I checked the weather before bed…it appeared the Birmingham area was in for a storm in the early morning hours. We really didn't expect a tornado especially with it being winter so we went to bed only expecting to hear rain and thunder in the night.
My family awoke at 3 something in the morning with warning calls to our phones. There was a tornado heading right toward our area…Trussville, Argo, Clay, etc. So the 8 of us began to gather up all 12 dogs, the cats, and our birds. We ran out into the thundering downpour where flashes of lightning lit our path to the crawl space under the house. We all crowded in and shut the door just before the power went out and left us in the dark (besides the scant light from a few head lamps). It got quiet for a brief moment. The quiet was then replaced with a roaring, vacuum-like wind unlike anything we've heard before and it came and went in an instant.
We confirmed that the worst had passed so we left the crawl space. It was still pouring but we took all the animals back in the house and checked on our chickens. A few temporary coops had been picked up by the winds and carried 30 feet away. The coops landed mangled and upside down (pictured above) but somehow every chicken made it out unscathed. They were soaked and unprotected so we loaded them into the barn. Meanwhile we saw trees down with our flashlights. Left and right…either broken in half or pulled out from the roots and the woods were littered with small bits of roofing, insulation, trash and other debris carried by the storm. The sun started to rise and exposed the severity of the damage to our woods. Over a 100 giant trees fallen and broken…but we couldn't help but feel thankful and incredibly lucky that the tornado just missed the house, the barn and the coops. Every person and animal on our farm was safe.
We heard chainsaws roaring on our street above while we were collecting the chickens so after we grabbed the last one we walked up the driveway to see if we could help. They had already finished and left before we made it up to the top. Apparently trees had fallen across the road and knocked down the power lines. They had cut the trees so cars could make it through but there was still some debris blocking traffic so we grabbed everything we could and put it to the side.
We walked back down and then around the lake to check on our neighbors houses. Everything looked fine so we went back to the house, changed out of our pajamas and headed to the Clay community center to sign in on the clean-up volunteer list. The building was full of people eager to help and the volunteer list was extensive but they had no need for us today so we headed home. On the way home we saw dozens of civilians who had dropped everything to clear the roads using their own trucks, chainsaws, bobcats and other equipment. I was amazed by the energy, the sense of community and the generosity…it made me so happy to call this place home.
Our neighbors in Trussville, Clay and Centerpoint weren't as lucky. My deepest sympathies go out to anyone that lost loved ones, pets or their homes. The devastation is just unreal and I cannot imagine the losses they suffered from this storm.
The photos above show some of the damage to our street and the woods on our property but they do not in any way compare to the damage seen in this video of our neighboring cities…
Photo above: Bernard Troncale
