Shoal Creek/Ohatchee Tornado

By Nathan Young on April 23, 2012

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/bmx/?n=event_04272011ohatchee

This week on Geek Alabama we are going to remember the 4-27-11 tornado outbreak. Over 250 people in Alabama died on that day and it still haunts many people to this day. Today we want to highlight the Shoal Creek/Ohatchee Tornado. This tornado was from the same super-cell that spawned the Tuscaloosa/Birmingham tornado. The Shoal Creek valley was devastated by this tornado. The tornado then crossed Neely Henry lake into Calhoun County and tore through the northern part of the county. The tornado then went into Cherokee County then onto Georgia.

Parts of the tornado path was over a mile wide. And damage was strong enough to classify the tornado as a EF-4. Over twenty people were killed and many more were injured. I drove through northern Calhoun County on U.S. 431 going home a couple of hours before the tornado went through the area. And the area is still not the same today. A sign was donated and installed in the Shoal Creek valley area in honor of the people killed and injured and for the volunteers who helped after the storm.

From My Fox AL

This was one of the many destructive tornadoes that struck Alabama on this day. Over the week Geek Alabama will talk about five tornadoes to strike on that day. Here is some videos of the tornado crossing the lake and going by a house.