“Storm Chasers” Reed Timmer recalls the days he spent in Tuscaloosa, AL in the aftermath of the city’s terrible encounter with a massive tornado during the 2011 Super Outbreak:
“The damage in Tuscaloosa from that devastating EF4 on April 27 earlier this year was the worst I’ve seen since chasing the infamous F5 tornado that struck Moore, OK and southern parts of Oklahoma City on May 3, 1999.”
Watch Reed’s Super Outbreak Video
“We were embedded with Alabama Task Force 1 a few days after the tornado went through Tuscaloosa as they were doing search and rescue. It was one of those sad yet motivating experiences that you can never forget. The firefighters of ATF1 are some of the greatest heroes of the tornado recovery effort in Alabama and surrounding areas, spending days if not weeks in disaster areas such as Tuscaloosa… living out of tents and flying into even the most remote areas of devastation to help people in need.”
“Many of them were also in the New Orleans area several years prior to help in the recovery effort from Hurricane Katrina, the worst natural disaster in the U.S. prior to the unprecedented April 27, 2011 tornado outbreak in “Dixie Alley.”
SCENES FROM TUSCALOOSA: late April – early May, 2011
An ATF1 unit checks out a damaged home tagged with the FEMA marking system indicating that it was searched on April 28 by a Tuscaloosa-based team that found no sign of residents.
ATF1 crews take a break after conducting search-and-rescue operations in one of Tuscaloosa’s shattered neighborhoods.
Tents in a suburban parking lot – home for one of the mobile search-and rescue teams working in Tuscaloosa.
Reed concludes: “The loss of life in the Southeast from the April 27 outbreak, as well as from the catastrophic Joplin, MO EF5 just a few weeks later are exactly why we need to do everything it takes to better understand the very complex and powerful dynamics of these violent tornadoes to help increase warning lead-times even further.”
Tags: Storm Chasers, Timmer, Reed
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