F4 Tornado - 12/16/2000 - Tuscaloosa, Alabama

The Amateur Perspective
By David Black, KB4KCH		 Audio Excerpts 
from the TARC Net		 Tuscaloosa Amateurs Respond to Severe Weather
by Cal Davis		 In Their Own Words
Cal Davis, KF4LAR, and Chuck Beams, KG4EER
Photo of Destruction
by Chuck Beams, KG4EER		  Video of Tornado crossing
 Hwy 69 in Tuscaloosa
by  Chuck Beams, KG4EER		    

The Amateur Radio Perspective

Death on December 16th:  How Tuscaloosa hams responded

By David Black, KB4KCH

(Tuscaloosa, Alabama) -- For radio amateur Cal Davis, KF4LAR, the December 16th tornado that killed 11 people and injured more than 50 others near Tuscaloosa’s Englewood community was unlike any disaster he has ever assisted with before. That’s because—instead of having to rely solely on radio descriptions of the tornado—Davis was able to watch live video of the storm using a closed circuit television system while getting real-time reports of its destructive force.

Upon being activated and realizing that he was the closest ham at the time to the county’s Emergency Operations Center, Davis spent nearly 10 hours serving as primary Net Control on the Tuscaloosa Amateur Radio Club’s 146.820 MHz repeater. Throughout the afternoon, Davis and nearly 40 other hams helped organize emergency responses by relaying vital information to and from disaster officials, and even assisting with some rescues of storm victims in the field.

"Textbook Example"                          Listen to audio from TARC Net

The Tuscaloosa spotter group, which has a close relationship with the county’s Emergency Management Agency, activates on the W4KCQ repeater when severe weather threatens the area. But where hams actually go is part of an important strategy the group follows to better monitor approaching storms. "I had approximately 20 people out in the field," Davis said. "I managed to get several mobile (stations). I had them to the south and west of the city, and I set up a line and set up a secondary line for the storm that got past that. It worked beautifully. It was a perfect textbook example of how to set up your spotters."


Caught on camera

Davis received a report originating from a volunteer firefighter at 12:57 p.m., telling of a funnel cloud.

Moments later, Michael Townsend, KF4YPK, reported the tornado on the ground as the storm, believed to be packing winds of more than 170 miles an hour, crossed Interstate 20/59.

For the next several minutes, Davis got a harrowing view of the tornado. The massive storm was captured live by a system of television cameras the City of Tuscaloosa installed to monitor traffic flow.

"We watched the tornado," Davis said. "It’s the spookiest feeling I’ve ever had, to sit in the basement of City Hall in the Emergency Operations Center and watch a tornado and to know I have 10 to 15 spotters around, hearing them describe damage. I will never forget the sight of that."

At the same time Davis was watching his view of the tornado as it roared through Tuscaloosa neighborhoods, hundreds of thousands of television viewers across Alabama were treated to spectacular live pictures of the storm caught by a tower-mounted camera owned by ABC affiliate WBMA in Birmingham.
An aerial view shows some of the tornado's damage.  The tornado width was estimated to be 750 yards wide at its maximum intensity. 
Photo courtesy of National Weather Service

The first reports of damage began coming in around 1:05 p.m., Davis said.

Chuck Beams, KG4EER, captured video of the tornado as it moved across Highway 69, only about a quarter of a mile away, Davis said. Kirk Junkin, KC4ZMP, Tuscaloosa Emergency Coordinator, set up a communications link with the Fire Department’s Incident Commander and began relaying reports through Davis at his EOC Net Control post.

Some of the first reports of fatalities from the tornado came from radio amateurs, Davis said.

"We had a couple of hams who saw things I’m pretty sure they wish they could forget." Most of the deaths came from the Bear Creek mobile home park which was obliterated. Hams also helped with establishing a medical triage center near the damaged neighborhoods, Davis said.


Ham "Shadows"

One of the most valuable lessons Davis says his group learned was something they had never considered previously. For a few hours, Davis says a ham was assigned to DCH Medical Center to help relay information involving storm victims. "Luckily, the hospital administrator had a good working relationship with the EOC. And though he didn’t know a lot about amateur radio, he knew that if the EOC sent someone to him, then he could trust them. That person managed to glue himself to the administrator’s hip and walked around the hospital for a couple of hours with a good handy-talkie, passing along information."

"We set up a couple of places where we could relay information." One ham stayed with the Tuscaloosa Fire Department’s Incident Commander throughout the day "and basically became his shadow," Davis said. That ham relayed reports from the Commander to Davis at the EOC who then notified other agencies as needed.


Field rescues

"We had a couple of hams that did get in and actually pull some folks from some collapsed houses.

We have a couple of hams that are either EMTs or paramedics and they were in the area. They were able to render some assistance. With so many trees down and other damage, access to the hardest hit areas was possible only by walking in, Davis said. "We had hams who went in with handy talkies.

If they found injuries, they reported them to me and we passed that on and had crews walk in to where those injuries were."

Amateur radio was especially useful when the Tuscaloosa Co. Sheriff’s Department encountered coverage problems using its new SouthernLinc 800 MHz digital radio system. "It did not work well in certain areas," Davis said. "Amateur radio came in very handy and was a good back-up."


Overloaded public safety frequencies

With police and fire/rescue agencies responding from as far away as Lamar, Marion and Jefferson counties, the presence of extra emergency personnel posed a problem that amateur radio was able to help solve. "Since the public service frequencies were so jammed with so much traffic, amateur radio was one of the fastest ways to get through, since only certain people can get on those frequencies," Davis said. "Amateur radio was a great backup."

Once the storms ended, the workload for hams didn’t stop. Members of the West Alabama Amateur Radio Society and the Druid City Amateur Radio Association assisted the West Alabama Chapter  of the American Red Cross with shelter communications  services.  The agency initially estimated as many as 500 people were assisted. A large shelter was established at Shelton State Community College.

All but two TARC members were released from duty by 10 p.m., Davis said. One ham remained at the Red Cross chapter house and a second stayed on-site at the shelter. Davis said hams were also preparing to begin damage assessment team work starting Sunday morning, when Mother Nature was delivering a different challenge: Up to three inches of snow was reported in neighboring Walker county, and the wind chill factor was expected to remain below zero all day. Governor Don Siegelman arrived to view the damage.


Lessons learned

Davis, who serves as the radio club’s Public Service Coordinator, says his group learned valuable lessons in the tornado’s aftermath. "I think the main thing is to establish a real good working relationship with your public safety agencies. I think we’ll drill more in the future on what I call shadow communications—finding a public service official and sticking to him like glue."

The remnants of one structure tell the story of the beating the tornado brought during the storm's 18 minute lifetime.
Photo courtesy of National Weather Service

Tuscaloosa radio amateurs have been boosted in their emergency communications efforts by their relationship with county EMA Director Ron Hampel. The Club was able to purchase a new repeater, thanks in part to federal funding Hampel’s office helped arrange.

The combination of being able to see the tornado live as well as the awesome destruction has created a memory Davis says he will never forget. "This is my fourth tornado that I’ve been involved in one way or another since I became a spotter, and this by far was the worst I’ve seen."


Out of state helper

Not all of the hams who took part in helping provide disaster communications were members of the Tuscaloosa amateur radio community. A radio amateur from Indiana who was passing through the city at the time and had been monitoring the disaster checked in and offered to assist. Davis accepted the ham’s offer and assigned him to provide communications at a shelter set up for storm victims.


"Blessed to be alive…"

David Reed, K4DFR, a member of the Alabama Emergency Response Team, was close to ground zero.

"I was in Tuscaloosa for a birthday party at Englewood Baptist Church, and I saw the tornado touch down near the church in the Englewood community," Reed said in a message to ALERT members. "I first saw the wall cloud coming...it was as classic as it gets. Then the funnel appeared, and we went for cover inside. I was the first ham to report it on the ground in Englewood. It touched down and passed within 150 yards of our location. We are blessed to be alive today. Praise God."

Video regrets

Davis said one of his regrets about the afternoon was the fact that the city’s traffic camera system lacked any way to record the images it captured. That meant that the spectacular view he got of the tornado could not be replayed. "I really wish there was a video recorder hooked up to that. Unfortunately, we’ll never have that opportunity again, but that’s probably going to be taken care of shortly," he said.

How you can get more information

Cal Davis can be reached via e-mail at kf4lar@hiwaay.net. David Black, a broadcast journalist and video producer in Birmingham, can be reached via e-mail at david@firstframevideo.com.

For information about the Tuscaloosa Amateur Radio Club, visit: http://www.tusknet.com/tarc/

For information about ALERT, visit: www.alert-alabama.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TUSCALOOSA AMATEURS RESPOND TO SEVERE WEATHER
(December 20, 2000)

National Weather Service Warning Coordination Meteorologist Brian Peters, W4EPR, officially rated the tornado that struck Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on December 16th an F-4 on the Fujita scale. The storm killed eleven people, injured 65, and left dozens of homes destroyed or heavily damaged. Peters said the tornado was the deadliest in the United States this year. The same storm system was responsible for another tornado in Saint Clair and Etowah counties later the same afternoon. In all, Alabama was struck by at least three tornadoes Saturday, killing twelve people.

The West Alabama Emergency Net was activated at approximately noon on the Tuscaloosa Amateur Radio Club's W4KCQ repeater, with Cal Davis, KF4LAR, as Net Control. The net operates from the Tuscaloosa Emergency Management Agency's Emergency Operations Center at Tuscaloosa City Hall.

The first eyewitness to the storm was Chad Sanders, KE4ZZY, an amateur from Hazel Green, Alabama, who was visiting relatives near Ralph in the extreme southwestern part of the county. He reported a wall cloud to Davis, confirming the seriousness of the situation.

The EOC received its first report of a tornado from a volunteer firefighter in the Fosters/Ralph area, about ten miles southwest of the city, at 12:57 p.m. Howard Denton, KE4USL, operating directly next to Davis' position, was monitoring the volunteer fire frequency and passed the information directly to Davis and up to the EOC director, Ron Hampel, just newly licensed as KG4KRH.

This was confirmed by Michael Townsend, KF4YPK, minutes later as the tornado crossed Interstate 20/59. First reports of damage were in the Hinton Place and Englewood subdivisions along Alabama Highway 69. The storm then passed further east over the Springhill Lakes, Woodland Forrest, Cottonwood Park and Canyon Lakes areas, narrowly missing the JVC videotape and CD factory near Cottondale.

Most fatalities and injured were from the Bear Creek Mobile Home Park. Many of the severely injured also came from the Hinton Place subdivision.

Thirty-five amateurs played a role in stormspotting, with many more assisting in disaster recovery operations. One amateur from Indiana, Robert E. Osborne, KB9HFJ, was simply passing through the area and volunteered to help. Davis assigned him to provide communications at Pleasant Hill Baptist Church. Several hams with Emergency Medical training entered the area on foot to render first aid and establish a triage center.

Two amateurs, Chuck Beams, KG4EER, and Trip Harris, KG4DMH, captured video of the tornado as it roared across Highway 69, 1/4 to 1/2 mile from them. That video later was aired on Fox News Channel, as well as most local news stations. Tuscaloosa Emergency Coordinator Kirk Junkin, KC4ZMP, immediately established communication link with the Tuscaloosa Fire Department's Incident Commander on the scene and relayed information to the EOC through Davis.

David Black, KB4KCH, recorded most of the net on the TARC repeater and several audio clips are available on the Alabama Emergency Response Team website. Its address is http://www.alert-alabama.org.

As day wore into night, other amateurs activated the West Alabama Amateur Radio Society's W4WYN repeater and the Druid Amateur Radio Association's WS4I repeater. They established communications with the West Alabama Chapter of the Red Cross and three shelters in the stricken area. By 8:00 p.m., the Red Cross had consolidated all shelters into one at Shelton State Community College, within sight of the stricken Hinton Place subdivision.  The Red Cross estimated 400 people in the shelter at first. However, through the generosity of neighbors that opened their undamaged homes only two people spent the whole night in the shelter.

Don Hartley, KG4JLX, serves as Public Information Officer for the Tuscaloosa County Emergency Management Agency. Through the next several days he spoke to numerous members of the media, and gave interviews to, among others, Deutche Welle, the BBC, and Radio New Zealand.

Both the WAARS and DARA repeaters remained active until Wednesday providing Red Cross support as Damage Assessment Teams covered the stricken areas. The Red Cross reported that 124 homes were totally destroyed, 102 suffered major damage, and 220 suffered minor damage.
The TARC repeater was active through Monday, providing communications to and from the Emergency Operations Center.

For more Information Contact :

Cal Davis, KF4LAR
Public Information Officer
Tuscaloosa Amateur Radio Club
5429 Cedar Cove Lane
Northport, Alabama 35473

Telephone (205) 339-2882
Pager (205) 750-6304