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I don't think I have written much here about the great tornado, which hit Tuscaloosa County April 27th 2011, on a day hundreds of tornadoes damaged many parts of the country. Our tornado, half a mile wide, was not the only one to hit the county that day, but it was by far the most destructive. It touched down in southwest Tuscaloosa, crossed the interstate, destroyed a large housing project, and cut right across the middle of town.

When it came to our neighborhood, we were very lucky. One block to the north of us houses were completely destroyed. Half a block to the north, a neighbor was almost sucked out throuth the roof, hangingo on to her levitating dog. To the south of us was minor damage from Little tornadoes that spun off of the big one.

We lost three oak trees and two black walnut trees. One of the oaks hit our house and a walnut tree hit my van. The van was hardly damaged. The house had a big hole in the roof and a lot of our stuff, including many Christmas ornaments, were sucked out through the hole. Somebody in Georgia had an early Christmas. Strangely, where we were inside the house at the other end, the tornado and the falling tree weren't very loud. I expected more, so I was surprised at the extent of the damage. All that we actually saw when it happened was when the transom blew in and landed on my wife's head (not seriously injuring her). The front porch roof was completely smashed by the tree that put a hole in the roof and so the porch was covered with broken pieces of wood. I couldn't get out. I couldn't get out the back way either, because one of the black walnuts rested on my outside lift. It hadn't actually destroyed the lift, but there was no room for me on it. And of course the power was out. For 10 days. It was finally restored when we hit the 90s in temperature and humidity.

I spent more than a week on the front porch, once it was free of debris. The National Guart post was in the intersection 50 feet away. I watched them directing traffic, watched the sad peopple trudging up and down the street, and truckloads of volunteers passing out bottled water and MREs. Some of the cell towers were down, and we could only use our phones until about 6:30 a.m. With no access to news, we didn't know what was going on across the city. We knew less than almost anybody!

Even now, 12 years later, there are dozens and dozens of rectangular green grassy patches that, up until the day of the tornado, had houses on them. It's hard to justify the expense of building a single family house nowadays and most of the people who had lived there couldn't afford to rebuild. Much of it was rental property anyway. It's sad that hundreds lost their homes. Dozens were killed. We were lucky, as I said.