I am coming off of hiatus long enough to ask for prayer for those injured in our area. Above, you will see the video of a tornado roaring through the center of Tuscaloosa. It was measured at one mile wide. The main hospital in Tuscaloosa is mildly damaged, but continuing to function as I write. As the newsmen have commented, we were seeing debris clouds here in Alabama that are more typical for the tornadoes of the Western Plains than for tornadoes that go through here. It hit Birmingham (where I live) with 80-100 miles per hour linear winds, let alone the places where the actual tornado hit. Right now, they are reporting multiple homes destroyed in the Birmingham area, not to mention people injured and missing.
In the Pratt city area (the Northwest part of Birmingham), they are reporting nearly overwhelmed paramedics and other emergency personnel who are trying to keep up with the injured. “Walking” injured are simply being triaged for the moment. And, the night is not over. As I write, another tornado has just been reported down on the ground, again, just east of Gadsden, AL. Another tornado is just southwest of Birmingham and passing just to the south of Birmingham. Softball sized hail and extreme winds are being reported.
I will go in late tonight to the medical center where I work and will be on duty until tomorrow morning at 08:00. We are not one of the primary responder hospitals, but our emergency plan has certainly been activated. Our deacon lives in Tuscaloosa, but his family is OK.
All this is to ask that you keep the many people in Tuscaloosa and other parts of Alabama in your prayers. Certainly keep in your prayers also the states to the west and to the east of us who have already gotten hit and who will be hit in the next 24 hours.
UPDATE: The storms have passed over us. My wife went outside to go to our daughter’s house. She found a piece of plywood outside from the debris field. Sadly, it is obviously from the inside wall of a house and one side looks like it is papered with the type of wallpaper that is used in a bathroom. May God have mercy on the family from whose house that piece came.
🙁 It is really sad to see the damage caused. It is also very sad to know that, as with much other, the poorest are often struck worst, as they are not able to afford housing that can withstand this.