Donald Trump to visit tornado victims in eastern Alabama Friday
President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit eastern Alabama on Friday to survey the areas in Lee County devastated by deadly tornadoes that left 23 people dead on Sunday. “Heading now to the Great State of Alabama!” Trump tweeted Friday morning. Heading now to the Great State of Alabama!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 8, 2019 Alabama officials say in his visit, Trump will see firsthand the “catastrophic” damage where a massive EF4 tornado left a path of destruction nearly a mile wide with 170 mph (270 kph) winds. According to the Associated Press, “As he left Washington, President Donald Trump said he expected to meet with Gov. Kay Ivey and people who ‘got hit very hard by the tornadoes.’ He also planned to thank first responders.” Trump’s visit follows a tweet earlier this week promising “A Plus treatment” by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). “FEMA has been told directly by me to give the A Plus treatment to the Great State of Alabama and the wonderful people who have been so devastated by the Tornadoes. @GovernorKayIvey, one of the best in our Country, has been so informed. She is working closely with FEMA (and me!).,” Trump tweeted Monday. FEMA has been told directly by me to give the A Plus treatment to the Great State of Alabama and the wonderful people who have been so devastated by the Tornadoes. @GovernorKayIvey, one of the best in our Country, has been so informed. She is working closely with FEMA (and me!).— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2019
Searches resume after tornado kills 23 in Alabama
Rescuers began tearing through the rubble of mobile homes and houses Monday in search of survivors of a powerful tornado that rampaged through southeast Alabama and killed at least 23 people, including children. The trail of destruction was at least half a mile wide and overwhelmed rural Lee County’s coroners’ office, forcing it to call in help from the state. “It looks like someone almost just took a giant knife and scraped the ground,” Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones said of the devastation during a Monday morning news conference. Jones said children were among the dead, but he didn’t know exactly how many. And he said the number of deaths may rise as the search continues. “I have not seen this level of destruction ever in my time in Lee County,” said Jones, who has been sheriff since 1998. Drones flying overheard equipped with heat-seeking devices had scanned the area for survivors, but the dangerous conditions halted the search late Sunday, Jones said. The Sunday tornado, which had winds that appeared to be around 160 mph (257 kph) or greater, was part of a powerful storm system that also slashed its way across parts of Georgia, South Carolina and Florida. Levi Baker, who lives near the hard-hit area in Alabama, took a chain saw to help clear a path for ambulances and other first-responder vehicles. He said he saw bodies of dead people and dead animals. He said some houses were demolished and trees were uprooted or snapped in half. One house was swept off its foundation and was sitting in the middle of the road. “It was just destruction,” Baker said. “There were mobile homes gone. Frames on the other side of the road.” Jones said the twister traveled straight down a county road in the rural community of Beauregard reducing homes to slabs. Scott Fillmer was at home when the storm hit in Lee County. “I looked out the window and it was nothing but black, but you could hear that freight train noise,” Fillmer said. The National Weather Service confirmed late Sunday a tornado with at least an F3 rating caused the destruction in Alabama. Although the statement did not give exact wind estimates, F3 storms typically are gauged at wind speeds of between 158-206 mph (254-331 kph). In a tweet late Sunday, President Donald Trump said: “To the great people of Alabama and surrounding areas: Please be careful and safe. Tornadoes and storms were truly violent and more could be coming. To the families and friends of the victims, and to the injured, God bless you all!” Rita Smith, spokeswoman for the Lee County Emergency Management Agency, said about 150 first responders had quickly jumped in to help search the debris after the storm struck in Beauregard. At least one trained canine could be seen with search crews as numerous ambulances and emergency vehicles, lights flashing, converged on the area. On a country road in Beauregard on Monday, a giant pieces of metal from a farm building were suspended 20 feet (6 meters) in the air, attached to the lower halves of pine trees, making loud creaking sounds as the wind blew them into the pine branches. The top halves of most of those trees were snapped off. For an entire mile down the road, the scene was the same — pine trees cracked in half. One mile down the road, a mobile home crushed by two trees marked the end of the mile-long path of destruction. At the R&D Grocery on Monday morning in Beauregard, residents were constantly asking each other if they were okay. “I’m still thanking God I’m among the living,” said John Jones, who has lived in Beauregard for most of his life. School Superintendent Mack McCoy said some buses were damaged in the storm and winds tore through the roof of Smiths Station Elementary School. No deaths had been reported Sunday evening from storm-damaged Alabama counties other than Lee County, said Gregory Robinson, spokesman for the Alabama Emergency Management Agency. But he said crews were still surveying damage in several counties in the southwestern part of the state. Numerous tornado warnings were posted across parts of Alabama, Georgia, Florida and South Carolina on Sunday afternoon as the storm system raced across the region. Weather officials said they confirmed other tornadoes around the region by radar alone and would send teams out Monday to assess those and other storms. In rural Talbotton, Georgia, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of Atlanta, a handful of people were injured by either powerful straight-line winds or a tornado that destroyed several mobile homes and damaged other buildings, said Leigh Ann Erenheim, director of the Talbot County Emergency Management Agency. “The last check I had was between six and eight injuries,” Erenheim said in a phone interview. “From what I understand it was minor injuries, though one fellow did say his leg might be broken.” She said searches of damaged homes and structures had turned up no serious injuries or deaths there. Henry Wilson of the Peach County Emergency Management Agency near Macon in central Georgia said a barn had been destroyed and trees and power poles had been snapped, leaving many in the area without power. Authorities in southwest Georgia were searching door-to-door in darkened neighborhoods after a possible tornado touched down in the rural city of Cairo, about 33 miles (53 kilometers) north of Tallahassee, Florida, on Sunday evening. There were no immediate reports of serious injuries. Authorities said a tornado was confirmed by radar in the Florida Panhandle late Sunday afternoon. A portion of Interstate 10 on the Panhandle was blocked in one direction for a time in Walton County in the aftermath, said Don Harrigan, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Tallahassee. Republished with permission from the.Associated Press.
Martha Roby: Prayers for Wetumpka during this time of recovery
On the afternoon of Saturday, January 19, a powerful tornado hit the City of Wetumpka in Elmore County, ripping through the beautiful downtown area and inflicting heartbreaking and significant damage. By the grace of God, no lives were lost, and only minor injuries have been reported. Still, the destruction is extreme, and the road to recovery is long. The Monday following the tornado, I joined Governor Kay Ivey and other local officials to spend time on the ground with those impacted. I had the opportunity to see the devastation firsthand, and it was heartbreaking, to say the least. The beautiful, historic First Presbyterian Church was destroyed, and First Baptist Church of Wetumpka sustained terrible damage. The Wetumpka Police Station, senior citizens center, and recreation center were also lost in the tornado. More than 35 homes and dozens of businesses were damaged or destroyed. Wetumpka and its residents are in the midst of determining the extent of damages and planning for what needs to be rebuilt, and we must do our very best to help however possible. I am deeply grateful to the local leaders and first responders who immediately jumped to action to begin securing the area and putting the pieces back together for the people who have lost so much. During this very challenging time, it has also been encouraging to see the community come together and begin the rebuilding process like a family. Mere hours after the storm, the Elmore County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) heard from more than 1,000 individuals who signed up to volunteer their time and resources to the clean-up efforts. If you are local and personally interested in helping out with clean-up in downtown Wetumpka or in Elmore County, please contact the Elmore County EMA by calling (334) 567-6451. The Elmore County Commission and City of Wetumpka are tremendously appreciative of volunteers who are willing to assist, but they ask that volunteers please call ahead and follow instructions to ensure proper coordination in order to maximize recovery efforts and resources. If you are a resident of Wetumpka or Elmore County and need non-emergency assistance related to the tornado, please call 211 until further notice. Any emergency calls should still be directed to 911. Call the Elmore County EMA with any damage reports. I would like to take this opportunity to directly address the people impacted by this tornado: My office stands ready to assist in whatever ways we are able. My staff and I work for you, and we want to be a resource for you during this challenging time. The rebuilding process won’t be easy, but if we continue to work together and help each other out whenever possible, we will get through this. In the meantime, my family and I will continue to pray for all those impacted by this devastating event. • • • Martha Roby represents Alabama’s Second Congressional District. She lives in Montgomery, Alabama, with her husband Riley and their two children.
Robert Bentley tours deadly tornado damage in north Alabama
Storm crews began surveying damage from tornadoes that ripped through the state early Tuesday, killing three people and destroying homes, churches and businesses. Gov. Robert Bentley toured damage in north Alabama on Thursday morning. Bentley said he was thankful the death toll wasn’t higher as he toured obliterated homes and a daycare center. The National Weather Service said at least four tornados hit the state early Wednesday morning. Three people were killed and one person critically injured in an Alabama mobile home after an apparent EF-3 twister hit the tiny town of Rosalie in Jackson County. Jackson County Emergency Management Director Mike Ashburn said 20 homes, businesses and churches were destroyed in that county and another 46 were damaged. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Tornado outbreak, 5 years later: Piecing lives back together
On April 27, 2011, a series of tornadoes killed hundreds of people, injured thousands and reduced countless buildings to rubble across a swath of the U.S. More than 120 tornadoes were reported that day — one of the deadliest outbreaks in the nation’s history. Five years later, some survivors who are still rebuilding say their lives and towns will never be the same. Casualties were reported in Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia and Alabama — which was the hardest hit, with a death toll of more than 250 in that state alone. Survivors there say no tornado warning or emergency plan could have prepared them. Alabamians who lived in the tornadoes’ path are trying to move on, but they face constant reminders of what their towns used to be. New construction is juxtaposed with grassy, windswept expanses. Jagged tree trunks have replaced thick woods. Cracked driveways cut through the grass and lead to bare foundations or empty lots where homes used to be. Here are some of those survivors’ stories. ___ A tornado left physical scars in the town of Hackleburg, and it’s still taking a psychological and social toll today. “The sky even gets dark, and my niece goes to pieces,” Deborah Purser said. “I mean, she starts shaking.” Hackleburg wouldn’t have rebounded without the volunteers who poured in from across the country, said Purser’s 19-year-old son, Clay Scott. The school and grocery store reopened, but the town of roughly 1,500 no longer feels like home, he said. “It feels like we live somewhere else, like we’ve moved towns or something,” Purser said. ___ Vince Hughes is still haunted by that same tornado. Nightmares are less frequent now, but Hughes said he can’t rid himself of the memory of a crying woman who lost her daughter and was left to care for her young granddaughter. The woman is a longtime customer of Hughes, a 53-year-old pharmacist. “That image sticks out in my mind above most all of them,” he said. “And you saw it repeated over and over and over.” Hughes and his colleagues set up a temporary pharmacy in a bank lobby, using salvaged medication. “People needed somewhere to go, and they needed faces to see that they knew,” he said. “Most of my patients aren’t just people that fill prescriptions — they’re friends.” The tornado had a peak wind speed of 210 mph and left a 25-mile long trail of damage. A separate twister hit Tuscaloosa, where Hughes’ daughter was a student at the University of Alabama. She wasn’t injured. ___ John Nero, 58, said he lost his home of 20 years when the tornado hit his Tuscaloosa neighborhood. His wife, Pam, suffered a heart attack days later. The couple’s new home overlooks their former neighborhood. Nero sees the area whenever he opens his front door. “It used to be an apartment complex right there,” he said, nodding toward a vast overgrown area. “It was flattened, but I could hear people hollering.” A brick from the nearby College Hill Baptist Church slammed into his upper leg as debris crashed through his home. He still has the brick, as a reminder — God kept him here “to get some things straight,” he said. “That brick didn’t just hit me for no reason.” ___ Michael and Flora Thomas of Tuscaloosa credit the power of prayer for keeping their home intact. It was spared from severe damage while nearly every other house on the block in the Alberta City neighborhood was destroyed. Michael Thomas said he saw the roof of a church hurtling toward him when he looked out the window, and he hid in the bathroom. The windows were blown out and the porch destroyed, but the church’s roof narrowly missed landing on the couple’s home. “Everything was just torn apart, demolished. They found body parts everywhere,” he said. “You look around and see things and know things will never be the same.” ___ Sonya Moore and her family were settling into their new Tuscaloosa home and hadn’t even finished unpacking when the tornado came barreling toward them. She and her children hid in a closet. “We almost lost one of them. The door flung open, and he was so tiny and frail that the wind kind of sucked him up and we had to actually pull him back down,” Moore, 42, said. Moore’s family emerged uninjured but realized nearly everything around them had been destroyed. Sleepless nights followed. They lived in a temporary shelter, a hotel, a FEMA trailer, and with a relative before finally moving into a Habitat for Humanity home in January 2013. “We slept on the floor with pillows, blankets whatever we could gather,” she said. “It was just that exciting to be able to turn the key and go into your own home and know that now we’re finally piecing our lives back together.” Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
