In 2019, Lee County, Alabama Saw the Deadliest Day of Tornadoes in Six Years

On March 3rd, 2019, 40 tornadoes touched down in Alabama, Florida and Western Georgia. Many of these tornadoes caused damage, but none so catastrophic as the one that hit Lee County, Alabama.

Storm chaser, Scott Peake was on the scene, and saw it develop from a rotating cloud base to the full-fledged monster tornado it became.

"I saw the first signs of a developing tornado when I saw how rapid the wall cloud was rotating," explains Peake. "This prompted me to make my first tornado report. A tornado warning was issued about the same time as I made my report. The next thing I knew, a 'tornado emergency' was issued. I knew I had to get north to be able to see it to make more reports, so I turned north on CR-29 and went a few miles north. That’s when I saw just how large it was. As I drove up to the tornado, I could hear the thunderous roar as it went by me."

"It was so large, it looked like the entire storm base was on the ground," he continues. "I tried a few more times to make phone calls to emergency services the second time around with no luck, the lines were down."

After the storm subsided, Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones told reporters that 23 people had lost their lives, and many others were seriously injured. The East Alabama Medical Center received over 60 patients that Sunday evening. A number of homes had been reduced to rubble.

“This is a day of destruction for Lee County. We’ve never had a mass fatality situation, that I can remember, like this in my lifetime,” Lee County Coroner Bill Harris told WSFA News.

Harris’ assessment is spot on. Climate.gov considered the tornado to be the deadliest to hit the United States since 2013.

The emergency responders who were on the ground that day, and many days after, were similarly overwhelmed by what they encountered. Tim Hatch, Deputy Director in the Center for Emergency Preparedness at the Alabama Department of Public Health, was on standby since that Sunday morning when tornado warnings first started rolling in. He himself heard the tornado sirens and had to take shelter in Montgomery County where he was attending church.

By 4pm, he’d received a call from the State Mortuary Operations Response Team (SMORT) to bring a refrigerated trailer to Beauregard because the coroner estimated 20 deceased. “We had 6 SMORT team members on site assisting the Lee County Coroner for ~24 hours,” recalls Hatch. “There was complete darkness, power lines and trees down everywhere and the strong smell of pine pitch in the air from all the debris.”

Despite the massive volunteer response, however, the work ahead was gargantuan. The tornado had spread debris across the area. Numerous houses and mobile homes had been decimated and were now nothing more than splintered piles of rubble. Septic tanks had been damaged or completely torn out of the ground, which disrupted access to plumbing and clean water for many. It would be weeks before some parts of the county started to look like they did before the storm, and months for others.

Hatch says he has noticed an uptick in particularly dangerous tornadoes in Alabama in recent years. This falls in line with a 2019 study that found what’s commonly referred to as “Tornado Alley” in the US appears to be shifting southeast. This is troubling for a number of reasons, but perhaps the most significant is that tornadoes are now hitting more densely populated areas, and thus capable of causing a lot more damage.

But Hatch says his department is ready. “We take severe weather preparations very seriously,” says Hatch. “Hurricane season is June 1 to November 30, but in Alabama, tornadoes are possible 24/7/365.”

The key for a state like Alabama that frequently sees strong storms of all shapes and sizes is making sure all the corresponding departments are in sync so they can call on one another at the moment a new threat is imminent.

“We work closely with our state EMA and participate in severe weather exercises, planning, promote personal preparedness, contribute to PSA's and weather awareness campaigns,” explains Hatch. “Alabama's response community is a close-knit group that works well together, and ADPH leads the way in caring for those who were affected by disasters.”

Tornado preparedness

Here are just a few tips from their “Are You Ready?” preparedness guide for when a tornado strikes:

• If home, find a windowless, interior room ideally at the lowest level of your house to wait out the storm.
• If outdoors and nowhere near a building, lay down in a ditch or low-lying area.
• Have a helmet in your emergency kit as it can protect your head from flying debris.
• And speaking of your emergency kit, it should also include non-perishable food, water, first aid, medications, a flashlight, radio and extra clothing.

Tornadoes like the EF-4 that hit Lee County last year can be devastating, but if you take steps to prepare for them, they don’t have to completely destroy your life. And if your life does take a toll, rest assured that experienced response teams are coming to your aid.