The tornadoes and severe weather that came through on April 16, five years ago, managed to miss Lenoir County. Damage was severe in Greene County, but no one died and that is a blessing.
I wasn’t here for the storms, but I don’t have to think back too far for too long about what it was like. Where I was, in Georgia, the destruction came on April 27, about a week and a half after the storms here.
It was a day of anticipation. LaGrange, Ga., is right on the border of Georgia and Alabama. We’d watched Alabama get slammed all day, badly. By late afternoon, the skies turned cloudy, the wind picked up and the predictions, which already had called for the worst, turned downright ominous.
In the middle of this coming maelstrom, we had another incident in town — a standoff with a man on a bridge with a knife, threatening himself and others.
I remember standing near the scene with the local police and a representative of LaGrange College; the bridge spanned a road on campus, so a “spokesman” was on hand to talk to the media. Other than the standoff, the approaching weather was the first thing on everyone’s minds.
“Boy, you sure do have a lot of tall trees on campus!” I said, as we watched the wind sway the pines.
“I never thought about it, but we really do!” the spokesman replied, equally nervous.
The man eventually was talked down from the bridge and everyone went home knowing that likely would not be the height of excitement for the day.
It wasn’t.
A few hours later, the storms finally made it to LaGrange.
Here’s a fun bit of Shrader trivia: growing up in Illinois, adjacent to “Tornado Alley,” I had a paralyzing fear of severe weather. Five years in North Carolina, in the hurricane zone, cured me of that, so thanks.
April 27, 2011, was the first and only time I’d ever gotten the dog, the phone and the other important items and decamped to the hallway. Alabama had proven these storms were not to be messed with.
There were two tornadoes to hit our county that night; the first one, an EF1, sliced the very northern part of the county and tore up some trees and power lines. The second one, an EF2, hit the southern end of the county. They were not as lucky. The tornado ripped through a rural road, flattening homes and trees, taking out a support column on the local Georgia State Patrol post and coming dangerously close to hitting the county jail.
For those in the path, the night was plenty interesting enough. There were injuries and displaced residents, blocked roads, downed trees and damaged infrastructure. I wound up going to the Red Cross shelter at 2 a.m. after hearing on the police scanner it had been opened. No one showed up for assistance that night but the surprised look on the county emergency manager’s face when he pulled up to see me in the driveway at 4 a.m. is a memory I’ll keep forever.
Eventually, recovery happened in my little corner of Georgia, although the scars remain just like they do here.
April — springtime in the South — is known for this type of weather. Yet, there’s very little one can do to prepare. It’s not like a hurricane, where there’s days, if not weeks, to load up on supplies, board up houses and even evacuate. For tornadoes, once you’re aware of the possibility — and really, everyone should pay attention to the weather — you just wait.
James Spann is the weather man for the ABC television station in Birmingham, Ala. For comparison purposes, he’s the Skip Waters of most of Alabama. He maintains a heavy presence on social media and makes it a point to interact with followers — even me.
James recommends a few things.
1. Get a weather radio. Don’t rely on storm sirens, it’s old technology that was only ever meant to warn people who are outside. If the power/cable/Internet go out, the weather radio is your new best friend and will wake you up in the middle of the night.
2. Keep your phone and other devices charged as the storm approaches. You don’t know when the power might go out or how long you might be without a source of power.
3. When the storm is heading your way, get to the lowest floor in the center of your house away from windows. If you’re in a mobile home, get out. If you’re in a car, get out — take the nearest exit and go to the nearest business to go inside and wait it out.
4. When sheltering at home, put on sturdy shoes; in case you wind up walking through debris later you don’t want to be in flip-flops. You might also want to consider putting on bicycle helmets and wearing a whistle, for if you need to alert rescuers to where you are.
Like many of you, I pray that an April 16 or April 27, never happens again. But the odds are, it will.
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