Has anyone else been paying attention to them? I live in Tuscaloosa and this tornado almost took out my entire apartment. The tornado was said to be at least a mile wide. Tons of houses are completely destroyed along with restaurants and other buildings. Looting is also going on now. This is absolutely terrible. <object width="640" height="510"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5ohIVzIZLuQ?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5ohIVzIZLuQ?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="510" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>
Just go click "share" under the vid and then click "embed" , then copy and paste the code on here <iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/5ohIVzIZLuQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
appreciate it. My apartment complex is in the background right behind that gamestop. I got very lucky and fortunate that it didn't get destroyed. I have plenty of pictures. I'll upload some tomorrow.
have you ever been through one? I was doing finance work with my friend and his dad called him and told him to turn on the T.V because there was a giant tornado. We thought he was joking so we walked over turned on the t.v and we were stunned. We were watching it come straight for us on the T.V. Then not even a minute later the power cuts off and we hear it coming and we can see it going right over us in our apartment complex. Some of the footage is unbelievable.
RIP. so many people killed from this storm front. It was a hectic 2 days up here in east tx...but NOTHING like what Mississippi/bama/georgia are going through.
202 now and they expect it to continue to rise. I wonder if that counts the 40+ that were killed in Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kentucky and so on? I thought Arkansas was getting pounded over the last week but it looks like we were spared from the greatest destruction. We had a tornado rip through the southern part of our city and eastern parts of our county yesterday too, luckily that is where a lot of farm land is and not people. <script type='text/javascript' src='http://www.kait8.com/global/video/videoplayer.js?rnd=170475;hostDomain=www.kait8.com;playerWidth=640;playerHeight=380;isShowIcon=true;clipId=5796777;flvUri=;partnerclipid=;adTag=News;advertisingZone=;enableAds=true;landingPage=;islandingPageoverride=false;playerType=STANDARD_EMBEDDEDscript;controlsType=overlay'></script>
I've been following it on the news and very tragic. Good to hear you are OK but it sounds like there still might be a lot more storms hitting the Southeast as the weather conditions are still favorable for more storms. Stay safe!
Hand of God. -that's one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. -surreal -guy is way too close. -that had me way more engrossed than Cloverfield. -wow
I've been hearing (or really mostly reading on Twitter/Facebook) from family and friends in T-town. In fact a good friend of mine's neighborhood was directly hit; their home had minimal damage, but others in the neighborhood don't exist anymore. And for those unfamiliar with Tuscaloosa, these aren't mobile homes we're talking about...these are well-built, some more than 60 years old. My family tried to reach his family but was unsuccessful. Neither my friend nor I are in Tuscaloosa so I ended up messaging him via BBM, finding out that his family was okay (they were still at work) then relaying that message via e-mail to my family (who are without power for the second time in a week). I'm curious to know how bad parts of downtown and the rest of the city are; looks like mostly destroyed 15th Street and Alberta. How bad was the damage at the mall and Midtown?
+ We had a small tornado hit our house a number of years ago. It didn't do us much damage -- knocked down the fence, broke a bunch of windows, and punched a hole in one wall. But, quite a few neighbors were destroyed. No one hurt in that one, thankfully. That was bad enough and it was little. Can't imagine the damage that monster must have done.
Pier-and-beam- you can crawl under the house. The foundation is big pieces of wood resting on supports. Concrete slab- you can't crawl under the house. The foundation is a slab of concrete. I'm no engineer, but the concrete slab house may stand up to tornadoes better due to being bolted to a multi-ton piece of manmade rock. Pier-and-beam houses rest on supports...I've seen them not even bolted on at all, just held there by gravity.
From my understanding is with a pier and beam is that wind can blow under and provide an uplift force making them even more dangerous. In NOLA after Katrina there was a similar problem as most houses were built on piers and not adequately secured. When the city flooded the houses often floated up and then when the water receded the didn't land back squarely and were wracked. Anyway a lot of this depends on how well they were built. I don't know too much about mobile home construction but I have heard that sometimes even on a slab they don't adequately bolt the house down or in some cases don't and just rely on gravity. On the other hand with pier and beam you are still supposed to tie the house down to the foundation but I suspect that this part is often left off in cheap construction.
This is just unbelievably sad. It's shocking. That thing hits your house...your dead. No inner room on the lower floor is going to save you. I'm not sure even a safe room would hold up to that beast. Seeing that makes me want to pay to build a safe room now. I would draw comfort just knowing I have a place to go that is reinforced. If I saw that beast slowly barreling toward my house, then I'm getting in my car and bailing at 100 miles an hour out of there. I guess that is why I have a tendency to look for a tornado when there is a tornado warning. If it's huge, no room is safe in the house. Might as well try to bail. I'd rather be a running duck than a sitting duck. But, in those situations, not a lot you can do I guess...except pray and die.
I've got a lot of family and friends in hoover and ttown so I been in touch throughout, its crazy, glad your ok...
Yeah, i think this would be the big issue. Once it does this it's probably easier to get the house off balance, which means it's more likely or easier to crack under the stress of the tornado. And as of now theyre reporting 248 dead. Hopefully that's the end of it, it's looking really bad over there.
