[Music] This Tornado is one of the strongest to ever touch the Earth but just hours after flattening towns it was already forgotten it's late April and per usual it's raining at the Storm Prediction Center in Oklahoma forecasters watch a low pressure system deepening across the entire United States churning up an ominous mix of energy this isn't just another spring storm the ingredients for intense destructive weather are converging warm moist air surges northward fueling potential storms with explosive power meteorologists know something is brewing but the scale is still unknown with each passing day the models paint an increasingly dire picture the atmosphere is primed for Extraordinary violence and the question just from not if tornadoes would occur but when and how extreme would they really be by April 25th forecasters worst fears are confirmed the South braces for a potentially catastrophic weather event this is the Prelude to the infamous 2011 Super outbreak a day that would spawn over 200 tornadoes and forever etch itself in history books in the skies near Jackson Mississippi the first storm cell erupts at 2 p.m. its Fury barely concealed within half an hour at 2: p.m. the storm immediately shows signs of being toric by 2:30 p.m. a thin deceptively fragile looking tornado descends near Philadelphia this this is merely the opening act but unbeknownst to those in its path the true horror is yet to be unleashed the tornado remained relatively thin but the power within the core was extremely powerful within just a couple of minutes this thin tornado would show signs of extreme strength debarking trees and completely flattening homes that were unlucky enough to be in the direct path a tornado emergency the highest level warning for a tornado was issued for the county of noova at 23 6 p.m. almost simultaneously the small core intensified dramatically as the pressure inside dropped due to the sheer energy presence the soil beneath began to rip away revealing a 3ft deep trench of solid clay trees began to not only just get debarked but have pretty much every limb violently ripped away almost like they were sanded down to Stubs as the tornado track Northeast homes were essentially exploded inside out from the pressure difference and then blown off their foundations until there was nothing left more chunks of soil were ripped away and as the tornado crossed over a road a chunk of the asphalt was ripped away just as quickly as the tornado would form it would lift however causing millions in damage and sadly killing three people the supercell still had a long way to go before it would give up though the storm began to create a new area of rotation in a process called recycling a small ef1 tornado would brush the ground and pick up as the storm seemingly Cali seated its structure and just after crossing the border into Alabama another much larger tornado would instantly touch the ground this tornado would become one of the longest track tornadoes ever causing extreme ef4 damage in the towns of reform in Cordova Alabama nearing the end of its path the storm began to shift towards the Northeast as a tornado absorbed into the storm signifying its death by now over 60 tornadoes including three e5s had hit Alabama in the super outbreak seemed to be decreasing in intensity as the sun began to set the strong and prolific tornadoes that had occurred were now being broadcast to millions and rapidly gaining notoriety however our single storm the same one with enough power to produce two record- breaking tornadoes was hardly finished at 6:00 p.m. storm began entering Sand Mountain an area near Northeast Alabama with the strength it had if a tornado could form it would parallel the devastation we had seen prior the storm already had an amazing structure and a great environment but even more extreme meso analysis which looks at atmospheric conditions on a local scale showed that at 6:00 the northeast corner of Alabama had some of the best moric or spin in the atmosphere it also had the highest Cape values which is a measure of the amount of energy storms have to feed on this area is exactly where the storm was going it almost almost seemed like a ticking time bomb and the fuse was about to ignite at 6:22 a cone lowers from the base of the storm and soon wispy tentacle-like vortices reached down this Behavior was most likely indicating a struggle between the very ingredients making it possible you see the extreme Shear allowing the storm to rapidly rotate into a tornado was also too strong making it that any formidable structure would become overwhelmed by the Spin and get torn apart so the thing is if this tornado is able to find a balance that is stable enough these ingredients will morph from a handicap to a steroid fueling and sustaining the tornado egregiously 2 miles away on County Road 432 Charlene Stevenson a young photographer gets a tornado warning on her phone as she peers outside her window she sees something strange looming above the trees and grabs her camera to record what's going on it's not it's like here it's not going oh my God I took the tree oh my God what you just saw is that in just a brief moment Charlene captures the tornado as it cuts straight across her backyard and while it seems nowhere near her trees just a couple feet away are torn out of the ground suggesting a deceiving appearance with extreme winds stretching far out from the visible funnel cloud the tornado crosses through trees and houses seemingly picking and choosing to tear roofs or flatten out buildings it crossed the south end of f Alabama ramping up to possibly ef3 intensity but still it's so unstable mobile homes in the direct path were rolled and destroyed unfortunately killing an elderly woman taking shelter in one trees nearby were now being taken down in big swaths and a half of a chicken farm was obliterated soon The Vortex was approaching the town of Rainsville at over ef3 intensity and it still hadn't stabilized morphing around like a bellowing cloud of smoke but as it crossed into the city limits a sudden change began to happen Tony walls grabs his phone and Records what's happening is in just a handful of seconds the tornado went from invisible to massive right in the middle of town at this exact moment a handful of well- angered homes are swept completely off their foundations as it crosses the highway businesses are flattened with practically nothing left hundreds of vehicles are lofted and mangled beyond recognition including a school bus that's thrown across the street from the high school parking lot stripped down to the bare chassis and then slammed into the ground mangling the metal frame to the stay this is some of the worst damage ever done to a vehicle Carmen mcferson and her husband Jeff feel the winds over a mile away and record the now colossal tornado Zoom past their house this is the tornado just passed over our house oh my word god is so amazing oh Jeff is it coming back this way while Carmen and Jeff recorded outside the tornado's path others lacked that luxury such as Mom Cindy Nome who noticed clouds spinning in the distance and ran to her porch to observe she also captured the moment the tornado grew into a massive monster except this monster was heading straight for [Music] her oh my [Music] god oh jeez it's SL attempt oh Heavenly Father Heavenly Father pausing right here the winds were probably some of the strongest ever documented due to the damage it inflicted next an exceptionally well-built Stone home is hit head on by the core the entire structure is cracked and violently ripped off its foundation and Scattered into dust chunks of the foundation itself which were built multiple feet into the ground were cracked with concrete supports heaved up out of the ground trees in this area are debarked turned into stubs or in some cases turned into dust as the EF5 winds past the stone home a 50-ft chunk of the asphalt road is torn off by the winds unfortunately one of the first fatalities of the tornado occurred in the home the winds were still increasing though more trees are pulverized and a couple homes on the side of a block are swept away though terribly anchored to their Foundation causing them to slide off easily the center of the tornado crosses over a huge twostory brick home and flattens it it crosses a small forested area before emerging right over the Robinson's home near County Road 180 this is where the tornado would make a name for itself the multi-story brick home is torn off its anchoring lifted into the air and Scattered into dust leaving nothing more than the bare Foundation the Robinson's driveway is stripped of its Asphalt in incredibly rare feet their porch made of pure concrete is shattered in chunks of the concrete are blown away into forests and Ravines but possibly the most insane of all is what sat in the home was an 800 lb steel safe anchored into the Earth but that didn't matter to the tornado as the safe is ripped off its anchoring tossed 200 yard and warped its pure steel door is ripped off and never found again if you thought that was the extent though you'd be wrong on the same property was an underground storm shelter while the Robinson drove away in their car avoiding the tornado other neighbors hid underground the winds as if almost targeting the neighbors somehow heaved the storm shelter up out of the earth and tore chunks of the door and covering exposing the people inside luckily with the for speed nearing 70 mph the wind subsided before anyone in the shelter was hurt as if the tornado solely spared them because of how quick it was moving the Robinson's home was gone however and vehicles such as Colt Robinson's truck were turned to unrecognizable balls of steel damage around this area is possibly some of the strongest documented but the tornado itself would only become more terrifying at this point the tornado had been traveling for nearly 15 miles and had been causing EF5 damage for nearly a quarter of that but most people had no clue this was happening you see just a couple minutes before the supercell would enter the area the KTX Radar Site went down forcing meteorologists and citizens to use radar from much farther away and subsequently much lower quality in fact if it wasn't for last minute decisions to begin treating storms in the outbreak more intensely it would have been possible no warnings would have even been put out for the storm unfortunately though it was there and nearing a mile wide more large homes north of the Robinson are swept clean and there's evidence that over a dozen strips of asphalt were torn away here the suction of the vortex is now strong enough to rip away grass and top soil leaving a lighter color to the ground as the dirt beneath is exposed to the Northeast Callen wal films The Vortex approaching his home in the video the tornado is still enlarging suggesting it still isn't even at its peak stability or strength at the same time the video is being filmed a small mobile home park is sideswiped by the winds taking every single home and pulverizing it other well-built homes are slabbed as well and a line of large trees are fully debarked without any branches left unfortunately multiple deaths would soon follow as the same neighborhood where Kalen was filming takes a direct hit dozens of well-built homes are Swept Away trees turn to dust and portions of a sidewalk are ripped away he emerges from the dust to find his home was one of the only ones to escape the winds intact as most of his neighbors are injured and killed with their homes essentially gone countless homes continue to be battered as the sun is Now setting making the already horrific tornado even more unsettling Carly Windsor films as the tornado flattens an entire block of large homes a church and then crosses into a forest the video ends with a tornado Crossing County Road 590 just to the north on 591 is the Thompson family they hide as their home is one of thousands flattened but in some miracle the entire family of six survives through the rebel Wayne Thompson stands up in shock and pulls out his phone taking one of the most unbelievable images of all time the tornado is seen practically leaving the scene of a massacre as neighbors nearby scream for help with some not making it believe it or not the tornado isn't even halfway done with its path but what it's doing is almost redundant home after home family after family community after Community is wiped away in mere seconds while most tornadoes vary in intensity Raini did not maintaining EF5 strength through the communities of henagar and Ider the latter of which being where 20-year-old Holly Gothard shot the tornado approaching we have a tornado p fors this away mama daddy where Y at where youing another view of the tornado is seen as Paul Todd captures the tornado essentially from above it the tornado is now beginning to encounter extremely mountainous terrain climbing Heights of nearly 2,000 ft before plummeting down valleys of similar height the winds do not falter however maintaining extreme intensity and shredding forests fortunately due to the mountainous terrain no homes are being hit at 7:05 p.m. the tornado crossed the border between Alabama and Georgia and turned straight North over the town of Rising Fawn simultaneously weakening at an incredible Pace until the tornado became nothing once again this is the part of the video where I would include some sort of news after after maath or reports or something the truth is though there really isn't any the tornado that just went through Sand Mountain was on no one's mind the lack of radar coverage from the storm the remote locations had hit the mountainous terrain surrounding the communities all the other tornadoes it all led to Silence from major relief in media but most of all no one really cared compared to other storms in fact two tornadoes an ef4 in Flat Rock Alabama and an ef4 in Bridge Port Alabama ravaged more popular areas to the north another ef4 one of the longest of the outbreak also hit areas of pedmont to the South not to mention the strong tornadoes from the exact same supercell that produced the rainfield tornado and the hundreds of other ones throughout the outbreak it just drowned out anything happening in Sand Mountain the violence of the tornado wasn't going anywhere though local police dodged the annihilated landscape reports described nothing left of multiple communities if the damage was undescribable Cassie white described the devastation was nothing I had ever seen before people on their land where their house once sat kids picking up toys bodies and destruction she shot footage of it while escaping with their children it took days for the National Weather Service to even survey the area and even longer for them to find evidence that would allow them to upgrade it to an EF5 to this day the rainel tornado is often considered the Forgotten EF5 tornado with very little information or coverage and the people of Sand Mountain are still struggling to recover from what was left of what used to be the community if you enjoyed this video consider subscribing