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VOLUME 122 | ISSUE 63 APRIL 27, 2016 Five years after an EF-4 tornado devastated Tuscaloosa, The Crimson White refl ects on that day and how far this community has come. The Forest Lake area after the April 27 storm, overlaid with today’s recovery. CW / Drew Hoover and Layton Dudley. Photo Illustration by Melanie Viering WEDNESDAY 2 April 27, 2016 VISIT US ONLINE cw.ua.edu facebook The Crimson White instagram thecrimsonwhite twitter @TheCrimsonWhite CONTENTS cw.ua.edu P.O. Box 870170 Tuscaloosa, AL 35487 Newsroom: 348-6144 People helping people Fax: 348-8036 Advertising: 348-7845 Emergency workers and volunteers worked for months to clean up the aftermath of the April SERVING THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA SINCE 1894 27, 2011 tornado. Additional assistance, both in EDITORIAL the form of donations and volunteers, poured editor-in-chief Sean Landry in from across the country. [email protected] print managing editor Peyton Shepard digital managing editor Kelly Ward 3 features editor Alyx Chandler visuals editor Melanie Viering opinions editor Leigh Terry chief copy editor Alexis Faire Rebuilding businesses news editor Elizabeth Elkin culture editor Matthew Wilson Many businesses in the path of the April 27, sports editor Tyler Waldrep 2011 tornado had to rebuild after the storms, photo editor Layton Dudley still an ongoing process fi ve years later. multimedia editor Patrick Maddox community manager Dominique Taylor social media editor Collin Burwinkel lead designer Kylie Cowden ADVERTISING 8 advertising manager Emanuel Adelson (205) 223-5578 [email protected] territory manager Dee Griffin (334) 349-2473 [email protected] A magnolia tree in the wind special projects manager Michael Lollar (205) 317-7992 [email protected] From students to parents to University faculty creative services manager Mille Eiborg (205) 614-1457 to emergency responders, people who were [email protected] affected by the April 27, 2011 tornado shared is the community newspaper of The University their stories from that day and how it changed of Alabama. The Crimson White is an editorially free newspaper produced their lives. by students.The University of Alabama cannot infl uence editorial deci- sions and editorial opinions are those of the editorial board and do not 10 represent the offi cial opinions of the University. Advertising offi ces of The Crimson White are in room 1014, Student Media Building, 414 Campus Drive East. The advertising mailing address is P.O. Box 870170, Tus- caloosa, AL 35487. The Crimson White (USPS 138020) is published A team effort two times weekly when classes are in session during Fall and Spring Various sports coaches and former athletes Semester except for the Monday after Spring Break and the Monday talked to The Crimson White about their after Thanksgiving, and once a week when school is in session for the teams came together to help their community summer. Marked calendar provided. The Crimson White is provided for after the events of April 27, 2011. free up to three issues. Any other papers are $1.00. The subscription rate for The Crimson White is $125 per year. Checks should be made payable to The University of Alabama and sent to: The Crimson White Subscription Department, P.O. Box 870170, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487. 14 The Crimson White is entered as periodical postage at Tuscaloosa, AL 35401. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Crimson White, ON TWITTER P.O. Box 870170, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487. All material contained herein, except advertising or where indicated otherwise, is Copyright © 2015 Patrick Murphy @UACoachMurphy Alabama SGA @UAsga Kenyan Drake @KDx17 #TtownNeverDown “We’re not going to quit no matter how #TtownNeverDown by The Crimson White and protected under the “Work Made for Hire” hard it is.” - Mayor @WalterMaddox and “Periodical Publication” categories of the U.S. copyright laws. Material #TTownNeverDown herein may not be reprinted without the expressed, written permission of The Crimson White. 8:42 AM - 27 Apr 2014 2:40 PM - 27 Apr 2014 1:08 PM - 29 Apr 2014 APRIL 27TH 3 First responders, volunteers recount relief efforts By Elizabeth Elkin | News Editor other places, became a hub for displaced citizens to find food, clothes and, in some She had called in sick to work. The cases, shelter. A huge theme through- warnings start. She receives calls from her out the months to come would be people workers, asking what to do. She tells them helping each other. to go home and seek shelter. “We kept thinking Danielle was going to Outside her window, the sky darkens, come through the door,” Thompson said. the wind howls. She looks out and sees the “Probably our greater weakness was we funnel of a tornado. Trees, branches and lost a family member. We lost our student debris have been swept into the wind and who was getting ready to graduate. By now, are dancing across the sky. It looks like it is it’s the end of the semester so we knew her. coming towards her. We knew about her sister’s bridal shower. I She is terrified as she watches mean, we knew everything.” it cut behind her house. Her house It was extremely difficult for the vol- loses power. unteers in the beginning, she said. They After it passes, she gets in her car to have food and clothing that’s always in check on a church member because phone stock, but not in abundance. By the third lines are out. day, people were coming from all over She doesn’t realize the tornado is on Tuscaloosa and the surrounding areas its way to one of her students’ apart- for help. ment complexes. It hasn’t even crossed The media arrived to ask what they her mind. needed. Following the media came trucks full of canned goods and food. They stored the extra supplies in a warehouse behind their building. “Before you know it, people are All the sudden, this bringing stuff to the extreme,” she said. little bitty agency had “We didn’t realize the Salvation Army and the Red Cross were blown away. All the to carry a big load. sudden, this little bitty agency had to carry a big load.” She said the community and the — Karen Thompson country were extremely responsive to CW / Amy Sullivan their needs, and they never had any problems helping people after the first few days. It takes her four hours to get to the “We were fortunate in that we never church member’s house. Debris is every- missed a beat,” Thompson said. “The where, blocking every road she tries to community responded wonderfully to drive down. our needs.” ‘Oh my God, I hope people are alive,’ she thinks to herself as she views the wreckage. The next day, she and her colleagues A heavy load and volunteers file into the Temporary Emergency Services building, one after Jessica McCrackin, a senior another. The tornado has passed and now majoring in risk management, restaurant it was time to pick up the pieces and get and hospitality management, and food to work. science, was 17 and living in Huntsville at The building has power, but no phone the time of the tornado. Her older brother lines. She looks around the room, counting was in college at the University. She was her workers and volunteers. She sees all asked to serve as a first responder. She but one. arrived in Tuscaloosa a day and a half after People from all over Tuscaloosa the storm. would come to Temporary Emergency Communication was impossible, she Services for help in the hours, said, because phone lines were down and days, weeks and even months after power was out in many places. She couldn’t the tornado. get a hold of her brother. They keep waiting and waiting for “I was here working as an EMT Danielle, a senior volunteer, to walk and didn’t know if my own brother through the door. was alive.” She never will again. McCrackin was assigned to work “You’re just waiting every moment for in Alberta. the door to open and Danielle to walk “My first ten minutes on site, I lifted a through,” said Karen Thompson, execu- door up to three infants dead,” she said. tive director of Temporary Emergency The horror continued. Roads were cov- Services. “This other student John knew ered in debris, and it was difficult to get where she lived. He kept calling and her people to hospitals. The first day they phone was going to voicemail. He said, ‘I’m walked from DCH to Alberta, only able to going to try to go over there.’ He couldn’t use what they could carry back and forth. quite get to her house that day. He tried They sutured people’s faces, putting again the next day, because by then the them back together to stabilize them National Guard came in. The next day is enough to move them. when we found out she had passed away.” The National Guard and residents of It has been five years since the April Tuscaloosa moved debris from the road, 2011 tornado in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, she said, but it was still not enough. People but Thompson remembers every detail. volunteered to help. Temporary Emergency Services, like CONTINUED ON PAGE 5 WEDNESDAY 4 April 27, 2016 CW / Amy Sullivan Reporters take initiative after the 2011 storm By Caroline Vincent | Assistant News Editor school the way the April 27 storm was.” as a result from the storm that she … it’s strong stuff,” Anderson said. The scale and closeness of the dam- found humorous. Finding the balance between being a Victor Luckerson was editor-in-chief age done took an emotional toll on the “I thought, ‘Even if I catch some hate good reporter and being a sensitive sto- of The Crimson White in 2011.

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