Tuscaloosa Tornado Research Paper

April 27, 2011 a major tornado struck down in Tuscaloosa, Alabama killing fifty-two people. This tornado was classified as an EF4 with winds reaching up to 190 miles per hour. The damage of this disaster impacted everyone in the community of over 80,000. “Many public facilities were damaged or destroyed including two elementary schools, a nursing home, a fire station, and the city’s emergency operation center” (Rush, S. C., Houser, R., & Partridge, A. 2015). Commercial property was also destroyed, over 300 businesses were impacted by the tornado. The mental and emotional health of many of the survivors were affected “as the number of people seeking services from a local counseling service nearly doubled several months after the storm” (Rush, S. C., Houser, R., & Partridge, A. 2015). …show more content…
It was organized by a planning committee that consisted of university faculty from a college that was in the area of the disaster and representatives from charitable community organizations. A large amount of town and surrounding region members participated. “An international expert on rebuilding sustainable communities after disaster led the symposium” (Rush, S. C., Houser, R., & Partridge, A. 2015). The participants were broken up into three groups children and families, schools, and communities. “Each group created ideas that would lead to approaches to solving current and future disaster-related problems, including preparing for subsequent disasters” (Rush, S. C., Houser, R., & Partridge, A. 2015). Each group outlined a large number of recommendations that seemed to be