Tornado's in Birmingham

[Dispatcher]

When you think of tornado's, you think of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri.
But another hotbed of severe weather is Alabama. In 1974, I was 20 years old and living with my brother in Birmingham. I have never seen or been anywhere near a tornado, and I preferred to keep it that way.
During the summer of '74, there was a record number of tornado's reported across the country, and a record number in Alabama.
One particular hot summer day in Birmingham, there were 3 tornado's on the ground at the same time. My brother and I lived in an apartment complex just a few miles south of the city. He was still at work that day, and I had just come home from work. As I watched the tornado reports on the TV, the sky outside began to turn pea green. It started raining hard and then the hail came, the size of ball bearings at first, and then much larger.
Not knowing quite what to do, I called my brother at work. "Don't panic," he said. "This happens all the time around here. It's no big deal".
So, I went back to watching the weather reports. I was just about to find out which way the tornado's were going when the power went out.
Now it was raining even harder and the wind started blowing HARD.
I heard what sounded like a freight train coming and I instinctively headed for the bathroom. On the way, I looked out the window and saw some trees bent over to the ground and some broken off right in the middle. I got in the tub, covered myself with a blanket and waited. What I didn't know at the time was that the tornado had been bobbing about the hills, touching down, then raising back up. When it hit the apartment, it hadn't quite touched down again, and that is what saved me. When it was over, I went back into the living room. I could not believe what I saw. We lived in a valley and the rain water and red clay from the surrounding hills was now 2 inches deep in the living room and kitchen. The grocery bags that were being used as trash bags were floating about the kitchen like sailboats. And the red clay kept seeping in under the kitchen's sliding glass doors.
I started piling furniture on top of furniture, trying to save what I could.
I piled my $1000 drum set on top of the couch.
Then I called my brother. I said, "Hey big brother, we have 2 inches of water and red clay in the living room and kitchen, the big tree in the backyard is snapped in half, and half our roof shingles are missing. I have piled all the furniture in a heap in the living room. What do I do now?"
"NOW you can panic", he said.