News from Alabama and ANDY

[PWR_Brad]

Let me start by saying that me and family are safe and for that I am very thankful.

Yesterday was a long rough day. Started at 3am with tornado sirens that lasted till 7pm. I have read there were 75 tornados in Alabama alone and over 100 total within this specific storm system. Almost all of northern Alabama is without power and they dont expect it to be restored for 7-10 days. Our power has been intermittent and as of right now we do have power.

Over 300 confirmed deaths making this the most deadly storm since 1947 or something like that. We have no gas at the stations and most stations have no power. There is a curfew from 8pm to 5am and they are enforcing it strictly. I-65 is closed from birmingham to huntsville.

At one point we had 5 tornados on the ground within 30 miles of us with one being 12 miles away. Justin and his family are OK and they were 2 miles from one of the tornados and actually have mail in their yard from someone in Mississippi which is 50-60 miles away.

Here are some videos/images










These 2 pics were taken today 5 miles from my house
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This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image.


The tornado 12 miles from me and 2 miles from Justin
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These are pics from my house.
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This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image.





One of my wifes employee's house. Yes there is a house under that tree.






Our county is in the top left-hand corner circled in purple.


A nuclear power plant shut down automatically as the worst outbreak of tornados to hit America for many years downed power lines in three southern states.

Regional utility the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) reported blackouts in much of northern Mississippi as well as parts of northern Alabama and southeastern Tennessee as a result of the tornados and high winds. President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency in Alabama to allow the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate relief efforts. Almost 300 people are reported to have been killed by the storms.

TVA said it had never experienced anything like the passage of several storm systems through its 80,000 square mile service area. Each one caused more damage to transmission lines until over 100 transmission elements were knocked out and some 677,000 homes left without power.

The three boiling water reactors at TVA's Browns Ferry nuclear power plant in Alabama shut down automatically with cooling systems powered by "a combination of offsite transmission and on-site diesel generators." However, the shutdown was notified as an 'unusual event' to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission "when the normal and alternate power supplies for essential equipment were unavailable for more than 15 minutes." TVA stressed that "safety systems performed well."

The plant shut down on 27 April at 4.36 pm and units 2 and 3 achieved cold shutdown at 2.43 am and 5.45 am on 28 April respectively. TVA said that unit 1 was was being cooled and the priority now was to get that reactor into cold shutdown as well.


I feel very fortunate that all of my family is safe and many prayers go out for the families of the 300+ people who lost their lives.

During this time, we will not be able to do much in the form of order fulfillment and shipping. We hope to be back up and running ASAP and we apologize for the inconvenience.

[Adanac Charger]

Wow!

A big storm here only gets to about 90km/h (55mph) and a few branches come down. I can't imagine what those storms would be like. The sirens in the one video were enough to freak me out.

Glad everyone is safe!!
.

[08OrangeKrate]

Glad to hear all of you are safe! When I heard about the storm this morning, I wondered if you guys were ok. Ran through one in Arkansas on the way home last week when I was there.

~to hell with tuning for E-85... I'm going to run my PWR 426 on ALABAMA SWEET TEA! I hear you pick up 2 tenths if you race with your T-shirt off..

[robsrt]

Glad to hear you and your family are safe. Prayers to go to all the people affected by these storms.

[concussion]

wow. Glad everyone is safe and doing well.

If you guys need anything let me know.

[dwhip]

Prayers go out to all the families that lost love ones. Glad to see Andy, Justin and their families are ok

[JCnBOYS]

Wow, just wow.
So glad to hear that you all are ok. Let's keep it that way.

[Jaak]

What they all said. Happy you and your family are safe!

[scoot13]

Same here, glad you guys are safe! Can't believe those pictures!

[PWR_Justin]

thanks for the kind words guys,

its been a bad few days for sure, i still have no power at my house and looks like it will be a few days tops. the main focus right now is finding the missing people. So there really is no clean up going on at all at the moment.

[higshemi-less]

Mother nature is simply incredible, watching the destruction on CNN right now. Speechless.