Area municipalities help with cleanup after Sardis City tornado

Sardis City Mayor Russell Amos said he’s thankful there wasn’t devastating damage from an EF0 tornado that hit his city early Saturday and grateful for the help other Etowah County municipalities have provided in the clean-up.

The tornado’s path was 3.1 miles long and 250 yards wide after it touched down at 4:51 a.m. Saturday, according to a storm survey by the National Weather Service’s Birmingham office. It was on the ground for roughly 4 minutes, with winds estimated at 85 mph.

"We had a lot of big trees down and several homes damaged but not destroyed,” Amos said.

The storm survey said the damage path started with an uprooted tree along Coosa Road, and there also were trees downed at Morningview Drive and Hood Road, near Patterson Street, across Parkway and Alexander Drives, across Kristie Lane and Oak Drive, and at Horton Circle.

A shop had large doors blown out and the roof was partially removed from a church as the storm crossed U.S. 431. Homes at Morningside and Hood drives suffered significant roof damage, according to the survey, a shed and a fence were destroyed, and the failure of a garage door caused the collapse of a roof and walls.

Along Patterson Street, a house's roof, a silo, a metal shed and a privacy fence were damaged, and a falling tree damaged a house at Patterson and Church Road.

Pine trees fell through two mobile homes on Alexander Drive. Two residents of one of the homes were transported to an area hospital with what Amos described as minor cuts and injuries.

A home at Horton Circle sustained minor shingle damage, according to the survey. The tornado’s damage path ended after crossing Broadwell Road near its intersection with Sardis Drive.

Sardis City is no stranger to tornadoes. It had EF1 storms in both 2013 and 2014.

“There are certain places that are just in ‘tornado alley,’” Amos said, mentioning Arab and Cullman as other locations that often get hit.

“I hope it’s not that we’re attracting them, but we just live in an area where they tend to travel,” he said. “But we were fortunate that even though this one was devastating enough, we didn’t have houses destroyed to a major extent.”

Crews from Gadsden, Attalla, Glencoe, Hokes Bluff, Rainbow City and Southside turned out on Tuesday to help with cleanup. “We had 10 trucks from all the municipalities,” Amos said, “and we really appreciated their help.”

For instance, Howell Matthews, Gadsden's public works director, said the city sent three loader truck crews with grapple buckets that picked up nine loads each, equating to 50 tons of material.

Amos said a large portion of the debris was removed, but another cleanup day is planned in a couple of weeks.

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Cleanup begins after Sardis City tornado