This is a liveblog to continue to cover the tornado outbreak occurring across the southeastern United States tonight and tomorrow. As of 1014PM CDT, the AP reports that 64 people have been killed since this morning, and that death toll is unfortunately increasing steadily as rescue crews make their way through the rubble and assess the damage.
Keep trolling, meta, political cheap shots and dickish comments out of here, the folks getting slammed by these storms appreciate it.
As of now, it appears that the worst tornado was one, large, long-track tornado that tore a path from Mississippi towards the northeast through downtown Tuscaloosa, several suburbs of Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, going through northern Birmingham, then continuing on to Gadsden AL and into the Rome GA area. There are numerous reports of extensive loss of live and unfathomable property damage in this and other tornadoes that touched down today, part of an unprecedented 9 day tornado outbreak spanning from Texas to Michigan, over to New York, back down to Georgia and everywhere in between.
ABC 33/40 out of Birmingham was an invaluable source throughout the day, with the stations amazingly informative, professional and determined meteorologists staying on air from before sunrise until well after sunset to cover the storms and keep the public ahead of the storm.
ABC's radars have a built in "Significant Tornado Index" algorithm, measuring the possibility of a significant tornado on a scale of 1 to 10. The tornadoes that went through these heavily populated areas registered a 17.5 on the scale that's only supposed to reach 10, a testament to the power and ferocity of these storms.
The station's SkyCams caught amazing images of the tornadoes as they tore through Tuscaloosa and Birmingham.
Tuscaloosa:
Birmingham:
Here are some links to use to track the storms:
-National Weather Service
-Storm Prediction Center
-Wunderground
-ABC Birmingham AL
-NBC Atlanta
-NBC Knoxville TN
-NBC Nashville TN
-NBC Asheville NC
-NBC Roanoke VA
-NBC Greensboro NC
-NBC Charlottesville VA
-NBC Washington DC
-NBC Charleston WV
-Previous Tornado Diary
I'm going to bed, it's been a long day. The floor is yours. Stay safe, everyone.
Video of the Tuscaloosa, AL tornado: