HARVEST, Ala. — On April 27, 2011 Madison County first responders were sent across the Tennessee Valley to help the multiple towns hit by the earlier rounds of tornadoes. But that afternoon, their own community took a direct hit. Although ten years have now passed, many memories are still tough to look back on; other memories are just a blur due to the chaos created by the multiple tornadoes.
"It was just one after another, after another, all day," explains Walter Daugherty, a Field Supervisor with HEMSI. "It was like responding to a train wreck and before you got to the train wreck, another train wreck happened."
"I was actually on the road towards Cullman, as Cullman was actually being hit, and I got about half way there and the folks in Cullman called and said, 'Hey, I think we are okay, we don't need those trailers just yet.'" says Kenneth Burke, an Operations Supervisor and Paramedic with HEMSI. "Well about that time Madison County started getting hit by these tornadoes, so I had to make a U-turn on Interstate 65 and come back to Madison County."
Many of those ambulances and fire and rescue crews were sent to the Anderson Hills neighborhood in Harvest. Anderson Hills is no stranger to tornadoes, but responders say this time the damage was much worse. The tornado turned beautiful homes into rubble.
"When we arrived, we of course seen the destruction," says Will Boatright, a Special Operations Captain with Huntsville Fire and Rescue. "But then at that time we were informed of a second tornado coming, and we were actually parked on Highway 53 when the second tornado came overhead of us, and of course landed farther east."
"There was a moment when it was like, 'Oh Crap.' You start listening to the calls that come through and you start hearing things like you know, trees down, roofs down, they are starting to call in more trauma-like patients," says Cynthia Wilson, a Training Manager with HEMSI.
As first responders searched for injured people in Anderson Hills, businesses just across Highway 53 were destroyed as well. The Piggly Wiggly grocery store was one of the businesses that was completely torn apart by the tornado, yet somehow the people inside survived.
"It was full of people," explains Brent Patterson, the Spokesperson with the Madison County Sheriff's Office. "What they did, they got into the cooler, which they felt like was probably the safest place, and it was the safest place at the time, to be from the tornado. You know, nobody got hurt."
Just south of the Piggly Wiggly and Anderson Hills, another neighborhood in Madison County was hit.
"We were actually redeployed to Yarbrough Road and Stovall," says Will Boatright with Huntsville Fire and Rescue. "At that point we did find some people over there, of course survivors, there were some deceased in the area, but they had already been found."
"There were times when we were just taking multiple people in one ambulance to the hospital at once, which is something on an everyday basis we typically do not do," shares Kenneth Burke with HEMSI. "We only do those type of things in those disaster situations."
253 Alabamians died on this day. Nine of those people were in Madison County. The youngest victim in Madison County was just a teenager and the oldest was almost 80-years-old.
"Folks had to assess the injuries that were not viable, they were deceased persons at that point," explains Cynthia Wilson with HEMSI. "You know, they had to deal with that, and that's tough. That's tough to deal with."
"That was the hard part. The hard part was finding people that had passed and knowing that we knew this was coming, and unfortunately that it turned out the way it did," says Brent Patterson with the Madison County Sheriff's Office. "We still grieve with those families to this very day that lost those nine."
The day after the tornadoes, the work was just beginning. Across the street from Anderson Hills, first responders set up shop at the Redstone Federal Credit Union, which was one of the only buildings not flattened. This was the headquarters for the weeks following the storms, so that responders could efficiently run search and recovery operations. With power lines down and families looking for loved ones, the search proved to be difficult.
"It doesn't always necessarily mean that they are missing because they were killed or blown away by the tornado," says Kenneth Burke with HEMSI. "They may be at a shelter somewhere, and of course, cell phone service is limited because all the lines are jammed and there is no electricity."
But among the pain in Madison County, were everyday heroes. Responders say the volunteer fire departments played a huge role that day and in the days following the tornadoes.
"You know, you get people who they have lost everything they had, and everything they will ever have, and the volunteers they really do help out, even if they have lost themselves," says Walter Daugherty with HEMSI.
That selfless love is what pulled this community through. Ten years later, and neighbors are still helping neighbors. It is a type of compassion and strength that no tornado can ever destroy.
"It just shows the resiliency here in this community," says Brent Patterson. "You can't tell there has been a tornado here, but the scars are there, and will forever be there."
These first responders all said that in the past ten years they have found even better ways to respond to these types of events. They also wanted to take a moment to remind people that this is why you need to have a plan when there is a threat of severe weather.
