From then on it was tornado pandemonium, with more than 20 tornado warnings simultaneously at times in AL, GA, and TN. I tried to cover the handful of storms on-air that appeared to be most dangerous on radar or were heading toward communities, working in as many of the other tornado-warned storms as time permitted. The frenzy of trying to keep up with the tornadoes and concentrating on trying to keep people safe normally prevented me from thinking emotionally about the death and destruction, but it was hard to keep from breaking down when word came in that relatives of one of our TWC employees – Jim Wilson – had been hit in northern GA.
The next day TWC sent me via helicopter to take video of and assess the damage done by the Tuscaloosa tornado. I was impressed not only by the terrible structural damage in town, but also by the continuous damage path to the northeast. In many places, virtually every tree was blown down toward the southwest – on the front flank of the tornado and “backward” into it – presumably by inflow into the tornado even before the strongest winds on the southeast flank of the tornado reached the area. I had seen this in a few of my previous surveys of wide, violent tornadoes. The tornado also downed a railroad bridge. The tornado was ultimately rated a high-end EF4 (190 mph), but four others in the outbreak were rated EF5.
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