Alabama Hams Tackle Tornado Duty
NEWINGTON, CT, Dec 18, 2000--Alabama amateurs took time out from holiday preparations to help their neighbors over the weekend after tornadoes ripped through the state leaving at least a dozen people dead and two missing. Many also were injured and damage was widespread. Unusual December weather patterns spawned a strong tornado in western Alabama that struck Tuscaloosa December 16 around midday.
Reports from amateurs in the Tuscaloosa area indicate most of the dead were in the Bear Creek mobile home park. The Hinton Place subdivision also was hard-hit. Hams assisted both as weather spotters and in the disaster recovery and damage assessment phases.
"This is my fourth tornado that I've been involved with in one way or another since I became a spotter, and this by far was the worst I've seen", said ARRL member Cal Davis, KF4LAR, the public service coordinator for the Tuscaloosa Amateur Radio Club. Davis reports that some three dozen hams played a role in storm spotting activity and in disaster recovery operations.
A state of emergency was declared in the stricken area. At one point, power was out to some 43,000 customers with temperatures headed into the 20s. Tuscaloosa Emergency Coordinator Kirk Junkin, KC4ZMP, set up an Amateur Radio communication link with the Tuscaloosa Fire Department's incident commander on the scene and relayed information to the local emergency operations center via the Tuscaloosa ARC's W4KCQ 2-meter repeater. Davis served as net control at the EOC.
"Several hams with emergency medical training entered the area on foot to render first aid as well as to establish a triage center at a local church," Davis reported. He said that as day wore into night, other amateurs established communication with the West Alabama Chapter of the American Red Cross and with three shelters in the stricken area. By 8 PM Saturday, the Red Cross had consolidated all the shelters into one at the Shelton State Community College. The Red Cross estimated that up to 500 residents initially took advantage of the shelter.
By 10 PM, all amateurs but one at the Red Cross chapter house and one at the shelter were released from duty. Davis said most were expected back the next day to assist with damage assessment efforts, however.
The Tuscaloosa tornado was estimated to have been an F3 on the Fujita scale, with winds ranging from 158 to 206 MPH. More than a hundred homes were damaged or destroyed in the area. In addition, Alabama saw several other tornadoes Saturday, from the Florida border in the south to the Tennessee line in the north.
Other states in the south experienced unusually cold temperatures and power outages due to severe weather. "My phones are still off, but the area is getting back to normal," Arkansas ARRL Section Manager Roger Gray, N5QS, said today. "It is still estimated that 100,000 are without power in the state." He said local, informal amateur activities continued in Arkansas.
The storms were a result of two low-pressure systems that sped across the US bringing snow and bitter cold to the north and Midwest and unstable, severe weather in the south. New England saw thunderstorms and unusually mild temperatures as well as hail and high winds.--ALERT; Cal Davis, KF4LAR/TARC; press reports