Some of Alabama's deadliest tornados

[Backtothemac]

http://beta.abc3340.com/weather/video.hrb

This is a link that has video and live weather video of some of Alabama's most deadly tornados.

The one from April 8th 1998 was the second strongest tornado ever recorded on earth. The one from December 16th 2000. When you watch that video my house was right in front of the camera that filmed the video. The tornado misses our house by about 3/4 of a mile. I actually worked search and rescue on that tornado. It was amazing the amount of damage. I post this not to depress, but to honor those that have lost during very difficult times.

 

[wdlove]

I'm happy to hear that you survived Backtothemac. I experienced tornadoes during the ten years that I lived in Nebraska. That area of the country is known as Tornado Alley, because of the shear number that occur there. A tornado is very scary situation. One was while at our base hospital, had to move patients and personnel to the cellar. Others were while I worked at the VA hospital, they would occur around midnight and had to move patients out into the hall. Another was the day that we had moved into our new house. The devastation was less that a mile away. Former Gov. & Sen. Bob Kerry owned a restaurant that was heavily damaged.

 

[Awimoway]

…at our base hospital…

Would the be the hospital at Offut? My brother was born there.

 

[wdlove]

Would the be the hospital at Offut? My brother was born there.

Yes, what year was he born? I may have actually taken care of him.

 

[Awimoway]

Yes, what year was he born? I may have actually taken care of him.

1976. My dad was a navigator on RC-135’s while at Offut. Those were reconnaissance planes. I remember he had to carry a sidearm while on long temporary duty assignments, and when he came back we would go with him to some building on base to check it on. I was pretty young, though. I was 4 when we moved away from Omaha.

 

[wdlove]

1976. My dad was a navigator on RC-135’s while at Offut. Those were reconnaissance planes. I remember he had to carry a sidearm while on long temporary duty assignments, and when he came back we would go with him to some building on base to check it on. I was pretty young, though. I was 4 when we moved away from Omaha.

I wasn't in the nursery until 1978. Was your Dad a career officer in the Air Force?

 

[Awimoway]

I wasn't in the nursery until 1978. Was your Dad a career officer in the Air Force?

Yeah. He was in for 20 years. He was ROTC at college (to avoid getting drafted into the trenches in Vietnam) and studied meteorology, expecting to be a weather forecaster. But there weren't any openings at the time he was commissioned, so he became a navigator instead. He flew on C-130's in and out of Vietnam (stationed in Taiwan) in the early 70s. Then he was a navigation instructor at Mather AFB in Sacramento, CA (where he met my mother, married, and I was born). Then the RC-135's at Offut. Not being promoted quickly enough, his 10–year obligation was up at the end of his time at Offut, but he actually stayed on for another 10 years in a program called "selective continuee" because the Air Force was phasing out human navigators and they didn't want to train new ones. So he served on KC-135’s—midair refuelers—out of Fairchild AFB in Spokane, WA and then worked in the command post at RAF Upper Heyford in Oxon, UK and in the command post at George AFB in the Mojave Desert, where we still live, although I definitely don't intend to stay much longer. My dad retired 12 years ago and is now a 5th–grade schoolteacher.


Sorry to hijack the thread. As you can see above, though, my dad originally studied weather. My whole family shares his interest in all things weather-related. Someday my dad and brother and I will go on one of those tornado-hunting vacations in the Midwest. They are amazing, impressive, and on the other hand terribly tragic for those whose lives and property are lost to them. My wife has an aunt we are close to who lost her home to Hurricane Andrew. Collateral damage included losing her husband to a younger woman. So I appreciate and respect the terrible toll weather-related disasters can cause. When Sopranos and Deadwood are over, I'll check out the video.

 

[Backtothemac]

Clicking the link in the first post of this thread. Well, the same tower camera that captured the December 2000 tornado has captured another from Hurricane Rita.

Crazy don't you think!