Tornadoes rip across lower Alabama and Georgia; Are You Prepared?

Powerful tornadoes touched down East of Auburn and South of Opelika, Alabama in Lee county Sunday. Auburn is roughly 30 miles southwest of the GA/AL state line along I-85. Another touched down in Talbotton, Georgia in Tolbot County about 20 miles East of Columbus, Georgia. They may have spawned from the same super-cell storm given that a line between the 2 locations is roughly East by Northeast. The warnings caused thousands to seek shelter. As of this writing 23 are confirmed deceased and the search through damaged areas continues as access to them is cleared of debris. Images of the areas affected on local news outlets show serious devastation. Mobile homes, as usual, are hardest hit, torn from their cinder block foundations and utterly destroyed. Traditional frame homes that survived at all no longer have roofs. The telltale signs of tornado winds are the trees which are now only 8 to 10 foot trunks with the rest of the tree twisted off and thrown about like toothpicks. A cell phone tower was twisted and thrown to the ground as well.

For those that have not seen our bug out bag video (below), now would be a good time. Even if your disaster plan is to ‘bug in’ or shelter in place, you still need to be prepared in case of disaster and there is no longer a home to bug in at and the area is too littered with debris to make a decent camp.