Getting a taste of fear while riding out tornado warnings in Alabama

Feb. 3, 2012: Storm Shelter in Madison County, Alabama.

It may not be rare to see a storm or two during the month of March. But it's safe to say that the storm on Thursday, March 2, 2012 was a rarity.

Homes, business and lives leveled from Alabama to Indiana. It's impossible to predict how long the destruction will take to clean up.

A tornado occurrence didn't just happen once Thursday, it lasted all day and into the night, hitting some spots more than once.

And it all started in Northern Alabama, the first state to feel the wave twisters. Our crew arrived in Madison County where folks just finished rebuilding homes after the devastating tornadoes on April 27, 2011.

One woman telling the media the last check to contractors was in the mail. They thought the ugly chapter was over.

Another woman, Becky Hubert remembers storms coming through in the 70's and the pain of rebuilding since last year.

She was gathering family members when we talked to her, standing on a storm shelter watching yet another tornado on the horizon, heading in our direction.

"They give you the warning and sometimes-- you know you look at them and you go - I don't know if it's going to hit," she said. "This particular time, I knew when I came out of my house, I knew. I didn't even look back."

Her home was destroyed and now with this second storm, she assumes more damage.
People crammed inside the shelter which was no bigger than 20 x 20 ft. They took a break from tacking on that blue tarp and moving tree limbs from roadways. We saw a lot of neighbors helping neighbors.

We got a little taste of what residents feel.

"It's salt on an open wound. It's been a reminder of last year around this time when all the tornadoes went through," said Jake Kilgore as he hunkered down in the shelter with us. "Just a hectic day trying to clean things up before the second round comes through and making sure everybody is alright."

The sirens were blaring and the massive cloud came over us. The shelter was rain wrapped making it hard to decipher a cyclone, only seeing a huge mass that luckily only lasted a few moments. But during that short time we saw golf ball size hail and felt a temperature drop of 21 degrees.

It was one fast cold front.

Despite the fears people here in Alabama say they feel blessed with no fatalities, adding that the damage is all material.

"It is what it is. Things happen for a reason. God is still God and he's a good God," Hubert said. "It's material things. It hurts at the time, when you go outside and see the destruction but all of this is material things you can replace but we can't."

Hubert prays for the ones who lost their lives, as we all do. Mother Nature holds no prisoners.