'Time marches on:' City leaders remember victims, heroes on 10th anniversary of tornado

Apr. 28—On a day that called for remembering the past, some called to look to the future.

Tuesday marked the 10th anniversary of the most devastating tornado in Tuscaloosa's recorded history when, at approximately 5:13 p.m. on April 27, 2011, a mile-wide, EF-4 tornado tore across the landscape, upending homes, businesses and lives in an unyielding, 5.9-mile path of destruction.

It damaged or destroyed more than 12% of the city — 5,362 homes and 356 businesses, included — and either directly killed or contributed to the deaths of 53 people.

But now, with a decade of recovery, rebuilding and restoration behind us, Tuscaloosa is ready to move forward.

"This is a day for us to remember and to reflect," said the Rev. Matthew Wilson, the incoming councilman-elect for District 1, "but we also rejoice because we know that Tuscaloosa, Alabama, is a resilient city.

"We will continue to press forward until we get to the point that our city is better than it has ever been so that our community will be able to receive the goodness and the greatness of its impact."

Wilson delivered these remarks during one of three simultaneous ceremonies of remembrance hosted by City Hall.

The ceremonies at the Rosedale's Harmon Park, Forest Lake and Alberta were held to unveil memorial markers — placed between two new, iron benches at each location — to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of the storm that devastated each of these communities.

Small crowds gathered at each site, like those residents from the Forest Lake community who came to the City Walk Bike Trail a couple of blocks from the neighborhood's namesake lake that had collected the remnants of lives and homes when the storm passed through.

Tuscaloosa City Councilors Raevan Howard and Lee Busby, alongside outgoing Council President Cynthia Almond, spoke briefly after an honor guard comprised of men representing the Tuscaloosa Police Department, the Northport Police Department, the University Police Department and Tuscaloosa Fire and Rescue presented the national and state colors.

"This area certainly bore the brunt of the storm and had much to overcome as it built back," said Almond, who spoke of growing up in the area and, as a child, riding a bicycle through Forest Lake's neighborhood streets. "While some of the challenges have been difficult, there have been many positive outcomes as well. ... But perhaps most important have been the relationships that were formed in doing all of this.

"Time marches on and we have all but returned to life as normal. While we will not forget the suffering, the loss and the ensuing challenges, we are grateful for the sunshine today and look for to an even brighter tomorrow."

Busby, a retired Marine, told of getting a call from his wife while serving in Kabul, Afghanistan, and immediately returning home to find a landscape much like the one he had just left overseas.

"Because I was able to observe Tuscaloosa in snatches separated over time, the rebuilding and the recovering was, if anything, more dramatic and more easily seen," said Busby, who first took over as the city's District 4 representative in 2019. "For the next eight or nine years, I was able to see Tuscaloosa no only recover, not only rebuild, but come back better than the Tuscaloosa I had left in 2011."

Outgoing District 1 Councilwoman Phyllis W. Odom, who joined Wilson and Mayor Walt Maddox in Rosedale's Harmon Park, agreed that the city she has been serving since 2015 has returned better than what was before the storm.

And as she leaves the seat that Wilson will officially take on May 17, Odom said she is hopeful that her fellow residents are recovering, too.

"We pray that you are adjusting, as hard is it may be — physically, emotionally and spritually — so, my prayer today is that we can do better together," Odom said. "We have survived this tornado and we will build until we get our city the way we want it."

In Alberta Park, which has arisen from arguably the hardest hit area of the city, city leaders remembered where they were when disaster struck and who stood up to begin clearing the wreckage.

"I'll never forget that day, ever," said Councilman Kip Tyner, who has represented Alberta, where he was born and raised, as part of District 5 since 1999. "The crackling sounds of the power lines, the smells of the gas, people screaming and running. People desperate. I'd never seen such desperation in my entire life. 'Where do we go? What do we do? My home's gone.' "

Around 65% of Alberta was destroyed by the tornado, but in the decade since, both public and private investment has constructed across that span of destruction a new landscape.

The Alberta ceremony itself was held in front of the park's dancing water fountain, encircled by palm trees, just a few dozen feet from the recently opened North American headquarters of worldwide engineering firm SWJ Technology.

Within sight were other manifestations of rebirth, post-tornado: the Alberta School of Performing Arts; digital library The Gateway: Alberta's Innovation and Discovery Center; the Tuscaloosa Tennis Center facilities; and new police and fire stations. Tyner also shared a vision of more retail outlets coming or returning, "just right down the street."

"This is a new day for Alberta, and we're so excited about it," he said.

And across all three ceremonies, thanks was paid not only to the first responders who rushed to the aid of the trapped, scared or injured, but also the residents who volunteered to do the same.

"Everyone was helping their neighbor," said District 7 Councilwoman Sonya McKinstry, who first took elected office two years after the storm. "It didn't matter what race you were, it didn't matter what religion you were, it didn't matter what political party you were. It was just helping your neighbor, for anything they needed. That's what it was all about. Nothing else mattered."

District 6 Councilman Eddie Pugh, a retired Tuscaloosa firefighter who also was first elected in 2013 alongside McKinstry, agreed.

"I've never been as proud to be a firefighter as I was that day," Pugh said, "but I'm also proud because I saw many, many heroes that day."

Members of the Tuscaloosa Police Department weren't simply protecting and serving in the hours and days following the storm, he said.

"They were serving and saving; they were rescuing," Pugh said. "But what made me proudest was when I saw neighbor helping neighbor. It didn't matter who they were. They were a neighbor, and they needed help."

Prayers of thanks, hope and remembrance also were delivered at each of Tuesday's three ceremonies, touching on the days of sorrow and the loss of hope to the community's willingness to answer a call and join together across generational divides.

And it was Maddox, while serving his second term as mayor when the tornado struck, who said that he, too, found strength in both his faith and the resolve of his constituents.

"There were many times where I, too, felt like I was throwing rocks against a battleship — that every problem we faced could not find a solution — but there was always hope," Maddox said. "So on this day, let us remember — and also, let us never forget — that confident hope that stills burns inside of all of us, and will continue to flame that hope moving forward in our future.

"This is a journey that this city did not ask for, but we didn't take it alone. We conquered it together."

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