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.
Michelle Richmond Michelle Richmond is the New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author of The Marriage Pact, Golden State, The Year of Fog, No One You Know, Dream of the Blue Room, Hum, and The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress. Her books have been published in 30 languages. A native of Alabama, she makes her home in Northern California and Paris.