Survivors Describe the Devastating Alabama Tornadoes

Posted on January 23, 2012 at 3:40pm by Liz Klimas
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Starting in Arkansas Sunday night and moving into Alabama in the early morning hours of Monday, severe storms with devastating tornadoes pummeled through the South, injuring more than 100 people and killing at least two in Alabama.

Deadly Tornadoes Roll Through Arkansas and Alabama Leaving 100 injured, 2 Dead

Marchester Circle in Clay, Ala., before a tornado came through Monday morning. (Image via Daily Mail)

The same circle in Clay after the tornado. (Image: AP via Daily Mail)

One of the men killed was a survivor of the Oak Grove twister that hit in April 2011 killing 240 people. Residents of Oak Grove were hit particularly hard again with Monday’s tornado. Ironically, officials had to reschedule a meeting to receive a study on Alabama’s response to the spring tornadoes.

Watch an Alabama resident give his account of living through two devastating tornadoes within nine months:

Here is another account from Clay, Ala., survivors:

According to the Daily Mail, Bobby Franks Sims, 82, from Oak Grove and Christina Nicole Heichelbech, 16, from Clay, were killed in the storm, Jefferson County sheriff’s spokesman Randy Christian said. The Birmingham News has more:

Sims’ manufactured home was thrown off its foundation and neighbors said he and his wife Janice were thrown out of it. The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office said Birmingport Fire crews found Bobby Frank Sims about 50 yards from the home and pronounced him dead on the scene. His wife was taken to Princeton Baptist Medical Center.

Here’s more footage from the area where Heichelbech was reportedly killed:

Some homes in the area were flattened, windows were blown out of cars and roofs were peeled back in the middle of the night in the rural communities near Birmingham. The Birmingham News reports that in the Clay area about 170 homes are reported as destroyed, while 50 are moderately damaged.

Though the tornadoes have been confirmed by the National Weather Service, the Birmingham News reports in a separate article, the extent to which the twisters were on the ground will not be announced until later today or tomorrow. But, the Birmingham news reports one meteorologist as saying it was on the ground for a long time:

It appears, however, it was a single tornado that traveled from Tuscaloosa, through Jefferson County and into St. Clair County during a two-hour stretch beginning about 2:30 a.m., said meteorologist Mark Rose.

“It’s a very long time for one tornado to be on the ground,” Rose said. “It’s possible it could have lifted up, and touched back down, but we won’t know for sure until the survey crews report back.

A second storm system moved into Chilton County about 5 a.m., causing widespread damage there as well. Authorities believe that, too, was a tornado but said they likely won’t have that confirmed until Tuesday.

As dawn broke, residents surveyed the damage and officials used chainsaws to clear fallen trees. Check out 360 panoramic damage of the storm here (via Ryan Russel/ The Weather Channel).

(Image: Ryan Russel/Weather Channel)

(Image: Jeff Roberts/Birmingham News)

“Some roads are impassable, there are a number of county roads where you have either debris down, trees down, damage from homes,” said Yasamie Richardson, a spokeswoman for the Alabama Emergency Management Agency.

Here one resident chokes up as he talks of his family’s fortunate survival:

Watch this news report from the Clay area:

The storm system stretched from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, producing a possible tornado that moved across northern Jefferson County around 3:30 a.m., causing damage in Oak Grove and other communities, Christian said.

Here a weatherman describes what happened during the storm:

As day broke, searchers went door-to-door calling out to residents, many of whom were trapped by trees that crisscrossed their driveways.

In Clay, northeast of Birmingham, Stevie Sanders woke up around 3:30 a.m. and realized bad weather was on the way. She, her parents and sister hid in the laundry room of their brick home as the wind howled and trees started cracking outside.

“You could feel the walls shaking and you could hear a loud crash. After that it got quiet, and the tree had fallen through my sister’s roof,” said Sanders.

The family was OK, and her father, Greg Sanders, spent the next hours raking his roof and pulling away pieces of broken lumber.

“It could have been so much worse,” he said. “It’s like they say, we were just blessed.”

In Clanton, about 50 miles south of Birmingham, rescuers were responding to reports of a trailer turned over with people trapped, City Clerk Debbie Orange said.

Also south of Birmingham, Maplesville town clerk Sheila Haigler said high winds damaged many buildings and knocked down several trees. One tree fell on a storm shelter, but no one was injured, Haigler said. Police had not been able to search some areas because trees and power lines were blocking roads.

In Arkansas, there were possible tornadoes in several areas Sunday night. The storms also brought hail and strong winds as they moved through parts of Arkansas, Tennessee, Illinois and Mississippi.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Comments (19)

samsmama
Posted on January 24, 2012 at 8:56am
I would like to donate but not thru the Red Cross. I only hope local churches begin to ask for clothing, food and the likes.
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Phoneguy
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 6:37pm
They will need prayers and Obama cash.
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Ishmot2
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 6:32pm
Somethings really strange about that top picture in comparison to the real picture.
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- COFemale
  Posted on January 23, 2012 at 9:25pm
  I think it is the angle and distance the image is taken. I thought the same thing when I first saw the picture.
  Report Post »
- Evan Olsen
  Posted on January 23, 2012 at 10:08pm
  It’s from Google Street View. Which is a 360º panorama stitched together.
  Report Post »
a9ks1
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 5:52pm
JBlaze
So why does God keep destroying places in the Bible Belt. Not to argue with your logic, but wouldn’t it make more sense if he actually went after the very people who have been vile, corrupt and have done all they can to destroy the Commandments? Why didn’t he drop a tornado on the OWS sites? Just a thought to ponder. I don‘t think he’s destroying the very God fearing people who still hold his values true.
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- mccracken
  Posted on January 23, 2012 at 6:28pm
  It’s a frigging tornado.
  Report Post »
- klevalt
  Posted on January 23, 2012 at 8:50pm
  … or maybe God’s glory will shine through these people and even through their pain making them stronger in the process…. I can’t expect anyone who has not experienced severe tragedy to undertand that…. And consider that perhaps it isn‘t God’s actual doing, but Satan who is threatened by those who LOVE Jesus.
  Report Post »
- ProbIemSoIver
  Posted on January 24, 2012 at 12:56am
  God ???
  Sorry to break the news, man can manipulate the weather now, using the High-Frequency Active Auroral Research project often refered to as H.A.A.R.P.
  The largest and most powerful (BY FAR) Broadcast station in America does not broadcast music.
  It Broadcasts Mircowaves.
  They are able to heat the upper atmoshpere to 100 F
  This creates high pressure systems and and can deflect hurricanes by steering the Jet stream.
  They can also create high pressure systems around a Low pressure system to keep it stationary.
  This is the Weapon of Choice for the elite.
  Stall a Hurricane or major storm over an area for a long period of time and it would eventually kill all life and do devastating damage to infrastructure and any development.
  You could also create droughts (The Obama Administration doesn’t like texas)
  Unseasonably cold last winter. Unseasonably warm winter this year. hmm
  Relatively no Hurricanes this year. hmm
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bG9jUz_QYU
  
  I am not saying this storm was manipulated by man. I am saying it can be done.
  Report Post »
jblaze
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 5:06pm
trolltrainer
Don’t even try implying that humans are faultless and that God is the big bad mean guy in the sky! This world reaps everything it sows!

God is outraged over our breaking the Ten Commandments. Blacklisting Him and worshiping idols. Urinating on His holy Sabbaths. Enslaving ourselves in greed, materialism, covetousness and debt, such that it sabotages the nation’s future. Glorifying violence. Desecrating the family. Turning our children out to pasture. Mass promoting and celebrating rank sexual immorality. Embracing fornication, cohabitation, adultery, divorce, homosexuality and other perversion.
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- AgentP
  Posted on January 23, 2012 at 5:21pm
  dang, I better repent…guess I’m on the list…thanks for the heads up!
  Report Post »
- pray75
  Posted on January 23, 2012 at 5:28pm
  Why would God, who came down in the flesh as Jesus to save us from our sin, cause this destruction because He is “outraged” at us? I’m sorry, but I don’t know that God would kill the very people He came down and gave His life for.
  Report Post »
- neverending
  Posted on January 23, 2012 at 5:54pm
  Agree with you totally. God is a God of love but also a God of wrath. Don’t know how much longer we can basically spit in his face. We have lost our way.
  Report Post »
THXll38
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 4:26pm
What the hell do you expect when you live in tornado alley? Funny how there was hardly a peep from the MSM and people of Alaska when they get 10-20ft of snow this month. Talk about a serious show stopper.
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- Torimom
  Posted on January 23, 2012 at 4:36pm
  Considering that 278 people in Alabama alone DIED during the April 2011 tornadoes (not to mention the injuries and property damage), you hardly heard a “peep” out of us either.
  
  Did 10-20 feet of snow fall in Alaska in 5 minutes? I think not.
  
  Both issues are serious. For you to say “what do you expect, living in tornado alley?“ is no better than someone saying ”what do you expect, living in Alaska?”.
  Report Post »
- THXll38
  Posted on January 23, 2012 at 6:01pm
  People that live in tornado alley are dumbasses.
  Report Post »
- COFemale
  Posted on January 23, 2012 at 9:23pm
  Although no U.S. state is entirely free of tornadoes, they are most frequent in the Great Plains states between the Rocky and Appalachian Mountains. So THXLL38 where do you live?
  
  Texas reports more tornadoes than any other state, though this state’s relatively large land area should be taken into account. Kansas and Oklahoma are second and third, respectively, for sheer number of tornadoes reported, but report more of them per unit of land area, than Texas. However, the density of tornado occurrences in northern Texas is comparable to that of Oklahoma and Kansas. Florida also reports a high number and density of tornado occurrences, though only rarely do tornadoes there approach the strength of those that sometimes strike the southern plains.
  
  Per Wikipedia and footnoted.
  
  Now where does Alabama fit into the statements above.
  Report Post »
ROMANS 10-9
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 4:09pm
God Bless them!
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trolltrainer
Posted on January 23, 2012 at 3:49pm
God, not again…
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