The Oh-Ten Tornado 23.01.
Let me tell you a little something about this tornado. I felt it coming in the morning. It was weird. I was PUNCHED with the premonition. I was getting ready that morning, and I thought to myself “hmmm, I wonder if there will be bad weather today.” And then it was like someone just punched me in the gut and I kinda blurted out loud “there will be a tornado today.” Andy asked why I would say something like that, and I said I just felt it. The day was absolutely gorgeous and around 4pm, I pretty much gave up on the “premonition” I felt earlier that morning. Around 5:30, I saw a massive cloud make its way over the mill. We lost power for a split second, which prompted me to walk over to the huge mill windows and look closer. There were only a few of us at the mill, and we all gathered at the window as we watched this gigantic space-ship like wall cloud engulf the sky. I noticed the tail end of it was starting to rotate, and pointed it out. Cheryl agreed something was happening there, and before she could finish the sentence, the funnel had formed. We all watched in awe as the funnel dropped lower and moved right over our Five Points neighborhood. Once we realized it was moving NE, we all went to the parking lot for a “better” show. The clouds flashed green and blue as the tornado took down power lines an transformers. It didn’t last very long, and we all started getting calls that there is damage to the neighborhood: gas lines leaking, trees on homes, cars destroyed. Everyone that was watching at the mill lived in Five Points, so we all headed that way to check on everything.
Driving into Five Points looked like we were entering the apocalypse. It was pitch black everywhere and you could only see beams of light from flashlights and the crazy flashing of emergency vehicles. My eyes watered as we passed homes that were crushed beneath trees. After we checked on our house and kitties, we grabbed our flashlights to go check on our neighbors. Everyone on our block was ok, so we continued walking to assess the damage. We ran into several of our friends and were relived to know they were alright. Both of our phones blew up with text messages from friends and family, both in the neighborhood, and far away, to make sure we were safe.
It made my heart swell seeing how kind neighbors were being, and how quick people were to offer shelter or relief to those that needed it. The city of Huntsville was very diligent and had the streets cleared by morning…and power restored to most of the neighborhood. The next morning, we walked around again to try to snap some photos in daylight. Five Points was like a zoo. People clearing away debris, people driving around to assess damage, neighbors bringing supplies, gawkers going around with their mouths open. Well, we were two of those gawkers for sure. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. I over heard someone say that it was an f2 that came through.
This was the back end of the storm taken with our point and shoot. I’m kinda an idiot because I didn’t realize we even had that camera with us until this point…AND it records. So I totally could have gotten some awesome footage like all of these people did.
Right after I snapped the one above, I looked straight up, and saw this.
This was the night-of. That power line was just dangling, and the tree fell on the car in front of Creative Healing on Pratt.
We saw this when we were driving home, and had to come back to really believe what we saw. The tree took down all three stories of the front of this house. This is the point where my eyes started watering.
…we went back the next day…
This tree just barely fell on my friends Courtney and Sam’s house. It hit the neighbor’s house harder, but luckily no one was hurt. Sam said he watched the tree start to fall from the window.
tree house?
The tree roots ripped up the HVAC system
The neighbor to this house rescued a puppy that was trapped in the kennel, right in that corner that got smashed. He climbed up the tree “ramp” and cut it out of the carrier and brought it to safety. So sweet!
All of this (and the duplex where the dog was rescued) are three blocks from us. We are so incredibly lucky. My heart goes out to anyone that lost anything in this storm, and my home is open to those in need.