were and that a storm was about to hit that exact area and what time.. literally..
He would name subdivisions and streets. He's that good.
"Span is the man".
Yeah James span is the man.
We like watching James span.
It's Old House Smasher.
I'm in Nebraska and I watch his outlooks for severe weather on RUclips. When you guys have bad weather I always watch him.
The only downside to Mr. Spann is that he gets my family in Alabama all worked up when I hurricane is coming my way in Florida. We had a cat one hurricane coming our way and I had to spend half the day explaining to out of state family that our afternoon tropical storms are nearly as bad as a cat 1 hurricane. I live just north of Tampa and the eye of Irma came right over my area. So, I took the chance to let the dog out lol.
I can tell you this though, tornadoes are far more terrifying than any hurricane. You can see a hurricane coming days in advance.
I was 11, and I’ll never forget it coming my way towards Bham. Lost two of my elementary school friends, and we couldn’t go anywhere for a week. Even in a concrete basement, you could feel the amount of power it held. Will never forget those lost, and those who helped. God bless.
Sorry for your loss. Just know that your friends will always be with you.
0:23 The 😮😢days wy
My condolences. Im so sorry. Prayers to ur family. Philippians 4:7❤
i’m so sorry 🤍 quick question, how long did it take you guys to get back to school?
@@OneBrokenEgg do you have a storm shelter in your home just if case there's a tornado 🌪 warning ⚠️ issue for your. Aera
makes me so emotional hearing james spans voice in these clips. he truly is so trusted by our community in alabama. best weatherman ever
The weather channel really needs to start making these episodes again.
Luckily haven't had anything like this in about 10 years.
@@ooo_Kim_Chi_oooIdk about that, Mayfield, Rochelle, Vilonia and Rolling Fork would all be good episodes.
@@ooo_Kim_Chi_oooI don’t know about that. Rolling Fork is up there.
@@shaytrueblueaussieand Mayfeild
@@CHARLIE_H1 And now Greenfield. I feel like there are elements of certain names which show up again and again in powerful tornados. Greensburg, Parkersburg and Hackleburg all had EF5s. Smithville and Rainsville, both EF5s. Greenfield and Greensburg were all but wiped off the map by violent tornados.
The fact that the football team rallied around this event and won the championship that year just made it more emotional and helped the city and university heal.
The football team from Auburn were the first ones to get on a bus and head to Tuscaloosa to help out. They put their rivalry aside and went to help the Crimson Tide and its school.
@@beckywinkler6464even tho I hate Auburn thats just so nice
@Lucaswhite41 Have you been watching this season of American Idol.? There is a 15 year old young man on there who is a Bama fan. When he walked out after being told that he had made the top 24, he yelled, "Roll Tide, top 24!" I have always said that I would rather die than say those two words. But that night, I made an exception. BTW: War Eagle!!!
Pretty sure sports wont bring the dead back to life
The storm and the Tide is a fab book about that.
32:56 was absolutely heartbreaking.
The little girl fell down the stairs, and all that her mother (and most people would’ve) thought was that she had concussion. Then to hear that she had actually been suffering from pneumonia from the tornado and passed away soon after was shocking.
I can’t imagine what her mother went through. Seeing your young child slowly dying right in front of you, while not knowing that this would be some of the last hours/days you’d have with her.
This broke my heart cause I'm a dad it hurts when kids die and family members and pets to 🥺🥺
So sad
I can’t help but cry, one of the saddest things I’ve watched; terrifying it literally could be happening now as we speak
My heart broke too 💔😢
"We need to go that way" "we're fine" "GO THE FUCK BACK!" That guy just saved their lives wtf wow... terrifying!!!!!!!!
Pulled a reed timmer on em
@@13_cmi”BACK UP!” LOL
And the driver is dumb as a sack of stones.... If you fell like the tornado is not coming closer.... It moves in your direction!!!
“PUT IT IN REVERSE TERRY..”
I was so annoyed when the guy said “we’re fine” like, do you not see the massive tornado about to cross the road in front of you, sir??
In high risk tornado areas, it should be mandatory for all homes to have a solid shelter that could withstand the highest wind speeds a tornado can produce.
I live in tornado alley and I won't say where for safety but some of us don't have the right soil to safely have a shelter it could easily expand and contract making the shelter victim to cracks and fractures I do believe we should be able to get above ground shelters for a good price if someone is low income and can't afford the thousands of dollars they cost
I live in a manufactured home and it is so expensive to have a shelter built. Even the above ground ones are expensive. We were told that it is about $10,000 to have a decent size shelter built underground on our property. It was a disheartening feeling being told that because there is nowhere else close by to take shelter. We live in Alabama. You would think they would implement something to help people with building a shelter.
Many public shelters are available now. There probably isn't many things you could do with this size of a tornado, unfortunately
Well it isn’t so we’re basically fuxed
The residents of Moore, Oklahoma learned this lesson from the EF5 tornado that devastated their city on May 20th, 2013 wherein seven of the twenty-four fatalities were children who were killed at Plaza Towers Elementary School from a collapsing cinder block wall. The residents of Moore adopted a mentality of "Never again!" after May 20th and the city council of Moore voted unanimously in favor of tougher building codes that require all new structures to be bolted to the foundations, hurricane clips to better secure the roofs, continuous plywood reinforcement, less space between the bolts, reinforced garage doors, stronger windows and storm shelters. Nowadays, all of the schools in Moore have storm shelters. After the May 3rd, 1999 tornado hit Moore, Oklahoma; only three schools in Moore had storm shelters: Kelley Elementary School, Westmoore High School and Moore High School.
I remember this day! We went outside to look for the storm when it got closer to where I live and started seeing all kinds of debris falling from the sky I got real nervous thinking it was headed my way so I hunkered down until it passed over when I stepped outside there was debris everywhere but not damage to the property. I remember finding pictures from yearbooks, shingles, leaves, limbs a big 6ft piece of fiber glass in the yard sheet metal and bank checks that had Tuscaloosa on them and I live over a hundred miles away from there.
Same here in Jasper. The debris was swirling...it was freaky!
WOW
Damn
Limbs?! 🤧 my goodness
@@66hoodwitch Yes! Limbs of a tree. 🌳
It's beautiful to see a community come together to overcome a disaster such as this
I have seen the episodes of "Real Time Tornado" that profiled the tornadoes that tore through Tuscaloosa AL, Joplin MO, Henryville IN, Hattiesburg MS, Moore OK, and Washington IL and every time it amazed me how the people of these communities managed to put aside their differences and work together to clean up the devastation and rebuild their communities. The tornado that tore through Washington, Illinois on November 17, 2013 is extremely shocking to me because you really don't expect a tornado to happen in late November. Because of this tornado; the residents of Washington had gone from being excited for Thanksgiving and Christmas to feeling a sense of helplessness, confusion and heartbreak. To add to their misery; it snowed a few days after the tornado. It seemed like Mother Nature was determined to shit on the residents of Washington.
Tuscaloosa may be big but it really is a joiner community. Everyone is kind and compassionate even to strangers.
I was a senior in High School at Holt high. We were hit directly, buried under debri 🙏🏾 thank the universe for Life. I don’t take it for granted. 5:13 pm. The time is etched in my memory forever. We were in the hallway, I can’t describe the feeling of being hit directly. It really does feel like the force of a vehicle on impact. Godspeed 🙏🏾
I went through holt last year there is so much as of now that is still untouched like it just happened it will really humble you I'm glad you made it just hope we never see one like it again
Glad you made it. That must have been so scary.
Omg were you OK after the tornado 🌪 hits your high school 🏫 were you hurt or severely injured by the tornado in 2011 glad your OK now
No one should ever apologize for a baby crying in a time like that. That's a beautiful sound to hear because their alive
Absolutely ❤
*they’re
I remember this day. I was seven years old and we got sent home from our schools fun day. I remember looking to the sky thinking how warm it is, but the wind was so cold. A little after we got home we went to the shelter and the sky was a shade of green I will never forget. In the end my house was destroyed and so was my grandparents. I lost an aunt, but if I would have stayed at home and in bed I would’ve been crushed by a trailer. Never really been good with big storms since.
Glad i live in Romania.
I'm so sorry for your loss. But one way you can tell if a tornado is about to strike is if the sky becomes a sickly shade of green. In an episode of "Storm Stories" that profiled the August 28th, 1990 tornado that devastated Plainfield, Illinois; a woman named MaryPat Gabor tried to calm down her young sons when they were jolted awake from their afternoon nap by hail hitting their roof. MaryPat looked up at the sky from the window of the front door of her house and she described the sky as a shade of green that to her was "pea soup green."
Glad you and yoyr family was OK 👍 👌 🙆🏻♂️ during a tornado 🌪
I'm sorry 😞 for your loss
"I rode that storm holding onto this counter"
It's been 5 years and thats still burned into my memory.
This is one of the most soul crushing videos that I have ever watched. So many innocent lives taken in a moment. However watching the incredible stories of heroism and empathy really give you faith in your fellow man. Just a horrific disaster in so many ways. Bless all of the 1st responders and neighbors that did everything in their power to save and help the victims.
Finding her grandma’s pearls was so heart warming 😢❤️
I don't understand why Mike Wilhelm felt the need to apologise for saying (during his recording) a prayer for the ppl this thing was going to hit/affect. I think it shows his love, concern and compassion for ppl and I, most definitely, hugely respect and appreciate that. Bless ya Mike. 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍 You're a good man.
Fr I wish he was able to see this comment but he unfortunately died a few months before you made this amazing comment 💔
@@kisaysotherwise I'm not so worried about him seeing my comment, I am crushed that he has passed away. I am not massively religious but I will always respect other people's beliefs and feelings and Im sure that he said what he said out of love for people, people he didn't even know. Our world needs more people like Mike and so it's devastating news to hear that he is no longer with us. Even though it is tragic news, thank you for telling me. Sending my thoughts, condolences and love to all his family and friends, from Nottingham, England. God bless him.
@@MrMiD.Life.Crisis absolutely 🙏🏾
@@MrMiD.Life.Crisis
Well said
@meri when are they going to put back tornado 🌪 ally on TV 📺 again I'm just wondering 🤔 💭 I always wanted to see A tornado in person tho
Watching this after 12-10-21 Tornados that smashed through 8 states killing many. My heart goes out to everyone in this video and everyone who's ever been through something like this.
I live in Kentucky. If you don’t know, over 100 people in the western area were killed by a tornado. I appreciate the thought. Thank you,
@@Hyzpen I live in Kentucky to and it destroyed my home. Thank for the prayers, god bless you🙏
@@noobdrifter2093 God bless you too
I was in northern Illinois watching all of that going down in Kentucky on radar
@@Hyzpen God bless you
The comment "Alot of people are gonna die today and they just don't know" it could very well have come true. Sadly many lives were lost but at the same time soooo many lives were saved. James Spann (GOAT of Meteorology) and Jason Simpson did an AMAZING job doing a marathon that day. They stayed on top of the storms giving almost pin point locations of where the tornadoes were located and where they were heading. MANY MANY lives were saved by them.
🙌🫡👍
Rip 🙏 🪦 for those people who had died during the 2011 Tuscaloosa Oklahoma tornado 🌪 😢😢😢😢😢
Storm passed a few miles away from me but seeing it on the horizon and knowing exactly what was happening on the ground is a moment I will never forget and hope to God I never see again
I'm right there with you I live just on the other side of fultondale where it finally dissipated last year I drove a rollback wrecker and I picked up a car in holt just outside of t-town its litterally like an outdoor museum there is so much left destroyed from that day it looks as if it just happend
There’s lots of tornado stories but one I personally experienced and will never forget. Being raised in Texas tornado are a part of life. One year I was staying with my parents after my divorce in a Texas town. We heard tornado sirens and took shelter but fortunately fir us it left our town with out damage. However, we received a call a small Texas town my aunt and uncle lived it was decimated. They were asking fir volunteers help. We went to their town and to our astonishment my aunts house was mostly gone except… in the kitchen was their dinner table where they were eating . The entire table with their meal was untouched. Glasses of tea. Plates with half eaten meal and all serving dishes u touched. The rest of the house just gone! We did find them in a shelter. In months after that Texas citizens from all over the state came and rebuilt their town including their home. True story
Was it in or around Canton or Rowlett by any chance?
Its inspiring to hear people come together that way. I wish it didnt take such horrific circumstances to do so..
Your story reminded me of a similar story from the EF5 tornado that struck Moore, Oklahoma on May 20th, 2013. This story is that of Robin Dziedzic; a fifth grade teacher at Briarwood Elementary School. The day after the tornado Robin returned to the school as a means of accepting what had happened to her and her students. Robin was shooting video footage of the aftermath of the tornado on her phone and the eeriest part of her video was seeing the clock in her classroom stopped at the time the tornado hit the school and the binders of her students sitting on top of their desks undisturbed.
I remember this day like it was yesterday. I was a student at Hillcrest in Tuscaloosa, a senior. A literal week before this storm, we had a different tornado hit. Utter devastation and got hit a week later by an even bigger storm. I volunteered with a friend with search and rescue. I was approached by a little girl… who was looking for her mom. When I asked her where her mom was, she responded “I saw the tornado take her away”. I remember all lost children were sent to a PARA facility to keep them dry and safe until family could be found.
Was the little girl's mother ok?!
Massive respect to the people that helped that day, no matter how they made a difference.
The lady that wouldn’t let go of the counter speaks volumes of how terrified she was. Condolences to people in that area that list loved ones.
One of the parameter that Spann was talking about was Violent Tornado Index which they assumed was a 0-10 scale.
It popped up on screen as 12. Spann and his assistant were stunned.
We were lucky the fatalities didn't top a couple of thousand, considering all the chaos caused by all of the crazy things including no electricity before, during AND AFTER the tornadoes, almost state wide and we were lucky to be able to shut down Browns Ferry Nuclear plant without a another disaster on top of the 62 tornadoes. Alabama folks caused thousands of Tennesseans to have shortages of everything including food, hotels, motels, gas, and you name it. Yeah. We were DAMN LUCKY that only 252 died.
Another thing that saved many lives in Tuscaloosa is due to the Nick Saban efect. The city had expericend a renaisance which meant much of the the substandard housing had been replaced, due to the Nick Saban effect.
Tom Deelo is seriously the sweetest man ever, and I'm so glad he survived this.
I agree with you
He's so handsome
As a native Alabamian, I will never forget this day! I moved from Tuscaloosa to Huntsville the year before, & the devastation of that day all across the state still haunts me. 💔 Every severe weather day makes me (& most others in the state) wonder if this is another day like April 27th.
I can express how I feel the same about the weather, although I'm from Canada, I've had a close call with a tornado when I was younger. It nearly hit my home and was in the corn field right next to it and I was the only one on that side of the house asleep when it hit that night. Ever since then, during the summer season I'm absolutly terrified if it gets even cloudy out. For us our tornado season is usually in the summer. And for the past couple years we've had some pop up around or in the city I live in, each time I had to give my family crap to get into the basement instead of being outside looking at the sky.
My close call as a 6 year old kid has forever changed me to be more on alert during bad weather expecially in the summer months.
@@kracyndalabombarbe2342 At this day time more and more tornadoes are happening more frequently any season. A clear sign of the times
Mr. Willy winker4u hey 👋 there have. You ever seen a tornado 🌪 in person before I'm just wondering 🤔 💭 OK 👍 👌 🙆♀️ 🆗️
R.I. P Mike Wilhelm -the guy who said "Jesus Help em" while filming that video that was filmed for a news station, of the tornado going into Tuscaloosa. Mike Wilhelm was also interviewed for this documentary. I don't know how he passed but heard from what James Spann was saying that Mike passed away (in a different video)
Wow that’s too bad, do you know how he died?
@@soarinskies1105the comment says “i dont know how he died” so no
He has passed away from liver failure 😢
@@dominickwhitman9523so he wss a drunk?
@@heywoodfloyd9 Liver failure doesn't have to mean that someone was an alcoholic, lets not speculate on things or people we know anything about, particularly those who aren't here to defend themselves.
To this day, anytime I hear thunder or even see lightning, my PTSD kicks back in. All cause of what happened on this day, I kept thinking "We're going to die.". As an Alabama native, my heart weeps every year for those who lost loved ones on April 27, 2011.
I definitely get that. Anyone whose never been hit by a tornado doesn’t understand. Ppl give me a hard time for taking extreme precautions. I don’t fuck around with tornados anymore
Hearing the baby's cry. Heartbreaking. One of the children passed away. OMG. Yeah it's years later. But Lord give them strength still
I'm from Missouri and this brings back horrible memories of the Joplin tornado that killed so many ppl. It literally took out half the town and red cross had to come and help ppl. Mother nature is beautiful but deadly.
Less than a month between what happened here and what happened in Joplin.
The tornadoes that tore through Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Joplin, Missouri were both devastating and fearsome wedge tornadoes. The story Sharon Allen told of treating a college aged boy who ultimately lost his life from the Tuscaloosa tornado reminded me of the story of Will Norton. Will Norton lost his life in the Joplin tornado. He was on his way home from the graduation ceremony for Joplin High School's class of 2011 with his dad when he was sucked out of the sunroof of his SUV and drowned in a pond. However; the Norton family keeps Will's memory alive through the Will Norton Miracle Field. This is a baseball field and playground built for disabled children to give them a place to play. I hope to someday go to the Joplin area and leave a bouquet of roses on Will's grave to pay my respects.
Most tornados go through the middle of nowhere and just damaged trees. It’s always a horrible site when they go through populated areas. If this tornado would’ve gone just a couple miles south it would’ve went through Birminghams most populated areas and who knows what the death toll would’ve been. Scary stuff!!
I'm not from Missouri but Memphis TN, and we got that storm without that tornado touching down but there was still rotation.
i can't think of adjectives that could describe the unbelievable destruction the tornado that hit Joplin did to the town.
This was the day before my 16th birthday. I live south of Montgomery so this was all happening about 100 miles north of me. Even where we were, we were under tornado watches and had a really bad forecast but it all stayed north in the Birmingham/Tuscaloosa part of Alabama. I remember watching this live on WSFA (Montgomery's news channel) like it was a movie; it was hard to even comprehend that it was real because those tornados looked like they were CGI because of just how big they were and with the multiple vortices.
Seeing James Spann take off his suit jacket is always a REALLY bad sign. Pretty much everyone in Alabama knows that at this point. Ever since this happened, everyone in the state is terrified of bad weather. Prior to this, most of us just were like "eh, it's spring time, we always get tornado warnings and nothing ever happens" but now we all take it so seriously.
He take off that jacket bc he’s hot and having to move around more. He has to keep his composure
Much like how it was with the residents of Moore, Oklahoma. The residents of Moore never imagined the possibility that a tornado as strong or as violent and destructive as the one on May 3rd, 1999 could ever strike their city again. Unfortunately, this came true for the residents of Moore on May 20th, 2013. Prior to the May 20th tornado; the website for the city of Moore said that there was a less than 1% chance of the city being hit by a tornado as strong or as violent as the one on May 3rd, 1999.
@@michaellovely6601
Don’t forget the one that hit El Reno on May 31st, 2013. That thing was a monster.
@@OneBrokenEgg Oh I haven't.
A couple years ago I found a tornado documentary on my recommended and as I looked through more of them, I found this one. I shared it with my mother and she thought it was interesting, just as I did. We don’t live in Alabama, but close to it, and we feel heartache for the people who died in the storm, however this has to be the one tornado documentary I keep coming back to. I suppose it was too interesting to put down. By far my favorite one ever.
Well now pretty much everyone has a smartphone, there's always gonna be footage of these things now.
So scary for people like me in the UK 🇬🇧 who can hardly comprehend the fear, terror and utter destruction 😳🥺
I was born and raised in Birmingham Alabama. I'll never forget being a kid when the tornado sirens would go off. Grabbing our pillows and running for the basement. My stepmom still lives in Tuscaloosa. It truly breaks my heart.
ROOOOL TIDE ROOOOL 🐘
I live 2 hours north of tuscaloosa. A checkbook from someone in Tuscaloosa dropped into my yard. It was weird. We went outside and there was no rain just wind and I could see a black wall a couple of miles away. And then debris started falling from the sky.
2 Hours is the Phil Campbell - Hackelburg area, where the Deadliest tornado of that day occurred. Probably the one you saw, that one was a literal wall of black.
Checkbook could of either gotten slingshotted from the TSC-BHM tornado into the PCH, or was just someone from Tuscaloosa who got hit in your area. Both very likely considering how wild that day was.
@@TweezersUnlimited yeah I’m thinking it was from farther away since we also had debris from damaged homes like roofing material etc. no homes were affected near me. It was a very strange day.
Wow. Thats insane..
Even had the power to take the roof off a storm shelter. In my mind it was the most powerful, and by far the most frightening visually.
Same for me and I love on the other side of fultondale
I'm from Tuscaloosa, I was there. It was a small one before the big one. Everybody pull together for each other. We always had them. I could at 5yrs old remember a train sound outside the house. It be so calm then it happen. God bless Tuscaloosa, God bless us all.
Having to hear that a baby was blown out of a mother’s arms is heart breaking and horrible
Even 12 years later I can tell you as an alabama resident close to this area that baby is still M.I.A.
@@quintingraham5959 OMG 😭
the same thing happened in joplin
Now that I have 2 toddlers and a baby, the emotions I feel for this family.😭😭😭 my worst nightmare.
That was my mother
Excellently put together. This shows and tells a more complete story from many angles we normally would not have seen or put together.
I miss this show! Weather Channel was and is still one of my favorite programs. Don't have cable anymore.
I survived this exact tornado as a student at the University of Alabama. The accuracy of the aftermath was real. My experience was very much like this from start to end. Still lives with me to this day. Seeing the movie Twisters is one thing but living it is another. My last day of college.
I get how serious this is, but I cannot get past "I saw my life, sort of flash between my eyes."
Also want to add the staff of DCH was absolutely phenomenal.
My family and I was in that Tornado in Pratt
City..
James Span was an angel from God!!!
James is a very unique weather man. It will be very hard to adjust when he retires. My mom lived on the southwest part of Birmingham and she could hear the roar. There was roofing material in her yard. Many people will never forget that day.
And to think that just a month later , Joplin happens
Ben S and a month before tsunami Japan
Oh shit, THIS was right before Joplin? It almost looks like a giant drill bit tearing into the landscape Two very different tornados doing so much damage. it's just a miracle that the rain wrapped monster in Joplin didn't cause even greater mortality. Guess that's true of both.
And a couple years later Moore
Sure was a crazy year for tornadoes!
Then after El Reno..
If a tornado looks like it's not moving, it is almost 100% heading straight for you...
North Alabama was lucky to have Weathermen such as James Spann & JP Dice...Saved thousands of lives that day
21:57 "Are you kidding me? Nobody should be out there!"
I know he's hella serious but that made me laugh. There really are dangerous idiots out there.
This was an awful day! This was not the only tornado this storm produced. If you look in the bottom corner of the news reports at the state map, you can see how many counties were under a tornado warning at the same time. We usually have to take cover once or twice a year from tornadoes but this day, we had to take cover 7 times! The sky above was constantly full of debris flying around. A day I will never forget!!!
Hey 👋 there have. You ever seen a tornado 🌪 in person before I'm just wondering 🤔 💭 OK 👍 👌 🙆♂️ Sr have a great 👍 evening it's 1:26pm in my state from Dayton ohio USA 🇺🇸
@@DanielleFlack Yes I have
Wow. This is amazing. Tornados scare the shit outta me. Always have. I was fascinated by them as a kid - probably from The Wizard of Oz movie. But until my family relocated to Mississippi from D.C., Id never experienced a tornado warning. I was immediately initiated to the phenom at my new middle school when sirens went off and kids all jumped under their flimsy desks per school policy. (As if...) I was the only kid crying and trying so hard not to and the other kids were so calm and confused why I was upset. All I could think of was that witch on her bicycle riding through the debris filled clouds "I'll get you my little pretty and your little dog, Toto too!" Awful.
Lol aww. Movies are traumatizing 😂
@@VorshivaRight! JAWS kept an entire generation of us, swimmers or not, hanging out at the pool and off the beaches for a long time.
It was a gorgeous day. They told us in class we could either leave now or stay in the building, 100ft from Bryant Denny. I opted to stay…that building had survived the Civil War.
I wouldn't wait for the option I get a notification for tornado warning and I'm on my college campus and I'm close enough to make it to the building that has a basement I'm booking it to the basement especially since only one building to my knowledge has an inner room with no windows or second floor above the inner room at least the basement is below ground with only a lobby and bathroom on top but my college hasn't been around that long
I was in Athens Alabama when this system came through the state. The entire county lost power. I'm always amazed by storms and love to watch them roll through. I say that to try to get you to understand I'm not 1 to be scared by storms in the least. This system scared me to no end.
I still remember that day. I lived in Tuscaloosa my whole life, and that was one of the scariest moments of my life. I remember the thing I missed the most was the Chuck-E-Cheese that got blown away (I was like 4 or 5). I still get so scared whenever a tornado comes our way, which is pretty often sadly enough
it was coming straight for my town when it dissipated. my family was watching james spann when he estimated we had about four minutes to seek shelter-luckily we have a basement. it’s the first tornado i remember having to go to shelter for.
I was living in Hoover, AL (Bama born & rasied), and the morning storms had knocked our power out. We had cell phones but no way of recharging them so had to mostly stay in the dark as far as weather. I didn’t know how badly Alabama had gotten hit until that evening. That day was something I will never forget as long as I live.
I later attended the university of Alabama for graduate school, and the things that changed from visits from years before to after these storms… still very apparent at that time and it was 3 years later.
As an archaeologist I had the opportunity to do an excavation in Alabama in 2011 as a kind of exchange of skills thing between the USA and UK. I had a dream before we left the UK that we were hit by a tornado and it terrified me. I brushed it off as my subconscious terror of being caught up in one.
It wasn't terror so much as a premonition because we were in the 'super outbreak' of 26th to 28th April when multiple tornadoes either passed by or went straight over the cellar of the home we were using as a base for the month. We joked about the difference between our approach to archaeology - in that in the UK we are more likely to dig deep long trenches and the USA team would make piddly little box shaped things that didn't help in achieving the goal for the excavation - and the jokes turned to the fact that there was likely to be exactly the kind of trench we wanted to put in it just took a natural disaster to make it happen. Dark humour kind of comes with the territory in this field and it helped me immensely in that time.
Never, ever, ever will I return to the high risk areas of the USA for tornadoes. I still have nightmares but now they are based in vivid detail after those two.
I lived in Alabama for 10 years and left and never will go back. They can keep their tornadoes. I think it's insane that so many cities are in the south. Concentrated numbers of people in tornado territory doesn't make sense.
@@D.Whitman-hd5csnowhere in the US is safe from natural disasters unfortunately. You just pick what you want to deal with. Southeast has hurricanes and tornadoes. The northeast has blizzards and hurricanes. The southwest has fires, landslides, earthquakes, and tsunamis. The Midwest has blizzards and tornadoes. The northwest has earthquake, landslides, tsunamis, and blizzards. Then pretty much all of them experience flooding.
The US has a ton of weather. You don’t really escape it here.
James Spann You Sir are a F*****G ROCKSTAR !!! You saved lives that day Buddy and do so every chance given !!!!
After having a kid of my own now, hearing the kids and babies crying breaks my heart.
Trying to prepare for such a danger someday just in case. Here are some things I'm noticing:
A Helmet of any kind has never recommended but would be very helpful. One for everyone in the home, because walls come down, brick chimneys come down, metal signs and trees come down. This is perhaps the most called for time someone should own and use a helmet.
Basements are without a doubt the safest place, but I'm in an area now without many basements. Exterior walls and windows seem to be quite dangerous, so interior-most rooms would be best, but it makes me wish there was some type of reinforced steel cage at the center of each house, bolted to the foundation.
If it's hitting you, you don't have much time. Apparently seeing debris around the outside and hearing it get much louder are the main indicators people talk about in videos just before they get hit or take shelter. They say if you can't tell which direction the tornado is going, it's coming for you quick and I think that speed is 25-50mph. It looks tempting to watch what it's doing, but honestly you can't see anything up close. They actually look like they make more sense from far away, and after, but up close is like trying to see better in the dark by opening your eyes wider, it just doesn't really make a difference. Get somewhere safe and look at what it did after
and if you're on the road, idk how to deal with electrical wire, besides avoiding the wires and water entirely, but what I can say, is that trees will block driving, so maybe having hard gloves and a chainsaw would help clear the way if you really want to get somewhere
When I tell you my jaw DROPPED hearing the little girl passed away, and not even from the storm. That had to have been so hard to go through as a parent
I hope they rebuilt EVERY home, businesses, schools, etc with A FULL basement with all the families need to stay safe. This is horrible. Im so sorry.
I lived in Forest Lake Apartments but moved in 2005. I'm thankful that my stepdad and mom moved me to Tennessee. I have cousins who live there and they survived, and friends too! And I went to school with Brad Lawrence. He and Josh are good neighbors to have in times like these!
Wow u know em that's cool!! They are so nice and lucky u had some good ppl u knew 😉
My son was freshman at UA when this tornado came through town. I got a text from him a little after five, saying, "There's a huge tornado is heading this way." Before I could respond, my phone died. My wife and I live in Huntsville, in North Alabama, and we were already without power courtesy of another monster tornado that took out the No. Ala power grid...our land line was still operational, but when we tried calling him back, we got no response...pretty hopeless feeling, sitting in the dark for hours, not knowing what was going on...finally, he called us a little after 10, saying he and his friends were all at the UA Rec Center...we didn't have power for five days...when it finally came back on, we saw these images for the first time...
is he okay?
Gosh I can't imagine the fear and panic you may have felt. Glad your son was alright.
Honestly glad you didn’t watch it live. I watched it live and it felt like watching a movie. It didn’t look real and was hard to comprehend that we were seeing something that was actually happening live.
@@joshla5436 Yes, thank you...he's an aerospace engineer and doing well!
This is so sad…. It really makes these disasters feel real to those of us who have never experienced it. 😢
This is my like. 20th time watching this documentary.
Definitely one of the best tornado documentaries out there
I remember this quite vividly, My town was smack-dab in the middle of the path of destruction. I was 6 or 7 at the time and I didn't know a single thing, I couldn't keep up with the weather as the power was going out. I was shockingly calm at the time, even during the time it was on top of my house. Before the tornado struck, I was in my brother's room watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory until I was told to go into the bathroom. Myself, my mother, and my father were huddled in the bathroom as the tornado destroyed a part of our house as the rest remained mostly unscathed. Little did I know that the room that was completely destroyed was my brother's room, the same room I was in before the tornado, if I were to have still been in there as the tornado hit I would have either died or been really injured. It was a miracle that we were all alive.
When it was over with, I went outside and saw the small remnants of what was one of the vortices of the tornado swirling and dissipating and the sight of a large tree embedded inside the neighbor's home. The only thing remember that made an impact for little ol' me was when the tornado entirely sucked up a honeysuckle bush that we had and it made me really upset. Myself and my mother walked around the block and looked around the place, it was a mess of destruction and debris that had been spread all over the place, there was even a house that was completely on fire... It was as if I was in a nightmare... we then went home and slept through the rest of that tragic night... Nowadays, I still have the feeling of dread whenever there's a chance of tornadoes but from the whole ordeal, it stirred up my passion for weather and caused me to grow a fascination for tornadoes. Despite my storm anxiety, I still focus on the weather whenever there's a chance for really bad weather and stay with it until the threats over. I'll be honest, April 27 completely changed my life but I am grateful to be alive to tell this story. I apologize for rambling on and on, this day remains close to me and I will never forget it.
Wow, I am glad you and your family are here today. What a terrifying yet relieving story!
When you think humanity is so bad and no one cares anymore , you see a state, a city , a small town come together and help each other rebuild is amazing!
What is neat is to have this going and then open up another tab and bring up Tuscaloosa on that tab and follow the path of the tornado as per the video. You get to see visually the patch and relive it all over again.
James Spann is a god damn hero!
Hi, Tuscaloosian here. We actually had a tornado pass over us Thursday but luckily it did not touch down. Still very scary though..
yah watching it as well. 12/10 was worse then anything i can remember. the loss of lives was huge.. every house sld have under ground shelters in tornado alley, even schools. so scary to live out there. i live in California and the great earthquakes are far and few, at least 30 plus years before another one. our deadly season is fires, but tornadoes within minutes can flattened and take lives, you may only have less than 15 min to respond. with the fires we have alot of warnings before hand its coming. so scary, tornadoes are mesmerizing to see in person has every emotion you dont know the outcome. mother nature produces the unspeakable
I’m sitting here listening to that lady screaming and crying, just begging for help. I’m sitting here listening to her and I want to run there to help.
Same, she sounded like she felt horrible about not being able to help others who were trapped under pure rubble yelling for someone.
My first ever tornado I got to watch live infront of me, tears rolled down my face not from fear or anything else, it was indescribable, it feels like staring to God himself and the sound it makes is something u will never forget!
A lot of people say that Tornado Alley includes Alabama. Well, it doesn't. Alabama is in Dixie Alley, also known for tornadoes and some other severe weather including Hurricanes.
i literally lived in tuscaloosa when this happened and my mom has a video of the tornado from our friends house. I remember we ran to his house because he’s the only one that had a shelter and i was only 6 at the time. all i can remember was seeing a part of the tornado the trees were in the way and there were so many sirens going off
Make sure you have a storm shelter in your property / businesses. Especially if you live in tornado alley ppl. You can't hide on the surface in large storms.
Unless they make above ground shelters easier to afford that's not possible some places have soil that would make shelters not possible
Read James Spann's book, 'All You Can Do Is Pray.' A very good tribute to the victims of this super outbreak.
My sister was there. She still has diagnosed PTSD from this storm
A friend of mine was a teacher at UAB for children needing speech therapy, and had to herd an entire classroom down several flights of stairs to the basement. She said at one point, she looked out of a window and saw the tornado coming. But she saved every one of those children. I would have been too frightened to do anything.
I have seen five tornados in my life, growing up in Illinois. The closest one hit Whitey;s Ice Cream Parlor, in Moline Illinois I believe. We stopped off there after a Concert Choir, and it was two story building - with us down below. It ripped off the roof, put out the power, and then dropped down on a cemetery before the Mississippi river, which it crossed and dissipated... it actually uprooted fresh graves. The other four are not as interesting but yet probably an F1 passed before a barn house and my sisters house while I was in the hayloft. Things were flying everywhere, hay especially, but I was o.k. Forget the other 3, except I am familiar. F3 perhaps was the worse (no ratings were available then). Anyway, thanks WM for the posting. You did a great job of posting this. I hope you will do more.
I lived in Northport at that time, I remember this day vividly. My mom and I were the only ones home and we were hiding the best we could in the hall closet. James Spans voice, being the same as it had always been strong and steady kept my mom calm in turn kept me calm. We were lucky to have only had minor damage, but even to this day, the screaming of the winds, the darkness, the national weather service voice interrupting James Span, all of that is vivid in my mind.
The weather man did his best I'm sure, remember there was 250,000people without power befor e the storm started! Also the time that it hit, it was just a wicked tornado 🌪
James Spann is a legend, your damn right he did the best he could
The reason why people lost power is due to tornadoes that just hours earlier had caused unimaginable destruction in Mississippi ended up crossing into Alabama and destroyed numerous power poles. In addition; the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant had a very close call with one tornado that passed just barely to the south of the plant; sparing it, but the plant still had to go into S.C.R.A.M. mode. That was an extremely scary moment for the employees and managers of the plant.
I used to live in Knoxville, Tennessee at that time and i heard reports about debris from the tornadoes falling 200+ or so miles away from where they originated ... Pieces of shingles, pictures, bank checks, sheet metals, insulation from houses and everything were all falling all over from nearby Lenoir City 15 or so miles downstream from Knoxville in Tennessee... Those storms were so strong and we had larger hail and violent tornadoes hit around close to here that same night of the outbreak. I let out of school early when the storms were approaching and then got picked up early from the Boys and Girls Club by my mother who heard on the news that the weather was gonna get very bad immediately. Then we got food from Krystal's and she shown me a picture of one of the bigger storms that produced a large tornado not much further away, and then BOOM, tornado warnings kept going on and off all day and night long as it became to unsafe to head home and we sheltered with a family friend for the night til the storms passed. And then Knoxville itself had the worst hailstorm ever recorded with hail being as large as softballs and baseballs and damaged everything that all had to be repaired years later or so ... I was glued to the Weather Channel all day for the coverage of this historic outbreak cuz we were under the moderate risk for severe weather and then here in Chattanooga now where I'm at, it was under the high risk for severe weather where tornadoes were spawned in and around the area that also were rebuilt years later ... Dixie Alley period is vulnerable to strong and violent tornadoes cuz of trees, mountains, hills and terrains cuz the tornadoes are wrapped in rain and difficult to see. The Gulf of Mexico itself always fuels these storms violently for many reasons
That storm system moved north and also devastated Glade Spring and Chilhowie VA. Powerful storm that traveled far! The hand of God reaching down.
There was even a tornado that hit in Canada from this system. That day was wild.
:34. The old Tutweiler Hall. It stood there at University of Alabama through various weather events (like this one) and the Civil Rights Era, and recently was demolished to make way for a new women's dorm.
Rest Easy To All Who Passed, I’m So sorry to the Baby who passed:( I Pray God Heals And Helps!! Amen and God Bless!! I’m so sorry
I remember watching this that day, on RUclips live... they were showing James Spanns coverage, and I recall thinking SO many people were going to die. Watching the coverage of that tornado from the camera so high up, as it came into Tuscaloosa was just mesmerizing. That thing moved with a PURPOSE. Even rewatching this now gives me the same sense of anxiety, as if I'm watching it happen all over again!!!!
I'm a Coloradan but when I saw that damage I started crying. I was very young when this happened but I wish I could go back in time to travel to Tuscaloosa and help out with the searching, or at least comfort people who lost everything. Absolutely heartbreaking.
Same, I've witnessed pretty weak tornadoes bit I could never imagine viewing something like this. I'm just lucky to live in a part of CO that doesn't brew strong tornadoes, the most you'll get is an F1 rope tornado.
My parents were in our home next to Cahaba Heights, I was in Montevallo, and one brother and my cousins were students at Alabama. There was one near Calera/Jemison that wasn’t being focused on and my dad called me to tell me to run across campus from my antique apartment to the sorority hall…I was too out of shape and made it Half way before a campus cop scooped me up and brought me to the SUB with all the other students that happened to be around. I don’t remember if I already knew about the TTown tornado at that point but do know a lot of us were desperate for news and our phones didn’t work down there. We had the TVs whenever the power turned on, but that’s it. Once we got the clear for our area I ran back to my place (it never hit Montevallo) trying to call around. No one in Tuscaloosa as far as we could tell we’re getting calls out. Both cousins lived in apartments while my brother was in an honors dorm, but he has a tendency to downplay everything. I saw the footage of it coming down McFarland (from a cam above the stttion, where morons were in trucks watching it while the anchor was basically crying trying to make sure someone went to save them from themselves). My parents were losing it, and at the same time a tornado came right through their area. James Spann told me that because they were so worried about my brother they didn’t say a thing. We got word my cousins were alive first, then my brother finally deigned to contact my parents. They summoned all three of us home the next day…my university has already cancelled classes and TTown was actively asking any students that COULD leave to do so to conserve town resources. My brother was lucky to have been on campus and to have a spot in a good parking deck so he had himself and his car and begrudgingly came home. He came in from the north and saw damage but I came in from the south and saw the area where I’d lived since 4tj grade looked like a completely unfamiliar area. Then my parents forced my brother to sit at the computer and watch the footage of the tornado in Tuscaloosa. I stayed for the show-I knew his reaction would be worth it. He had still not seen any footage of it, just the horrifying results on his way out. He and his friends had briefly wandered off campus, seen how real it was, and obeyed the EMS to get out of the way. But that was right by campus, so he didn’t see the worst. Watching his face drain completely of blood was satisfying for putting us through that worry. Unlike our cousins he HAD a full charge on his phone when it began and though towers were down a text would have gotten through eventually. My cousins’ did and they had to go to a phone store that had stuck as many chargers on the floor as humanly possible.
My parents just wanted us home because they feared for 2/3 of us (last brother was with them and though they’re in Mountain Brook land of ROCKS therefore have no real basement they actually did make him run outside to it when it was headed right towards them…substantial structure damage but no humans or pets harmed so we were so lucky) and just wanted to confirm we were all good. It was the first time, ever, we had made anyone go into that basement despite the fact the house itself is absolutely a death trap in a tornado.
Watching that thing live when we had power to have a tv we sickening, but the worst was the next day. Entire housing divisions just GONE, and people wandering aimlessly because they didn’t even know where their home had once stood.
I live in the southern part of the state now but will remain loyal to James Spann forever. We already loved him, his suspenders, and his love of the word polygon, but he also could tell you off hand what specific neighborhood was about to ge hit not just a town. It’s Alabama, and those sirens are just part of the fabric of my life, but I had been fortunate because the over the mountain area rarely gets a tornado-for us with all of the trees straight winds can be worse. I don’t think I’d ever REALLY been scared by them before. And it was all day. All, day. All over the state. Even in 2011 phone footage spread so it wasn’t just the terrifying overhead shots we were seeing. The people just…wandering…she’s right they looked like zombies. Because they didn’t even know where they were…all the landmarks were gone. What we’re they going to do now? EMS was also hit and communications were down. Word wasn’t for sure as to the state of the hospital, and all basic services were disrupted. I know one of the reasons they asked in state students that had transport to leave town was because they were going to run out of water and cell signals were so overwhelmed they were basically useless. Food was a worry and with power lines down and random fires it was dangerous especially because it was mostly neighbors helping neighbors. Not professionals.
TTown was so impressive. Obviously just having legions of Bama fans meant instant concern and help but huge groups of Auburn fans, players, etc. directly contributed too…obviously some things are bigger than football, but not much, down here. The other towns that were destroyed didn’t get that same immediate help, but people (newscasters especially) did an excellent job of reminding people that MOST of the state needed help. If you weren’t near Tuscaloosa there were plenty of others to help.
The sub has always been a great place on a great campus
It’s almost unbelievable that this tornado is somewhat overshadowed by the Joplin disaster less than a month later.
What’s even more unbelievable, is one the strongest fastest moving F5 tornadoes came through rural west Alabama that day, killing 11-12 ppl. An unbelievably strong and massive tornado, and almost nobody knows about it.
This doesn’t really get overlooked. It’s probably the most well-known tornado from this outbreak despite not even being the strongest of the day. It was one of the EF4 tornados while there were four EF5 tornados that day and pretty much all of them are less known than this one.
Joplin also wound up with SO many fatalities and was also an EF5 so it’s no surprise people remember it so often.
The horizontal vortices coming off that beast were wicked
Does anybody know where I can watch the rest of the seasons I can’t find them anywhere I’m addicted to these lmao
Same
search up tornado alley weather channel
Tell me about it. I want to watch the pilot episode of "Real Time Tornado" in it's entirety because it lasts only about thirty minutes at the most and the other episodes are forty minutes or so. The pilot episode of "Real Time Tornado" profiles the violent and destructive EF5 tornado that tore through Moore, Oklahoma on May 20, 2013.
Edit: all the episodes of "Real Time Tornado" can be found on a streaming service called FuboTv. It's not as well-known as other streaming services such as Netflix or Hulu.
The only thing that bugs me are the people who are either outside or like by a window recording this when the tornado is right next to them, like if you see a tornado that close get to shelter!!!! Thats why so many people are killed because they wait last minute to get to shelter. Even if there is a tornado warning get to shelter like dont even worry about grabbing a camera like run to shelter!
Snowball Lane I agree 100% with you on it
Snowball Lane What Ian Malcolm said in The Lost World: Jurassic Park applies perfectly to tornadoes... “Oh yeah, ooohh, aaahh! That’s how it always starts. But then later, there’s running & screaming.”
Most people are killed because they don't take shelter at all. Because theyre used to sirens and "false alarms" they don't think nothing of tornado sirens.
Don’t forget the people who literally have no storm chasing experience and they think they’re Reed Timmer or something and they drive right towards the tornado
@@peterjrcoolidge
True, plus they do get in the way of some actual storm chasers
I’ll never forget the night after this happened. Once it got dark and you really couldn’t see what you were digging through you felt so helpless. That whole night felt like living through a nuke. It was wiiiiiild.
Love how everybody calls out for God. I would, too...for sure.
Amen Grandma was protecting you by all the prayers she prayed for you!!! She let you find her pearls….🎉🎉🎉
Should have been an ef5. No doubt about it. It did a crazy amount of damage over 1 billion and leveled not only houses but some businesses off their foundations. Should have totally been an ef5