Pain, loss linger a decade after tornadoes hammer 6 states
Associated PressBIRMINGHAM, Ala. — For Tom Sanders, it’s the void left by the death of a cousin and the man’s wife, killed when a tornado mowed through a placid Alabama valley. “I don’t know if it’s a day to remember, but it’s a day you can’t forget,” said Colburn, the mayor of tiny Hackleburg, where 18 died in an EF-5 twister with winds estimated at 210 mph. Kay Ivey ordered flags lowered to half-staff on Tuesday, which she proclaimed a statewide day of remembrance for a “horrible event that has impacted the state of Alabama forever.” Storms that began in eastern Texas mushroomed by the time the line reached Mississippi, where one twister was so intense it scoured 2 feet of dirt from the ground. “He basically held him in his arms, and then finally Albert told him that he felt like he was fixing to die and, ‘I just want you to know I love you, daddy,’” said Albert’s cousin Tom Sanders. When the weatherman is talking about bad weather or they speak about a tornado that may be coming, it all comes flooding back.” Located about 95 miles northwest of Birmingham, the town of Hackleburg lost nearly all of its 30 or so businesses, two schools, 180 homes, several churches, a doctor’s office, pharmacy and most municipal buildings to the twister, said Colburn, the mayor.
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