The Longest Day

I have heard a lot about April 3, 1974, during my lifetime. My dad lived through that day, and being a weather geek himself, always used to tell me about how it wiped Guin, Alabama, and Xenia, Ohio, "off the map". It was a day that spawned several F5 tornadoes across the country. They called it a "generational" tornado event. Well, apparently, "generational" is equal to about forty years.

What we all witnessed on Wednesday is not normal. Thankfully, it is NOT something that we have to get used to (I don't think). Atmospheric conditions made Wednesday the absolutely perfect day for what we saw. Forecasters knew it was going to happen days in advance. I first heard about the forecast on Saturday. Even though the storms eventually took hundreds of lives, if not for the advance warnings we had, I'm sure it could have been higher.

Here in Hamilton County, we were pretty fortunate - for the most part. The folks in Apison wouldn't agree. The extreme southeastern portion of the county was hit by an EF-4. At work today, my coworkers went out to photograph the devastation. What the pictures show, they said, is nowhere near an accurate description of the true story. If you've seen the images of Tuscaloosa... then you know what Apison looks like, albeit on a much smaller schedule. There were houses in the pictures that are just completely... gone. A pickup truck was sitting beside a railroad track, its wheels nowhere in sight and no good explanation for where it came from. Just unbelievable destruction.

My heart goes out to all the people affected by this, and there are many. I love Tuscaloosa - anybody reading this probably knows that. While I never made it to the University, I still feel a connection to that city. To know that it was hit by what may soon be declared as THE most devastating tornado to EVER hit the US... that's just hard to fathom. It's a cruel reality of how bad the day was. It's not something that those of us who lived through it will soon forget. I just read a book a few months ago, entitled F5, that was about April 3 and the damage it brought on Limestone County, AL (Athens). I wouldn't be surprised if I'll soon be reading the sequel, unfortunately set in Tuscaloosa County.

I'll leave you with this image. This is satellite photography that you can actually see tornado tracks on. You can see them from space! Absolutely the most efficient tools of destruction the earth has ever seen.

Tornado tracks across central Alabama - http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/severe-storms-20110429.html