Massive Storm System Spawns Multiple Tornadoes; Kills At Least 202 People

Last night a massive storm system moved across the southeastern US. Mississippi, Georgia, and Alabama got hit the hardest, I believe. So far the death toll is at 202, although the count seems to be slowing...I hope, anyway. Alabama, at least, has been declared a federal disaster area.

For me, everything seemed to miss my house. We didn't even get that much rain. Which was lucky given the following.

NPR article
This is the lead picture from that article, from what used to be either a residential area or a trailer park in Pratt City, AL.

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Tuscaloosa, AL was hit by a tornado a mile wide that, if the reports I heard were correct, totally leveled the hospital there.


Either that tornado or another one following the same track also hit Birmingham.

Glad to hear it didn't hit you, KelinciHutan. I hope other WGW members in that area were as lucky.

Birmingham almost looks like it got H-bombed.

Suffice it to say that from now on I'll think twice before complaining about the New England weather.

Lady Anne wrote:

Glad to hear it didn't hit you, KelinciHutan. I hope other WGW members in that area were as lucky.

It's my ulterior motive for starting the thread. I'm hoping the other folks in the region will check in when they get the chance.

If anyone cares, I'm alive. Long night -- my friends are from all over Georgia so pretty much as soon as one family was out of danger, another was in it.

Tornado passed less than a mile south of my house in my hometown, all schools are closed, and one of the elementary schools was turned completely on its roof.

Jesus fuck.

I thought the weather was odd up here last night. As I was driving home it was thundering sheets of rain down on the highway, then it turned to snow. (which never, EVER happens in the lower mainland of BC in almost may) o_O

This.. wow.
Still denying climate change, people?

InkWeaver wrote:

If anyone cares, I'm alive. Long night -- my friends are from all over Georgia so pretty much as soon as one family was out of danger, another was in it.

Tornado passed less than a mile south of my house in my hometown, all schools are closed, and one of the elementary schools was turned completely on its roof.

Jesus fuck.

I care. I'm glad you're alive (and still connected to the Internet).

Yeah, I'm actually surprised Charter has worked through all the storming.

Just rain out here in my neck of the woods. My sister in TN had her house and car damaged by golf ball sized hail.

Pic my sister sent me:

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Yup. We've been having godawful flooding here from previous storms. We've had 13 dead, mostly from flash flooding. We were very, very, very lucky not to lose more people to the tornadoes that hit the state.

I'm praying we don't get any more bad storms till we can get some of the damage repaired, especially in the hardest hit areas, like there in Alabama.

Oh, April your weather is never boring is it. But, all the bad weather seem to miss were I lived. We just has thunderstorm, heavily to shower rainstorms, and flooding. But, I praying that all the places that was hit can be able to rebuilt soon.

I'm about ten minutes down the road from Ringgold, and feeling a bit like a horrible person for how relieved I was when it missed us entirely, hit there and headed north.

Miss Misery wrote:

Just rain out here in my neck of the woods. My sister in TN had her house and car damaged by golf ball sized hail.

Pic my sister sent me:

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That hailstone looks like it could crack a guy's skull if it hit the bone hard enough.

I'm so glad everyone is ok.

We had storm/tornado warnings as far up as here in Maryland. I was pretty worried about everyone in the hit area, because the damage seems pretty extensive.

Sakurelf wrote:

I thought the weather was odd up here last night. As I was driving home it was thundering sheets of rain down on the highway, then it turned to snow. (which never, EVER happens in the lower mainland of BC in almost may) o_O

This.. wow.
Still denying climate change, people?

At the risk of being seen as callous it's ironic that this "act of God" hit some of the most virulently Red states. I wonder if the tea partiers will continue to spit on Federal public assistance even as the 'socialist' Red Cross digs them out of their homes. If they wont believe in global warming perhaps they'll believe in a Diety that is judging arrogant hypocrites for their willful disobedience to Her laws. She's like that you know. Warm as a summer breeze and cold as a killing frost. Yeah its not fair but who says She's fair. She just IS! We can try to live in harmony with Her and prepare for Her occasional temper tantrums or we can become fossils.

Just the same I'm glad that those here who lived in the affected area are all right. Blessed Be!

I think She just sent a message. I hope we get it. Of course She also sent a message to the Gulf and Japan and they seem to have been tossed. I really don't want to see what happens when She really gets mad and picks up Her cosmic rolling pin.

zootie wrote:

At the risk of being seen as callous it's ironic that this "act of God" hit some of the most virulently Red states...blahblahblah...

Just...shut up. Seriously.

maladroit_mooncalf wrote:

zootie wrote:

At the risk of being seen as callous it's ironic that this "act of God" hit some of the most virulently Red states...blahblahblah...

Just...shut up. Seriously.

Agreed. Let us not turn a tragedy that does not discriminate into another "us vs. them" slugfest.

maladroit_mooncalf wrote:

zootie wrote:

At the risk of being seen as callous it's ironic that this "act of God" hit some of the most virulently Red states...blahblahblah...

Just...shut up. Seriously.

I second this.

Dude. WTF. Gtfo, people fucking died.

Holy mother of shit.

zootie, that has to be one of the most revolting things I've ever read in my entire life.

Just talked to my brother Chris, who lives outside of Atlanta in a small town called Alpharetta. He says they had some impressive rain and hail, and that the tornado warning sirens sounded once or twice, but he never actually saw any tornados, so he's okay.

On the other hand, he spent the first 26 years of his life in Iowa where tornados, flooding, torrential rains and fist-sized hail was standard summer weather, so he's pretty laid back about these things.

Inkweaver, where in Georgia do you live?

West central ish.

I live in the southern part of Tennessee not far from the border with Alabama. We were hit pretty hard and there were some tornados. Power still hasn't been restored to some of my friends, and my fiancee just got her power back a few hours ago.