The 2011 Super Outbreak was the largest and costliest[tornado outbreak ever recorded, taking place in the Southern, Midwestern, and Northeastern United States from April 25 to 28, 2011, leaving catastrophic destruction in its wake. I am a survivor of a direct hit from an EF-4 multi-vortex tornado that killed 64 people and injured well over 1,500 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, then my home. Neighbors died. Students from The University of Alabama, where I taught at this time, died. Almost half of my city was gone.
It was one of 367 tornadoes that happened during the super outbreak. The violent, long-track EF-4 tornado, which was over a mile wide, casts a long shadow, even today. I chronicled my feelings, as well as those of others, and continue to do so 15 years later. I also openly wrote to the people of Joplin, Missouri and Moore, Oklahoma, who survived similar experiences.
I’ve about how my daughter and I, huddled together holding onto a steel bar bolted to the floor of the closet, somehow survived. How I have survivor’s guilt. How I have PTSD. How we lost so much more than just belongings that day.
I am passionate about natural disaster coverage and helping others to never experience what I went through. But if they do, I am here to help, and listen.
Columns about the tornado super outbreak of 2011, by Meredith Cummings (in reverse chronological order)
On the other side of the tornado: 10 years later, we are still broken and also on the mend
A message for Lee County from a Tuscaloosa survivor: You will be brave after the storm
We’re still here: The unseen toll of the tornadoes
Lessons in the midst of the storm: What we’ve learned from April 27, 2011
On third tornado anniversary, Forest Lake makes a comeback with a duck dynasty
Don’t stop Westboro Baptist Church from coming to Tuscaloosa: An open letter to Mayor Walt Maddox
Pulitzer Prize comes home to Tuscaloosa in time for tornado anniversary
Six months after the tornado: A city tries to recapture the fairy tale of normal life
Chelsea Thrash walks back into class at UA after breaking back in Tuscaloosa tornado
Beauty Amid Destruction hanging picturesque images in blighted Tuscaloosa areas
Tuscaloosa tornado humor continues: Miracles of cats and catsup