First, you just have to read this story by a UA student about his experience in the tornado.
Next, there’s this cool Tuscaloosa News aerial footage. (Sorry, but I couldn’t figure a way to embed the video and there’s this commercial and cheesy logo thing at the beginning you can’t skip.)
Then you’ll enjoy this brief film, with this introduction:
The Oxford American‘s filmmaker, Dave Anderson, arrived the day after the storm to survey the damage there.
He was intrigued with the ever-present sound of chainsaws. Who was operating them? Where had they come from? So he set off to find out and came back with a hopeful story of basic human kindness.
Finally, there’s this great picture — a God’s-eye view of Tuscaloosa —
Now, the picture is misleading, because the actual damage covers a much wider range than is evident from the picture. I was able to tour much of the damage today, from Rosedale to Crescent Ridge, and the damage is one mile wide. For example, those familiar with the area can easily pick out University Mall at the US 82 and 15th Street interchange.
It looks from the photo as though University Mall was untouched, but in fact the Regions Bank branch on the corner suffered substantial damage and a corner of the Belk building (a tall, solid, brick building) was cleaved off. Meanwhile, you can’t tell from the photo that the Highlands subdivision was severely damaged although it’s entirely outside the brown streak.
I figure the actual range of severe damage is at least 4 or 5 times wider than the brown streak. You see, the brown streak is the area hit so hard that the trees were stripped bare or removed altogether. Roofs were ripped entirely off houses well outside that range.
