4am siren...that was interesting... (Huntsville, Decatur: house, tornado, living)

[33458]

I'm an insomniac so I was awake, but I'm pretty sure I can't sleep through that warning. Took me a minute to figure out what it was, then woke husband and grabbed sleepy Sweet Pea to head for the basement.

We've got a serious emergency kit with every survival gizmo known to man in there (Hurricanes much?) so that case went down with us...and we waited.

Ever try to convince a toddler to go back to sleep after that? Husband and I stared at the sky over Huntsville for a while, wondering how anyone could SEE a funnel cloud in that odd yellow mass of clouds...watched three weather channels and finally went back to bed.

[Huntsville82]

That's one reason we are looking for a house with a basement or storm shelter when we move there. I lived in FL long enough to learn to hate tornados.

I hope everyone was safe there!

[HsvMike]

Same thing here. A siren went off at 3:30a.m. I didn't hear it but my wife did and woke me up. Tried to look outside but with those clouds, you couldn't see anything. Watched the news til about 4:30 then went back to bed. I live in the southern part of Harvest. They did say that there was a funnel cloud at County Line Rd and Brownsferry which is pretty close to my house. Better safe than sorry.

[zenjenn]

We have a weather radio, and I jumped out of my pants when it started going off at 3:30 am. In our half-asleep state thought we heard it was Decatur and Madison but also made out "Huntsville" and "severe damage" so once we fully woke up we turned on the news. First time since living here that there has been an actual tornado warning and not just a watch.

So then we hear the sirens blazing from over the mountain, and I was feeling really glad that I wasn't still living on Whitesburg. If we could hear it that loud even over in Big Cove, I can only imagine what it must have sounded like there. My kids would have been SPAZZING about it. Fortunately they slept through it. I too went outside to look to the northwest. Pretty creepy.

I finally did get back to sleep, but every thunder boom was another shot of adrenaline. Yikes! I hope everyone from our little city data crew avoided any storm damage or injury.

Local friends I have met tease me a bit for having a weather radio but I am glad to have it. I don't think we have sirens out in Big Cove/Hampton Cove/OXR area?

[rnc76]

^^^I bet you do have a siren out that way. The siren you heard was probably somewhere in the Big Cove area. I live less than 1/2 mile from a siren and it is loud, but not THAT loud that you would hear it over the mountain. It woke me up about 3:30 or so. We stayed up for a while, watching the news hoping that our friends in Monrovia, Madison, Decatur... were ok.

[Southlander]

I never heard a siren, and it's right down the street. I was asleep, though. ...never came near us in SE Decatur. That's why you look for areas where there has never been a tornado sighted.

[FCEddie]

SE Decatur has been tornado free?

Hope you're not tempting fate

[Keeper]

My dog woke me up at 4:00 am. She didn't want to go out but was pacing. A few minutes later the weather radio went off and then I0 min after that I heard the siren. Turned on the TV and they said the bad weather cell was heading towards Arab. I was ready to head to bathroom for cover.

Thank goodness it went by Arab, but I did hear there was some type damage on City Park drive, like trees down. A storm hit the southside of town in 95 and that is in the same area.

Glad everyone is OK

[Reactionary]

The siren warning system covers approximately 75% of the entire Madison County population, including approximately 95% of the population in the City of Huntsville and approximately 99% of the City of Madison.

Outdoor Siren System - EMA Huntsville-Madison County, Alabama

[harry chickpea]

Our home sits purposely down about 40' or 50 ' off the height of land, with a forest of trees on three sides about 50 to 100 feet away. The greenhouse sits above us on the slope, and because of placement even it is minimally affected by the winds, although I can hear the plastic moving. I know that sitting up on the top of a hill gives good views and gets summer breezes, but I can't imagine choosing to build a home, like so many people do, where any passing tornado has a clear shot.

We still need to get our storm shelter bedroom built, but short of debris falling on us, I feel a lot safer here than about anywhere else, since the wind can't build up speed because of the surrounding terrain.

FWIW, the news report of the damage in the Moulton area points out exactly what I had thought could be a problem. There was an elderly woman whose house was hit, and she was in it instead of her storm shelter 40 feet away, because the tornado hit during the middle of the night and relatively quickly. My plan is to make our shelter as an underground bedroom, with an entrance from the house. Tornado watch in the area overnight? Sleep in that bedroom. We would still have a sleepless night though, like everyone else. The local storm siren is directly in front of a neighbor's house, just far enough away from cemeteries that it can't wake the dead, but loud enough here to drown out even a loud tv or stereo or passing boom-boom car.