Today a series of storms swept through Alabama killing 25, possibly more.

Tuscaloosa was one of the hardest hit places, with many businesses and homes either damaged or destroyed, and as far as I know, one fatality.

The reason I'm writing is two-fold. One, I go to college here, I'm okay, the campus got off pretty light, although I don't expect anyone here to be particularly worried about me. Two, I don't know of any drives for help, but another line of storms that have the potential to be worse are on their way. I'll try and keep you updated on if they is any way you can help. For now, just send prayers to the guy upstairs, and if you don't believe in him, or any god, just hope. Hope and pray that these storms pass by without any further harm to those who have lost someone, or taking still more lives and livelihoods.

I know that this seems small, even trivial, compared to the death and destruction in Japan, or what has happened in Southeast Asia over the past five or so years, but in it's own way, it hurts. It hurts to know that 25 families have lost someone. It hurts to know that there's and ugly scar that has obliterated landmarks in your adopted town. It hurts to know that parents all of the country may not know if their child is alright.

Whoever said one death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic missed the mark a little. If the death happens close to home, it's a tragedy. I know many of you may not care, but I do, and I guess that counts for something.

Thanks for posting this, Salsa. I'm sorry to learn of the tragedies that have already happened, and hoping that that will be the end of it.

More is more, no matter the size of How much more.

Yeah I was watching. I just went through it as that system sat on Arkansas for 3 days.

Be sure to have a planned area of security if another round comes through. I really want to build a safe room some day.

Praying for you guys. Man I hate spring -_-

We've had three more tornados down here in Louisiana, but all of our deaths so far have been lightning related. Heard it's getting real bed up north around your parts…praying for you guys.

In a lot of ways, springtime sucks.

—-

So I just went back and read some reports on the recent outbreak of tornados and it jogged this memory I had to share:

About three years back a tornado struck nearby my father-in-law's house. We went over to check on him after the storm had passed. As I turned down the last road to reach his place, I saw something I'll never forget.

The tornado was so strong it had pulled up grass and embedded it in a telephone pole. I have pictures, I need to go dig them up. But that visual, more than anything else, is what finally illustrated the sheer power of these storms for me.

35 confirmed dead in Tuscaloosa alone. I'm getting Lunch then going to donate blood later today. I'm trying to find pictures to see how bad it is, but when your mom calls, almost in tears, even though she knows you're okay, it's bad.

The area around campus is off the power grid, and has no internet access. A lot of the areas in Tuscaloosa that house students got hit, and it's rumored that a few students died in the storm. I haven't seen the damage, but one of my roommates said that from about 2nd ave. on 15th st. to about 13th ave. east is leveled. Several businesses got blown away. Supposedly the Milo's on MacFarland (US 82) had debris land in Atlanta.

Thanks for your sympathies. I gotta work tonight, so maybe I'll have more to tell tomorrow if I can get internet access.

Hey Salsa,

Yahoo has some videos - I just don't know what to say. I hope the missing can be found quickly as survivors. that's my current prayer.

stay in touch as you can.

Nothing like seeing a taste of Mother Nature's fury to put exactly how small we are into perspective, eh ayes?

I'll probably be more in touch once I get home. The campus dodged three bullets though. If you look at a map of Tuscaloosa and see where the damage is, the Campus and Downtown were pretty much surrounded.

Probably should have posted this first, but if you go here: http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/, you can read reports and stay pretty much current with what I know.

Thanks guys.

A local news site of mine was covering the tornadoes and stated that around 250 people have been killed across the states. One particular report featured a reuters clip, containing a behemoth tornado that was filmed by storm chasers.

You can check out the video over here.

Whoa, that's a monster.

Last I heard the death toll over the Southeast was 308. There's still a lot of people missing around here though.

Woah…that's bad.

Yeah, they still have the areas the got hit closed off. I realized I didn't have the card I needed to get back into my dorm last night. Kinda funny, the one thing I need to be able to get into my dorm and I didn't realize I left it in the media center in Gorgas when the storms hit. Things have been moving along in a daze.

We're tough, though. We'll pick up the pieces, save what we can and begin building anew.

I'm just glad the University campus got off as light as it did. It could have been worse.

All of these videos are quite haunting to watch. I'm glad to hear that you faced minimal damage in your area. It seems many others weren't quite so lucky though.

Being a resident of California, it always amazes me how people I run into from the eastern part of the US are always paranoid about earthquakes and quite calm about tornadoes. Earthquakes here are rarely of a magnitude that you can feel here, unless you're really paying attention.

After seeing the footage and aftermath of these recent tornadoes, I would certainly be more worried about living in that area of the US.

Like you said, most storms don't produce the monsters like the one the slammed Tuscaloosa. Most of the tornadoes tend to be around the F1, F2 range. Every now and then we get something that does a number on the area, but the Last big tornado that hit Alabama was the one that hit Prattville back in 2008. Luckily, that F5 only say some injuries and no fatalities.

As for being paranoid about Earthquakes. Even with a bad storm you have at least a few minutes to get somewhere safe, with earthquakes, you get little to no warning.