It’s difficult to believe the destruction in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The place holds special meaning for me, as it was my home for four years while I was a student at the University of Alabama. The mile-wide tornado apparently picked up just in front of Bryant Denny stadium (see video of the tornado passing behind the stadium here). The student publications office, where I spent endless hours working on the  Corolla, was just a stone’s throw from the stadium. How strange and sad to see a familiar and safe-seeming place reduced to rubble. While tornadoes are a common enough occurrence there, they generally came and went quickly. Upon feeling familiar stillness in the air, a kind of torpor, you would scan the skyline and listen for the train sound. If you heard a train, you knew to get inside, away from windows, preferably to a closet or a bathroom. In all my years down South, I never saw anything resembling this monster of a storm.

View local coverage at the Tuscaloosa News. See student reaction at the campus newspaper, The Crimson White. Go to West Alabama Food Bank to make a donation to help feed the survivors. You can also donate through the Red Cross.