This is the first day I had time to look in here. I’m glad nobody here has so far been reported seriously injured. I wish you guys the best. I haven’t even had time to look at any footage on this storm, so this thread is my news report.
We’re in prayer for all affected by the tornados. NinetyWt is right: I’m in MS. We did have a large piece of plywood bounce off our house and into our backyard during our tornado: the path was just a quarter mile from my house. The devastation is still unbelievable.
Sorry we haven’t checked in before now: I got a promotion at work and started my new job this week, so things have been hectic and a little tiring!
I posted some links to video upthread.
Best wishes to Southern dopers. The pictures and stories are appalling. It doesn’t seem real.
My mother’s hometown of Ringgold, Georgia got wiped out. Painful to see all the places you know so well, businesses you’ve entered a thousand times…erased.
Luckily, no family members were injured. Just property damage.
(And scraps of paper from Alabama have been falling from the sky up that way.)
There’s a FB page devoted to trying to reunite people with their lost photos/documents here. Please pass that along.
Harmonious: Thank you. 
I only just now saw this thread. My heartfelt sympathies go out to everyone in the area. There’s not a lot I can do while unemployed and living in California except let everyone know they’re in our hearts and prayers.
If they still have a standing water heater, the water that’s stored in there might still be potable. That would be 40-50 gallons worth. There’s a spigot near the bottom they can open to find out. If it’s still drinkable, they should shut off the valve that feeds new water into it, so as not to contaminate it.
A freaky thing about that is that Ringgold is not a tornado area at all- it’s in the (not sure if it’s tall hills or small mountains there) and until a few years ago NEVER got tornadoes. Is your mom’s family okay?
Oh, you guys. I just got back from the Phil Campbell/Hackleburg/Hodges/Hamilton area. It is wrecked like nothing I’ve ever seen before. The houses are just gone, and the ground is littered with the debris of broken glass and splintered wood and mangled sheets of siding. We dropped off our supplies but were turned away from Phil Campbell because they needed people with chainsaws and stuff. We went to Hodges, which is a town that has one gas station, one grocery store and one school. Or had, I should say. There is nothing but piles of broken rubble along the sides of the road, including tons and tons of mangled trees. We stopped by a field full of smashed cars that had been picked up and carried there by the tornadoes and my friend found a corpse. At this point we were instructed to evacuate because there are more storms headed this way and they don’t want extra people milling around, so we headed back home. We stopped in a couple of places to hand out cold drinks and check the weather for people who were working. We didn’t actually get to help out that much due to being evacuated at 3 o’clock, but we are talking about going back later in the week.
X-posted to another board.
Yes, I’ve noticed that Facebook page. Thanks.
The family’s OK, thanks. Just a lot of blown out windows and downed trees. Only one of my distant relatives was in the direct path, and she lost all her windows. I suspect her business may have been destroyed but I don’t know about that yet. Anyway, she’s safe and sound.
Those hills won’t stop tornadoes, Sampiro. They just make it harder to see them coming. Years ago when we lived in Chattooga County, south of Ringgold, a tornado came right across Taylor’s Ridge and destroyed a bunch of homes on the other side. I’ve also known tornadoes to plow into the northwest side of Lookout Mountain and then go right along the top, destroying homes on the ridge.
I notice that one of the Alabama towns wiped out was Rainsville, right up on top of Sand Mountain. Then Trenton, Georgia, got hit-- on the other side of Sand Mountain (and down in the valley).
That is .. horrifying. Awful. I am beyond words.
You and your friend are angels for going out to help. I’m so sorry your friend had to stumble upon one of the deceased. Did you notify the authorities so they could collect the remains and notify family?
Governor Bentley is asking anyone who isn’t with an organization to register if they want to provide assistance.
Good luck and G-d bless.
Ogre, sorry. Didn’t see the thread till now or I might have commented.
Anyway, my old Grandaddy shook his fist at the storm and called it names and it didn’t hit him. He’s in Raymond, MS. Quick peek at friends FB in Starkville and they are fine, my Grandmother’s library in Terry is still standing, but there was flooding nearby (same storm or different one did that, I dunno - I admit to not paying full attention.) All my Jackson/Clinton/Ridgeland/Brandon MS friends are ok, too, of course.
It was all over the news on the Sydney Morning Herald, though. It’s quite sad, I do feel for people who lost their homes and lives. We lost our trailer in the 70s in Clinton MS in a tornado, the roof came off but Daddy had thrown me in the bathtub and pulled my new puppy in, too, and got in with me and threw a matress over us. Storm hit about half a minute later. I was really little so I don’t remember a lot except that I was glad to have my puppy.
Don’t have to be a big fan of the South to feel sorrow at what happened.
Count me in with those who are just now seeing the thread. I’ve been following the coverage on this ever since it happened. It’s just unbelievable. My heart really goes out to the people in the affected areas. Tornadoes are one of my worst nightmares.
I do wish this event was getting more news coverage. The sheer level of destruction is hard to wrap my mind around.
Time for a large Red Cross donation, I think. Sadly, there’s not much else those of us who don’t live in the affected areas can do to help. God, I hate tornadoes!
It’s been shoved more out of the way by Osama bin Laden’s death. Not surprising. Although it occurs to me that the neighboring counties that are still in the dark probably have not heard the news.
I understand your frustration, but that’s not the same as no one caring at all. The tornado was no longer breaking news when the wedding day dawned; it was still new news, developing news, but it’s not as if the tornado happened during the wedding and was ignored. Whether you think it’s fair/right/moral or not, the fact is that the US news channels had already paid for the broadcast rights, had sent their crews, had paid to send their crews, and had accepted being unable to sell ad time even though the viewing numbers were going to be huge. As such, they had to give precedence to the scheduled event until the scheduled event was over. I saw plenty of tornado-aftermath coverage in the evening, even before the wedding hoopla had fully died down.
In a very strange confluence of recent news and pop culture, Charlie Sheen visited Tuscaloosa. While there, he bought and donated $7,000 worth of batteries. He also gave a bit of an interview, in which he seems uncharacteristically sober, humble, and human. He is planning to come back to host a celebrity benefit.
Good on him. The help will be much appreciated.
The local news spot on the visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYL-ACMG_Eo
Wow. He did seem very normal. I hope he stays that way! And good on him for helping out. I wish I had the resources.
Because I’m not willing to let this thread go, have a look at this. That’s the northern half of the state of Alabama. Look at all the tornado paths lacing across the state. As of this morning, the total has been upgraded to 28 separate tornadoes.
Now take a look at the path widths for them. 0.8 miles. 0.75 miles. 1.25 miles. 1.5 miles. The list goes on and on.
Absolutely horrifying.