`Massive outbreak` kills 63

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The Birmingham News
FROM PAGE ONE
Thursday, April 28, 2011
NEWS STAFF/HAL YEAGER
Residents of Pearson Street in Fairview seek refuge in a tornado shelter on
Wednesday.
‘Massive outbreak’ kills 63
TORNADOES:
From Page 1A
dead as of late Wednesday
— 13 in Walker County, 11
in Jefferson County, including a child whose parents
have not been located, and
two in St. Clair County.
“We are going to retrieve
the bodies we can right
now,” said Jefferson County
Chief Deputy Coroner Pat
Curry. “In a situation like
this, the first step is to make
sure we have a positive ID.”
Fifteen deaths were
counted in Tuscaloosa
County and more than 100
injuries.
“This is probably one of
the biggest outbreaks in the
Southeast in quite some
time and that’s saying
something given the recent
ones we’ve had,” said Tom
Bradshaw, National
Weather Service meteorologist in the Southern Region
headquarters in Fort Worth.
The enormously wide tornado that roared through
Birmingham about 6 p.m.
was from the same supercell
system that produced the
tornado that touched down
just south of downtown
Tuscaloosa, said Jim Stekovich, meteorologist in
charge of the National
Weather Service Birmingham office. “We’ve had —
just as predicted — a massive outbreak of strong, violent tornadoes today,” Stekovich said.
An all-day event
In the Birmingham area,
the severe weather started
about 5:30 a.m. with winds
as high as 100 mph ripping
through parts of the city,
toppling trees and knocking
out power. By nightfall
power was out to 370,000
customers statewide, and
more than 170,000 in metro
Birmingham, Alabama
Power reported.
That early storm was just
a prelude to what weather
forecasters had been warning for days. Schools were
shut down and many took a
day off from their jobs in anticipation of the events to
come. People stayed glued
to the radio, and many
watched tornadoes touch
down live on television,
striking Cullman, Tuscaloosa and Birmingham.
The storm damage in Jefferson County will surpass
the destruction of 1998,
Emergency Management
Agency authorities said, referring to the April 8 twister
that claimed 32 lives and injured 261 people.
DEATHS BY COUNTY
y Tuscaloosa: 15
y Walker: 13
y Jefferson: 11
y Marshall: 6
y Franklin: 5
y Jackson: 4
y Marion: 3
y St. Clair: 2
y Fayette: 2
y Cullman: 1
y DeKalb: 1
Sources: Alabama
Emergency Management
Agency, Jefferson County
“That was one path. This
damage is more widespread,” said Allen
Kniphfer, Jefferson County
EMA coordinator. It’s not
just that Jefferson County
was hit, but the whole state
was hit hard, so the impact
will be worse, Kniphfer said.
Among the dead is a child
whose parents have not
been located, authorities
said. At least eight people
were killed in the west Jefferson County town of Concord and at least one was
killed in nearby Hueytown,
authorities said.
The morgue at Cooper
Green Hospital can hold 14
bodies. A refrigerated trailer
morgue will be set up outside the hospital to hold 18
bodies. Another trailer will
also be available.
“It’s going to take all of us
working together and praying together,” Kniphfer said.
Birmingham Fire and
Rescue Battalion Chief Matt
Russell said every available
firefighter and rescue
worker was brought in for
the storm.
There were 180 people
working from Birmingham
and two each from the surrounding municipalities in
Jefferson County. “It’s a
massive effort. There is a
possibility that people could
still be trapped. Daylight
will tell us more.”
Russell said they have
been overwhelmed with reports of damage and injuries.
“For us to respond to specific addresses, we do not
have the resources to do
that right now,” Russell said.
“We’re going to get boots on
the ground as soon as we
can. We will set up a grid
and we will search, neighborhood by neighborhood,
street by street and house by
house.”
“It has been a disastrous
day,” said Jefferson County
Commissioner Joe Knight.
“But now it is time to help
our neighbors.”
Amid the wreckage, there
are many stories of tragedy,
but also stories with happy
endings.
In Hueytown, Jason Wilson was in Jimmy’s Auto, a
repair shop his family owns
on Allison-Bonnett Memorial Drive, when he heard
the sirens. He gathered his
family, including his
7-year-old son and
10-year-old daughter, and
rode it out in the shop.
About an hour afterward,
he stood in the parking lot,
stunned, looking at the roof
of the store, now a waisthigh heap of metal and insulation. The roof had been
blown off the building as
they huddled inside, he
said.
“We was fixing to go
home and heard the siren,”
he said. “We took cover. It’s
about all you can do. And
then it just blew the roof
off.”
Wilson, his wife, his father
and his two children escaped without a scratch, he
said.
Adjacent businesses suffered similar damage. Their
roofs were peeled off or
blown away. At Lamar’s
Quick Stop, the metal roof
that used to be suspended
over the gas pumps was
crushed — accordion style
— against a pole.
About a mile and a half
down the road at Steve’s
Grocery, the store was similarly hammered, and firstresponders were working to
free three people trapped in
the rubble.
Police were limiting access to the area to residents
who needed to check on
their homes, and the roads
were littered with metal
roofing material, insulation,
shattered glass and demolished signs.
In the initial minutes after
the tornado struck, rescue
vehicles could not pass
through the debris on Hibernian Street in Pratt City.
A group of people clustered
around an elderly woman
bleeding from her forehead
and scalp. As she held a wad
of cloth against her wounds,
the men in group prepared
to carry her to a waiting gurney on Dugan Avenue. The
woman was able to walk
with their help.
Birmingham Board of Education President Phyllis
Wyne’s house on Dugan
Avenue was destroyed in the
tornado. She was not at
home when the tornado hit,
she said. A homemade cardboard sign stapled to a telephone pole in front of a destroyed building advertised
a three-bedroom home for
NEWS STAFF/FRANK COUCH
People look for neighbors, friends and family members after the devastation
Wednesday on Hibernian Street in Pratt City.
NEWS STAFF/BERNARD TRONCALE
Two men carry a man injured during the tornado that ravaged Pratt City.
rent. The sign flapped in the
wind as people milled
about, talked on cellphones
and tried to reach loved
ones.
Contributing to this report
were News staff writers Joseph Bryant, Bob Carlton,
Victoria Coman, Malcomb
Daniels, Stan Diel, Kent
Faulk, Izzy Gould, Jeremy
Gray, Alec Harvey, Don
Kausler Jr., Dawn Kent, John
Reimer, Greg Richter, Jeff
Roberts, Carol Robinson,
Anne Ruisi, Thomas Spencer
and Val Walton.
EMAIL: moliver@bhamnews.com
NEWS STAFF/FRANK COUCH
Residents look over the massive damage of Wednesday’s storms in the Pratt City area.
Nice weather returns for a busy weekend of events
With a busy weekend ahead for the
Birmingham area, including The Schaeffer
Eye Center Crawfish Boil Friday and Saturday and the ONB Magic City Art Connection Friday through Sunday, there will
be a welcome change of weather. According to National Weather Service
forecasts, skies will be sunny all weekend
with highs in the mid-80s Saturday and
Sunday.
y Friday: Sunny, with a high near 77.
Calm wind becoming west around 5 mph.
y Friday night: Mostly clear, with a low
around 57. Northwest wind around 5
mph becoming calm.
y Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 84.
y Saturday night: Partly cloudy, with a
low around 63.
y Sunday: Mostly sunny, with a high
near 83.
y Sunday night: Mostly cloudy, with a
low around 61.