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Video: Terrifying Tornado In Alabama, Death Toll Nears 200
By
John Del Signore
Published Apr 28, 2011
Modified Apr 28, 2011
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By
John Del Signore
Published Apr 28, 2011
Modified Apr 28, 2011
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The death toll from the storms tearing through the southern states is currently at 194 and rising, with more than 120 dead in Alabama, where large parts of the city of Tuscaloosa are in ruins. There were 155 reports of tornadoes across America on Wednesday, according to The Storm Prediction Center, which brings the total for April to over 800 tornado reports, almost certainly breaking the record set in 2003. The National Guard and FEMA are currently on the ground in Alabama, and one Tuscaloosa resident tells the Birmingham News, "It was total devastation. Everything I saw was gone. McCallister's, major damage. No Taco Casa, no McDonald's, Mike and Ed's Barbeque, major damage. All those houses on that little lake are splintered." Here's some incredible amateur video from Tuscaloosa, where the death count is at 36:
4-27-11 Tornado Tuscaloosa, Al from Crimson Tide Productions on Vimeo.
A flower store owner in Tuscaloosa returned to find his business in destroyed. "It even blew out the back wall, and I’ve got bricks on top of two delivery vans now," he told the AP. Officials are reporting at least 30 dead in Mississippi, where three sisters in Kemper County all died in their mobile home. “They were thrown into those pines over there,” their surviving sister-in-law says. “They had to go look for their bodies.”
Asked what's causing such a devastating concatenation of storms, meteorologists at the Washington Post explained that "a parade of energetic storm systems, accompanied by very strong jet stream winds, are diving down into the southern states this spring. These dips, or 'troughs,' in the jet have helped set up major clashes between cold air to the north and warm, humid air from the Gulf of Mexico to the south...
"Another contributor to the recent severe weather is an unusually warm Gulf of Mexico, where sea surface temperatures are running 1 to 2.5 degrees Celsius above average. The Gulf is the main moisture source for storm systems as they move east from the Rockies, and the additional moisture is helping to fuel thunderstorm development."
A tornado watch was extended through this morning for parts of Maryland and Virginia, and here in NYC, thunderstorms are expected today and tonight as the massive storm system spreads this way.
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John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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