[sick of South Florida]

How much damage did it do? Hope nobody got hurt or worse!

[AndyG]

It did a decent amount of damage on the edge of downtown, but last I heard, no one was killed or seriously hurt. Oneonta is a very small town, and that tornado stopped just on the edge of its downtown, otherwise, it would be nothing but a spot in the road now.

They were very lucky people.

A television station in Birmingham has a weather blog. You can see some of the damage in Oneonta here:

http://www.jamesspann.com/bmachine/c...lk/15/Pictures

[TornadoAlley]

Originally Posted by atlantagreg30127

If you mean a real designated tornado "shelter", then you're right - if it's properly built and installed underground then you're safe. If you're talking about a simple basement, then a F5 *CAN* still completely damage a home including the basement. And Alabama, especially in the Birmingham and slightly north area of it, can get F5 tornados. For whatever reason, Birmingham seems to be a magnet or factory for these things - you can watch the SE regional weather radar in motion mode sometimes and it looks like the major storms just literally appear out of nowhere right over top of Birmingham, and start drifting east/ne from there.

I can't remember the year, but a friend of mine and his girlfriend had just moved out to Birmingham the year the F5 tornados went through the subdivisions there. He said they left their house and just a block away everything was gone like a huge vacuum cleaner had just sucked it all up - and yes, they saw a couple of deceased people/pets who had been in basements that were pulled out - the tornado was that strong. Granted, tornados like that are NOT an everyday thing... still, they can happen. Not long after that, he had a home built with an actual "safe room" built underground in the basement and it would withstand everything. An 8x10 safe room cost him $15,000.

I don't know if I'd go so far as to say people "shouldn't be worried" about tornados. I live in West Georgia and we get the spillover from Alabama storms quite a bit. Luckily due to our jetstream and heat dome Atlanta produces, the punch is knocked out of many of these and most of ours are rarely above F0 or F1. A F2 or F3 is very very rare. 60 miles east into Alabama and they get larger. We've still had smaller ones hit close (within 5 blocks) of my house three times in the last ten years - enough to "worry about", but knock on wood, nothing that's damaged our house.

If people from Alabama moved to California they'd be mental wrecks the first time an earthquake hit. Natives there would sleep through it. Still, a "big one" will one day hit and everyone will have to worry about it. Same with tornados - locals laugh them off most of the time, but you *should be prepared* - buy a home with a basement at least, keep bottled water, a med kid, and some food down there with blankets and batteries, etc. Get a weather alert radio, cut down any flimsy looking trees that are within "falling distance" of your bedrooms, etc.

It's funny, people talk about California with their earth quakes, but I have been here 36 years and have felt a few. Nothing as close to knocked off anything from the table (3.0 quake). But to hear you have been through a few tornados in 10 years I say YIKES

[KMK]

Alabama, esp North Alabama is tornado alley. With every thunderstorm comes a tornado warning. One never knows where or when the next one will touch down. They were all around us yesterdayalso.

[sick of South Florida]

Wow, it looks alot like hurricane damage. Not a good idea to have large trees near your house! The hurricanes were really strange. Everything that was damaged was up high (except uprooted trees). The roof and trees that weren't uprooted had the tops whacked off. It sounds like a million trains going over your roof, and it slowly hits one side of your house then goes around and finally when its gone all the way around you know its finally going away!! Whats even stranger is we had an EMPTY soda bottle on the back porch that never even moved, but we had to have the roof replaced! They never bothered me as a kid growing up in Miami but the ones we got the past couple years were scary! Now if one is coming I make sure I have a bottle of Kahlua for my nerves. Oh yeah, did you hear about the recent mag 6 quake in the gulf? Alot of people felt it in Central Florida-very unusual!

[JWilliams]

LOL, tornadoes are a non-issue for Alabamians. Of course, many people here make a huge deal of it, they love it when the news has anything even mildly close to a tornado warning, but I bet most people in this state have no idea that there are around 1000 vehicle fatalities/year and about 10 deaths/year from tornados.

Sure, they can wreak damage, but unlike a hurricane, they are just so focused in their damage that unless you're incredibly unlucky, they simply do not cause that much damage every year. Trailer parks really are tornado magnets; a typical house will suffer tornado damage only if the 'nado comes very close.

IMO, if a person is thinking of not coming to the state because of a tornado, they either have a phobia that should be treated with medication or they are ignorant of how little damage tornadoes really cause. They are like weather terrorism: they scare people but do very little damage in the grand scheme of things.

I imagine so-and-so would take issue with my post and talk about how they've lived through one and all that, but the numbers don't lie.

BTW, I am not a native of AL and take them "less seriously" than many here (it's very easy to be watching tv and have a tornado warning pop up on the screen--happens all the time--but it's just an empty threat 99.99% of the time and that other .01% of the time it probably just ruins a few trees and doesn't hurt anyone), because it struck me soon after moving here that people were overly fanatical about something that they've never experienced and are never likely to. Don't get me wrong, storms out here can be wicked, but a thunderstorm is not dangerous unless you're flying a kite. I know many natives here who've never seen so much as a funnel cloud (precursor to a tornado), let alone seen one on the ground or been in true danger from it.

[AndyG]

Nah, they don't bother me at all. Like I said in an earlier post, with rare exceptions, our tornadoes are smaller than those on the Great Plains. Much smaller. Their effect on the enviroment is only in there general area.

You can have a tornado ripping the crap out of one side of your county, and on the other side, the sun could be out and kids playing in the yard.

Unless a tornado is bearing down on you, and you are in or very near its path, the worst thing you will get from it is maybe having your power go out for awhile.

Tornadoes should be respected and warnings taken seriously, but only a handful of places in Alabama get the most tornadoes. I live in Etowah County just outside Gadsden, and Gadsden hasn't had a major tornado come through its city limits in nearly 30 years.

[spoiledmama]

is flooding regular too?

[AndyG]

Flooding can be a problem in some locations, but not excessively so. You have to remember, this is a state where the sun shines over 300 days a year. When we do get rough weather, it tends to be very rough, but it never lasts long.

Flooding in the Carolinas is a far greater problem than it is here in Alabama.

[JWilliams]

Originally Posted by AndyG

Flooding can be a problem in some locations, but not excessively so. You have to remember, this is a state where the sun shines over 300 days a year. When we do get rough weather, it tends to be very rough, but it never lasts long.

Flooding in the Carolinas is a far greater problem than it is here in Alabama.

Plus, it's a pretty darn hilly state, at least where I've lived. For it to flood where my house is right now, the world would have to be on the brink of a great flood #2.