A year ago I paused to take a quick shot of the turbulent sky, a mix of gloom and glory, of bright morning light and dark storm clouds. I posted it to Instagram with the caption “Skies, current mood: conflicted”. The tornado came from the south, a roaring scythe that destroyed thousands upon thousands of trees and hundreds of homes along Dallas Avenue before dog-legging into Old Town and destroying much of the state’s largest contiguous historic district, followed by much of East Selma for a second course, and then finally cut across the bypass that directs freight traffic around the north of the city to plow up areas around 14 East. It took perhaps half an hour to visit more devastation than this city has seen since the Yankees burned it at war’s end in 1865. It was surreal that so much had happened so quickly. Now, a year has passed, and where do we stand?
I’m no expert in these matters, of course, just a citizen who sees things. Cleanup is largely done: what which is still unfinished will remain so, like the exposed houses standing with their walls and roofs open to the elements whose absent owners couldn’t even be bothered to return and tarp them. Support from surrounding areas was enormous following the tornado: the town was flooded by utility workers who had power on in most places in only a few days, which is incredible considering the mount of damage. There were private utility companies, government agencies, and armies of volunteers helping to wrestle the remains of trees off of houses and cars, tarp homes, and start pushing things in the direction of normal. For weeks and months some streets were lined with barriers of fallen pine limbs because of inter-governmental issues, but they eventually disappeared. The main issue now is abandoned homes with absentee landlords: there are blocks in both Old Town and East Selma where ruins just sit, constituting eyesores and fire hazards. Although a lot of people have left Selma in the last year because of the storm damage, I suspect most of these absentee landlords were either gone already. Although there are groups like the United Methodist Committee on Relief who are partnering with locals (Church Street Methodist, St Paul’s Episcopal, etc) to rebuild new homes, it’s hard to imagine people wanting to move into neighborhoods marked largely by neglected ruins – which attract wildlife and pests, including teenagers with a penchant for arson. The fallen walls of the historic cemetery, Old Live Oak, have still not been repaired, which is a disgrace considering that the picturesque park is one of Selma’s tourism assets: the statue of Elodie Todd Dawson, Abraham Lincoln’s half-sister in law, is one of the most photographed in the state. Today, because history or nature have a wicked sense of humor, we’re again watching for tornadoes — though the threat level has been shifted from “Enhanced” to “Slight”.
Reading Freely 
A *YEAR* already! Wow, time certainly has jet-assisted wings, doesn’t it!
Time does fly, but it’s also relative. Someone was telling me yesterday that 2020 feels like yesterday, but it also feels like it’s still happening. Because of my work at the library, where I’m constantly helping people connect to FEMA, SBA, charities and the like ,it seems like Jan 12 2023 was just last week.
I hate tornadoes. If I knew we were moving into tornado territory (I thought it was only hurricanes), I seriously may have been apprehensive about moving to Florida. The natives here wave them off as small and insignificant, but I don’t. Every storm we are under tornado “watch.” Like how do you “watch” for a T in the middle of a dark stormy night?? I don’t know these things. But I really hate them.
How often are you under tornado watch? I know El Nino is really amping storms up in the South and MidWest, but in a regular year, is your area regularly on alert?
Glad to see there is progress for your community, but I agree that they should also work more diligently about historic sights. Unless they are thinking more of community-based issues need to be addressed first. ??
Tornado watches are fairly ‘normal’ in that they’re not unusual: we’re used to thunderstorms in the spring, summer, and fall, and those tend to produce watches. Selma has had more tornadic activity in the last five years, I’d say, than in my entire life: I know of one tornado in the 1980s, but don’t recall any serious threats when I was growing up. Before the St Patricks Day tornado in 2021 (which was outside the city, but hit an area that the 2023 tornado would also hit on its exit), the only serious system I remember is the April 2011 system that destroyed parts of Tuscaloosa. To be honest, most people don’t take watches seriously because tornados are so unpredictable and highly localized. Last year, for instance, we were expecting thunderstorms, ‘some severe’. When the sirens went off at lunch, it was a surprise. It’s that feeling when you know the odds are 1/100, but suddenly the dice roll and the odds are 1:1 and you’re the one.
Ugh, that’s awful. I was just thinking today that the day I experience one, it will be when we least expect it, and even the meteorologist will be caught off guard. Because since late fall, we have had several dangerous storms that have been really, really scary, and they warned us of potential tornadoes. But the storms ended up being short lived and weak. I understand why people take them w/ a grain of salt. Anyway, hopefully El Nino ends sooner than later.