Tuesday night I was drawn to both the SRPG scanner and my television, diligently watching the storm system plowing through our area. As we all should, I take these threats seriously. We put a twin mattress in the hall bathtub just in case we needed to take cover. As the rain pounded our roof, my mind was taken back to my childhood; of stormy nights in central Alabama. My mother saw first hand the damage of an F5 tornado’s capabilities when she was a child. She instilled a healthy respect for the weather in my brother and me.
One particular night sticks out of waking up and being hastily dressed and my mom driving the three of us to my aunt’s house, about a mile away, to weather the storm. At the time, we lived in a mobile home in a rural area. My mother told me mobile homes were not safe when in the path of a twister. Aunt Bobbie lived in a brick home, therefore, it was safer. As soon as the JeffersonCounty sirens blasted their horn, we were in the car on the way to a secure place. The radio was playing Frankie Valli’s “Oh What a Night.” Nothing about that song is about a windstorm but, though unintentionally, for me, it will be about a tornado hitting JeffersonCounty.
The thunder cracked and lightning flashed while we drove down the dark country road. My mother was scared and angry because my daddy never went with us on these terrifying events. We drove in silence and arrived at my cousin’s house, dripping wet from the storm. Mom and Aunt Bobbie dried us off and we sat in the living room where, of all things, the “Phantom of the Opera” was on television. This is all I remember, but it has been forever imbedded in my memory.
Thus, I have a healthy respect for the weather.
As an adult, I drove through the wreckage of the tornadic event of April 8, 1998 when another F5 tornado struck JeffersonCounty, Alabama and devastated my daddy’s alma mater, OakGroveSchool. The school was constructed in 1916. It was reported the twister cut a 31 mile long, ¾ mile wide swath through Birmingham, beginning in TuscaloosaCounty. The majority of the devastation occurred in Oak Grove, Rock Creek and McDonald’s Chapel. Incidentally, McDonald’s Chapel was hit by an F5 in 1956, in which my mother saw the wreckage that made a lasting impression. The 1998 F5 crossed the Alabama-Georgia line and though weakened, caused even more destruction as an F2. The storm system killed 32 people.
The area was hit again in 2011, with even more destruction and loss of life.
Santa Rosa County rarely sees tornadic outbreaks like our neighbors in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. But it doesn’t lessen the wound for the families who are currently hurting and living with the chaos. My prayers are with those who now are working to repair their lives.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: HOLT: Tuesday night’s vigil