April 27th, My Story [Tornado Outbreak]{LONG}

Well, on April 27th of last year my whole life changed. It was the worst day of my life. I really like reading stories so I thought that I would share mine with you. I hope you guys enjoy it. If you have any questions please post them and I will answer them as best as I can. Please do not comment on the writing of this. It is the first time I have told others parts of this story and I have never written it down before.

For about a week, we knew that they had predicted strong storms to pass through. If you live around an area with bad weather though, you get sort of immune to that threat. I live in Huntsville, Alabama and hearing tornado sirens are common and very frequent normally with nothing at all happening. Everything went normally up until the night of the 26th when reports of how bad the weather was going to be were getting more and more pinpointed. A few schools in the area were going to be closed the next day because of the scare but of course my high school was not (I was a senior). I had some things to take care of in class and my sister also had tests so we decided to go even if they ended up early releasing us. Before I could walk out of the door my dad was telling me it would waste my time to go. He also said that my mom (on her way to a meeting in Birmingham) saw tornados on the way down that morning. Now I start to think "could it really get that bad". My parents have always talked about the tornado outbreak of the 70s and how terrible it was to witness and the friends they lost. I figured I would be safe in the school if anything happened so I went ahead. I get to school at about 8:00 and the assistant principal says you need to hurry in (he greets people at the door on most days and directs parking lot traffit a little).

Right before I step foot in the door the tornado sirens go off and we are forced to crouch down in the hallways for about 2 hours. A ef0-1 passed 400 yards or so to the north of the school. They saw a break in the weather and decided to let us out of school before it got bad again. On the way home there was a large amount of flash flooding in places that I have never seen before and it got sunny, hot, and humid. I am still not scared at this point because like I said it is normal. I remember a 3 day span in middle school when the threat of bad weather got us out half days. I get home and my dad is as always playing cards on the computer with the tv in the kitchen blaring. I decided to go upstairs and play some MLB 2k. After a couple of hours the sirens went off again and I made my way downstairs to check the weather. "Dad there is a confirmed tornado this time, its in downtown cullman" I said. Dad came in, looked at the radar as they zoomed on another tornado producing cell more close to us. "Let me know if something is coming this way" he said. I made me some food and watched what was going on with the radar. The cells seemed to be producing rotation one after another and were following the almost exact same jet stream. I probally called my dad in 4 times only to be dismissed each time. So I went back upstairs. *Please note that the reports of damage were not coming in fully to the news room yet. I sat down in my chair to game again and a strong gust of wind rattled my window a little bit. I went to look.

This is where it got scary for me. When I glanced outside of the window, it seemed like there were two distinct colors of cloud, an almost black layer in the front and in the back it almost looked green. But it was strange. The clouds in front were moving north and the back layer of clouds south. After a split second of being puzzled, I sprinted downstairs while yelling at my sisters to get shoes on. My dad went to the front door (closest window) and we look up and see this.



*This video was taken facing north so it looks like the rotation is east to west. This particular storm was slowly heading awar from us. Ignore my shitty commentary, I was scared and idk what I was doing.

We litterally sprinted to the safe room in our basement where my sisters were already waiting. After a few seconds, the wind dies down and my dad looks outside of the safe room door (Steel plated) so he can see through the basement door window (We have a walk in basement). Dad can see trees down so he asks me to go with him to check damage on the first floor of the house. We walked up the stairs only to be met by the scariest noise I have ever heard. If you have ever been to an airshow and can imagine a jet starting up and then think of the sound the engine makes as it sucks in air at a high velocity. Me and dad both ran to the door thinking that it was the other tornado that went over us and was passing. It was raining insulation and paper. I still have a peice of someones bank statements from Hackleburg that I managed to snag. While I was grabbing the paper dad threw me back in the house and told me to run, he was on my heels pushing me foward and down the stairs into the safe room. He locked the door and held all of us The sucking noise was SO loud and my ears were popping the floor above us was shaking violently. I have no idea how long it lasted but it really felt like forever. This is the monster that destroyed my home and that I never got to see. I live in the homes up and to the left of this camera angle, it was taken in the neighbor hood across the street to the east.


That is all I can type for now, I will finish it when I get back. I am looking for my cell phone to upload more videos and pictures so please be patient. I WILL FINISH THIS TONIGHT.

 

wow thats really sad, so did you rebuild ur house?

 

I'm really sorry about this, I hope you and your family are Ok.

 

I feel for you mate, but as they say family are more important than things.

 

Very interesting story to read. I am interested in hearing more about the aftermath and such.

When I was young we got hit by a microburst (I don't know much about them other than the fact that they are similar to tornadoes), which is wierd considering I live in New York. It completely ripped apart the neighborhood. The only thing I remember is hearing the smoke alarms in my house going off for some reason, and then my mom grabbed me and ran to the basement. I was extremely scared, and next thing you know the neighborhood is in pieces. Luckily, we only had to do some work on the siding and replace our roof, but our neighbors weren't so lucky. There were trees sticking out of houses, and even some dudes trampoline ended up in another house's living room.

Tl;dr I know the experience, its a scary one, and I hope you got through it ok.

 

that is scary as hell