Palm Sundays, tornadoes, and a passionate plea

For those of you that don't know, I spent the first 24 years of my life growing up, going to college, and then doing television weather in what is called "Dixie Alley." Almost everyone has heard of Tornado Alley...the area in the Plains states that has the greatest number or tornadoes in the US. But while Tornado Alley has more total tornadoes than Dixie Alley, Dixie Alley has more strong and violent tornadoes, and accordingly, more tornado fatalities, than any other part of the country. Dixie Alley runs from Arkansas and Louisiana through Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia.

At any rate, I can never think of Palm Sunday without thinking of tornadoes. This past Sunday, Palm Sunday, we had a significant tornado outbreak here in the Carolinas, including an EF 2 and an EF 3. Over 600 homes were damaged in the EF 3 tornado alone, and it is a miracle that no life-threatening injuries occurred.

Palm Sunday in 1920 featured a nasty tornado outbreak stretching from the Midwest to the Deep South. Over 380 people lost their lives that day.

Palm Sunday in 1965 featured another deadly tornado outbreak in the Midwest. 271 people were killed and 1500 people were injured.

Then there is the Palm Sunday outbreak of 1994. 27 tornadoes tore through Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina that day. I was still growing up in Alabama, living at home. I remember distinctly the severe weather came in two waves that day. One wave moved through from mid to late morning, and a second wave later in the afternoon.

I can remember how terribly warm and muggy it felt through the early afternoon hours between the rounds of severe weather. Temperatures soared into the lower 80s. As the second wave of severe weather moved through, I can remember being terrified, sitting in our downstairs hallway....that was our tornado safety place. We had the television on so that we could hear the severe weather coverage, and I had a large bowl of grapes, of which I nervously ate every single one while the storm roared outside. I vividly remember hearing the hail absolutely pound the roof and windows, and I fully expected the sounds of snapping wood and breaking glass to follow suit. But it didn't, the storm pulled away, and all we had was a white ground from the hail, tree branches down, and some shingles missing.

I am pretty sure that was the last time I was really scared during a thunderstorm. But what we experienced was nothing.

42 people died that day in the various tornadoes, and no tragedy was greater than what occurred at Goshen United Methodist Church in eastern Alabama.

Morning worship was taking place at the church, and it was a packed house....142 people in attendance to see their annual Easter drama. An F-4 tornado ripped into the sanctuary at 11:39am, right in the middle of the morning worship service. The building was destroyed, and 20 people lost their lives, including the pastor's daughter.

The really devastating aspect of this storm is that there was a tornado warning issued 12 minutes prior to the tornado hitting the church, but the people inside never knew there was even a warning issued. The warning process from the Birmingham NWS was excellent, and 12 minutes of lead time, especially in 1994, is about all you could ask for. Had the warning been known to the people in the church, the outcome would likely have been much different. The sanctuary was destroyed, but the foyer, where the nursery was located, as well as the Sunday School areas were still standing. Many, if not all, of the fatalities might have been avoided.

Please don't think I am criticizing. I am not. At that point, few churches and businesses had reliable ways of hearing warnings. But that does not have to be the case.

I say this at every single school talk or event speech I give. Every home, business, and place of worship should have a NOAA weather radio. Gone are the days when weather radios would sound for every warning in any county surrounding your area. If you purchase a NOAA weather radio with S.A.M.E. technology, you can program the radio to only sound for your individual county.

With our tornado event this past Sunday, the warning process generally worked very well. The warnings from the NWS offices were very good, and the media did a good job of timely distributing the information through the event. The High Point tornado had an incredible lead time of 29 minutes.

Most people in the homes that sustained heavy damage indicated that they knew in advance that a tornado warning had been issued and were in their place of safety.

However, what if this tornado outbreak had taken place at 2am? How many people in High Point would have been aware an EF 3 tornado was heading their way? How many people in Davidson county would have known and EF 2 was moving in?

It is always our goal at News 14 Carolina to be live on the air whenever severe weather is occurring....whether it be 2am, 2pm, or anything in between. However, we cannot reach through your TV and wake you up in the middle of the night. We cannot let people in church or at work know a warning is in effect. That is the job of the NOAA weather radio.

Please, find a way to get a NOAA weather video.....every church, business, and home should have one.

You can watch a great piece on the Goshen tragedy that was put together by the folks at ABC 33/40 in Birmingham by clicking here.