We're Not In Kansas Anymore Toto (Alabama Update - Some Becker Content)

BluesStringer

BluesStringer

Joined
May 16, 2006
Messages
615
Hey Guys,

No power at the house for three days so far, but at least it's still standing and all the shingles are still on the roof. Many neighbors not so lucky on either score. Will have to wait for power and internet situation to settle down before I can post pics. Only Becker content I'll have are a couple of pictures of me BK9'ing some fallen branches on one squeaky little tree. All around our neighborhood there are 100+ year old oaks uprooted, some having just been pushed over, others hundreds of feet from the hole the left. Cars on top of each other. Some homes heavily damaged by debris, but none in our neighborhood were completely leveled. We are like 3 miles from Tanner, AL, which was hit very hard and I think it's probably been on the news. You guys know more about what's happening here than we do. Radio is all we got at the house, and local stations are helping to coordinate relief efforts more than reporting the news, so we really have no idea how much coverage it's getting, but I would hope it is substantial. This was the big one. Swarms of 'nadoes demo'ing their way through 8 N. Bama counties. More than 200 dead in Bama alone from what we hear. At work now on emergency power with very limited web access. Will post some pics and updates as access improves.

Pray for us.

Blues
 
Happy you're OK and hanging on . The number of casualties is unbelievable . My prayers and wishes for you and everybody there .
 
Man, that's bad. My best hopes and wishes are with you and your family. Take care of yourselves, everyone. I want to see you all at a Beckerhead Gathering in a few years, and no one wants to see any "RIP" on the BH list.
 
Damn Blues, bad news, but good to see you're safe. We had a few about 10 miles from us. Nothing like what you guys experienced, but there were homes leveled. Scary stuff. Be well.
 
glad to hear you made it out OK. I work in Lewisburg TN about 20 miles from the AL line and we didnt get 1/4 of what your area saw. Be safe amigo.
 
Glad you're ok Blues, that was some nasty stuff. Smoke and prayers sent ya'lls way.

Moose
 
Wow...it's been a rough go of things in your area! Glad to hear that the damage you've sustained isn't too bad. Prayers goin' up for everyone in your area though!!
 
Sending good thoughts to all of our Beckerheads back east. I'm just happy that you're safe!!
 
This is near the beginning. Pictures don't do justice to the danger in the air that was very apparent. Started out looking pretty benign though:

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This is the edge of the system that sparked off the 'nados in Tanner and Harvest. If you've heard of Tanner or the community of Anderson Hills, it was getting pounded by the main body of this cell:

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Also notice in the above picture the drainage ditch system built into my neighborhood. You can see it just below where the leaves on that tree start. You can follow that line out of frame to the right, and see where it turns the corner on my property line to the left. You can also see the line from ditches beyond the one that surrounds my house. At that point, they were all dry as a bone. I took that picture and a couple of others and then my batteries went dead. Went in the house, changed the batteries, looked outside and it was pouring so hard I couldn't even see the drainage ditch out where we're looking in that pic. Went and got my rubber suit on and went back out to continue taking pics. The drainage system was overwhelmed by this time, no more than 10 or 15 minutes after the above picture was taken.

This is the view from the ditch just a little bit out of frame to the left of the tree in the above pic:

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And down along where the same ditch and the left boundary of my property line meet out back:

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This was maybe a half an hour later. Might've been a couple of hours later, not really clear on that, but the storms kept coming in waves. This was just one of 'em in any case.

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More to come......
 
These next three pictures deserved their own reply I thought. This was later in the day. My wife had come home from work and the power was out by this time. We thought it was probably over. Not hardly. It had just begun as it turned out. These storms ravaged 8 counties from sometime before noon to well after dark. I'm going to guess these were taken between 4:00 and 5:00 in the afternoon. Probably not even a minute between the first and third of these shots, which should give you an idea how fast and furious the movement of these clouds were. I believe this to be the beginnings of a 'nado. That "freight train" sound that you always hear about fit perfectly here. Don't know if this ever turned into a full-blown 'nado or not, but it was definitely trying to form up here. Looking out my front door:

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And the same cell looking out my back door:

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More to come, with Becker content......
 
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Lucky for us, this was the extent of our damage:

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No problem for the 9:

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And good as new:

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We found a generator and got it up and running today. Hooked up the TV and cable and, to my surprise, it was comin' into the house. Saw my first news coverage of it. I used to work for Domino's and Anderson Hills was in our delivery area. It's gone, literally. The Piggly Wiggly (a grocery store chain for all you non-southerners) that got leveled in Harvest is right across the highway from Anderson Hills. I know there's other locales that I'm very familiar with in that part of the county that got nailed too. We had a branch on a little tree break and will be without city/county-provided power for a week or so. I feel very fortunate. We were virtually unscathed. We could've been flooded out or blown out, but we're fine. I'll be off of my regular shifts starting on Tuesday morning. I'll definitely be in those areas offering whatever I can to help. People need everything in those areas. Time to do what Americans always do, whether it's at home or abroad, just lend a hand.

Blues
 
Holy crap man - glad you came out of it so well! Great pics and info - thanks for sharing that. I hope you get full power and so forth back quickly.

---

Beckerhead #42
 
Wow man. Thanks for sharing the pics. I'm glad to hear that you're OK.
 
Great job on the photos. I'm not sure I coulda held my camera/phone still enough to take good pics with TSHTF and all. Glad your safe.
 
I guess I would have crumpled up in the basement whimpering "fubar, fubar" upon seeing those clouds. Amazing how little damage you had. We don't have tornadoes here in Germany, but we sometimes have nasty storms in spring with shingles and branches flying everywhere, I even recall two trees falling over in my childhood. But the sky never looked as pitch-black and apocalyptic as in those pictures.
 
Just looked like big southern thunder storms until that second and third pic in post #14 - at which time I said "holy sh!t"... those were some scary looking clouds brother. I would certainly have been hiding in the basement at that point.
 
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