At my dad's, him and my wife and I could see it in the distance. Was watching it, not knowing at the time it was killing people I knew my whole life. Very very sad.

I was at my apartment in auburn on the 26th try to have folks come over for my 21st birthday. No one showed up, went to buy my first legal beer at 12:01 4/27 and didn’t get id’ed. Didn’t realize the magnitude of what had happened. Went home to Jackson’s Gap and saw the damage and how close my folks and an uncle came from total loss. Spent several days cutting tress off houses.

I was just being unconcerned about naders back then. Now, however, after the house I closed on selling in Selma being destroyed by one (the new owner miraculously was battered but unhurt) two weeks to the day after closing and me watching that one from my MIL's porch, and then moving up to tornado alley and one tearing up some buildings a mile away two weeks after moving up here. After seeing what they can do first hand, I have a whole new respect for them. Glad our house up here has a safe room. We had one headed straight to us during the last round. It lifted and went right over the top of us. I will say one thing about living up here, while the storms are more frequent the radar capability is so much better than in Dallas County. Here I can follow the nader in real time and see where it is and where it is In real time and location. In Selma they get a warning maybe 30 minutes out and it may mean for the whole county with no predicted path. It can be in Minter and if you are in Plantersville you are told to take cover.

If I hit the Billion Dollar Lotto, I'm going to remember my hometown and build a super weather radar and hire Slipinlip Jr. to operate it. That stuff interest him and he knowledgeable at it.

Lived in Livingston. The only day in my life I’ve seen the sky look like it did to start that day. It was an eerie yellow green almost. Bad weather has never bothered me but that day I was scared. Seemed like every hour there was a major tornado popping up close all day.

saw a bunch of stuff levetate as a tornado passed over work in the morning. watched and videod the big f5 cross our road. We didn't get hit but the kitchen ceiling caved in from all the sudden rain and flooding like iv'e never seen. The F5 that came up from hackleburg was the longest tracking tornado and the thing was so big that it didn't make much of a video. it was a one mile wide looking black blob that just was set on killing anything in it's path.

I work in Trussville, and the next day we found a pistol permit and a piece of a building permit in the yard. Both were from Tuscaloosa.

I was in tuscaloosa, was supposed to go to class right before that tornado ripped through town. I wlive in a community call the retreat, which was right down the street from alberta. I watched the thing go by destroying that section of town. 1/2 a mile the other way i may not be here today.

I had been to an eye doctor appointment. Afterwards, went to. Prison to get a phone upgrade. Arrived home and turned the TV on. Fox6 had a live camera on that showed the tornado approaching Tuscaloosa. When I saw it, I looked at my wife and daughter and told them that this was not going to be good. For once in my life, I was correct. It was kind of weird watching until the camera went out. I looked out our living room window and the sun was shining. The tornado continued north of us. Of course, that was one of several that day. It was a sad day. Many lives lost.

Wife called me at work in Monroeville and said a tornado was headed thru downtown Tuscaloosa and supposed to pass between the stadium and University mall. My daughter was a student there and lived with two room mates at University Downs on the north side of 15th street right in the forcasted path. I called her and she was in a downstairs storage room with her room mates taking shelter, All of a sudden she said "Daddy I hear it". The phone went silent and my heart fell. I kept calling back and could not get through. I was about to throw up and the wife was sobbing and praying. I finally got a text through and she said they were fine but there was lots of damage. Longest 10 minutes of my life!

Standing on my cousin's storm pit watching an F5 move from Mt. Hope to the north of Moulton. Next 6 days I rode a chainsaw daylight till dark. I had sore places I didnt know I had. 6 days without power but I didnt need it. My buddy stayed with me to help and we would cook supper on a Colman stove on my porch under a lantern. As soon as we could shower and eat we went to bed! I have pics of that tornado on a power point I use for severe weather week in my classes. I called my wife up out of the pit to see it. I first told her thats the biggest wall cloud Ive ever seen and there is a tornado under it somewhere. It went all the way to the ground. What I couldnt comprehend was what I was seeing was an F5 over a mile wide. As it passed to my North I could see the backside and the rotation. Thats when I realized what I was seeing and all I could do was start praying. My mon lives in Hillsboro and had blue jeans in her yard from that wrangler plant in Hackleburg over 50miles away.

I was scouting crops back then on the side...we find jeans north of athens. I found wadded up sheet metal and tin in multiple soybean fields. The thought of how that got wadded up and thrown, no telling how far, was terrifying.

In the oil pit at the city of tuscaloosa's mechanic shop waiting the tornado out. There were about 40 of us elbow to elbow

Home watching the storms from storm cellar door most of day with my mom, wife an dogs. Had storms all around us . I have logged many tornado damage areas in my lifetime an I know how bad they can be .logged one f5 in 94 in wayne county tn an no way anyone could survive that . Mile wide . I’ve found parts of houses and kids toys way off in woods . That particular day in 2011 it was such a weird eerie feeling all day . Sky seem almost yellow . I will never forget that feeling . I have my our storm shelter now at my house 20 ft from garage door.

Started the morning, cutting trees from the morning storms in one of the local communities. Burnt up my little chain saw and had to go looking for another one. Bought it with the idea of helping more the next day. Storms started building that afternoon, so took the wife and 3 little ones to a friend's basement on the other side of town. As the the evening wore on, we got a text from a friend sending a video of a tornado, and knew imediately where it was at. Tried calling parents and neighbors, but all powere and phones were down. I just in truck and headed home to find 13 buildings missing on ours and my parent's farms, trees in the house, and damage to several rural neighbors' houses and structures. It was a terrible day, but a good day. My parents like a lot of the older generation refused to leave their home, and the storm destroyed barns and sheds all the way arounf their house, and toppled 100 year old oaks withing feet on their house. Yet God said it wasn't their time, not a screen from a window was missing, the front porch swing was still there, even 3 baby kittens were still on the porch. God is so good, even in the really bad times. Not a sole was hurt in our little rural community, even with homes and structures damaged. Stuff can be replaced, people can't, Thank you Lord for your protection that day!

Standing in my yard in Etowah County watching what was left of south Alabama rain from the sky. Strange isn't the word. I found part of a report card from Concord Elementary School from many miles away.

I was at Tuscaloosa PD that day rebuilding a computer system. Left there about an hour before the storm hit, made it home to Alabaster. Was in the basement with wife and kids watching the live feed on tv as it went through Ttown, I would have been right in the path if I had not left work early that day.

Spent most of the night trying to help in pleasant grove. Pitch black dark and gas leaking and powerlines down everywhere. Fire station was set up at triage…..not a pretty sight.