North Jefferson News, Gardendale, AL

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April 29, 2010

Strong tornado grazes Corner

By Ben Montgomery The North Jefferson News

NORTH JEFFERSON — Most of North Jefferson suffered minimal damage from the weekend storms, with the exception of Corner.

The National Weather Service confirmed the touchdown of a tornado in Corner and the southwest edge of Blount County Saturday night.

“I could see it going over my neighbor’s house and Empire Assembly of God. Trees were breaking and cracking, and the church steeple was blown off,” said Robert Bradford, a resident of Empire that saw the tornado from a storm shelter. “It was very eye-opening. It shows you who’s in charge.”

One house on Arkadelphia Road has a tree through its living room window, according to the Jefferson County Emergency Management Agency. There are also houses and trailers damaged on Corner Road and Central Road.

“There’s trees down pretty much everywhere, and lots of

debris, too,” said Mike Harter, an agent with Jefferson County Emergency Management.

Hart said cleaning debris and repairing damage is largely the responsibility of the homeowners.

“We are not having to clean up like we thought we would,” said a dispatcher for Gardendale public works. The department had only one call over the weekend; on Saturday, some large branches and debris clogged some exposed pipe ends and littered Laurel Lane.

Fultondale public works removed a fallen tree on the 800 block of Elkwood Drive.

“We really missed the bullet this time,” said Darrell Bates, Fultondale director of public works.

Morris Chief of Police Brian Cochran said there was nothing but twigs to worry about in Morris. Mt. Olive, Brookside, Trafford, Kimberly, and Hayden had no reports of significant storm damage.

Max Armstrong, head of the Blount County Emergency Management Agency, said northern Blount County suffered the most damage, but there wasn’t too much in the southwest corner. He said there were some trees down and damage to mobile homes and houses there as well.

Chris Osborne, chief branding officer of the mid-Alabama region of the American Red Cross, said most of the damage the Red Cross saw was in Walker County. He said the Red Cross responded to a few cases of flooded basements, and sent some people to investigate the damage to Corner.

The National Weather Service said the the tornado, which began in Walker County and caused significant damage in Parrish and Cordova, was rated EF-3 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. The path was 29.5 miles long and as wide as 400 yards, according to the NWS storm survey team.

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