Leighton, Alabama: S&M Equipment Company Security Camera Catches Tornado Video

I guess people need S&M equipment like everything else. Not sure what they make, but I am sure what Google Ads thinks when you use maps.google.com to look up their address and geoloc. Strange how things happen. Just last week we were eating at the Moose Cafe near Sandy Ridge, not far from the T2T route. Two strong storms came through, and at least one touched down as a tornado in Greensboro near Sandy Ridge. Tractor trailer trucks were blown over and vehicles blown off of Interstate 40 near NC 68 (very close to Volvo Trucks NA where Tour to Tanglewood starts and finishes). Only nine miles or so away, I barely had any rain, and only mild winds. The storm passed north of me, coming within about 8 miles from me at its closest I think. It was within a couple of miles of Greensboro Country Park but there seemed little damage there...less than many thunderstorms have produced. I skated at GCP the next day and only twigs and misplaced mud, small rocks, sand and hay from the grass seeding were evident. The storm produced radar signatures I've never seen, certainly not here. On the television coverage I saw for the first time that beyond purple and magenta there's a black then a white intensity level. On the broadcast, they said this meant hail of 2.5 (black) and 3 (white) inches were likely. When at the park yesterday, the park employee mentioned that they had tennis ball sized hail at their house. Greensboro was extremely lucky to have only one death as far as I know (a man sleeping in a tractor trailer truck). Credit goes to three of the television stations in our area, especially WXII-12 (also WFMY-2 and WGHP-8). They started covering this storm while I was still at the park skating (and I saw the threatening sky then I started getting Accuweather emails to my yahoo box, which also ring my phone, so I knew something was brewing, but didn't know much more than that until I was home). These three stations covered the storms live for almost eight hours. I especially enjoyed the WXII coverage, which was intense and informal, displaying the radar and notations but also showing the two weather broadcasters at work on their computers from a side angle. They worked as a team and it reminded me of the early days of television when it was live with mistakes and even communication from off-set as news came in live. These three stations provided a huge service to over a million people in our viewing area, and I am sure that many lives were saved since people whose homes were hit all seemed to have already gone to the basement or other safe place. This was technology in service of humanity at its best. Thanks WXII, WFMY and WGHP, plus Accuweather, YahooMail, Sprint and of course the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, OK, and the rest of NOAA and the NWS. Oh yeah...eebee was able to watch (from Georgia) the live streams of at least two of the broadcasts via the internet. What a world!