By State › Alabama

Alabama: Overview

Download all of Alabama as PDF Print

Everything in the main manual and the skill guides applies in Alabama exactly as written. What’s different here is the specific hazard profile and the state, local, and legal context around it. This page is the starting point; the other three pages under Alabama go deeper on laws, local resources, and the data behind the risks named here.

April 27, 2011: the deadliest day in Alabama’s tornado history

Georgia’s page on this site covers the April 2011 Super Outbreak’s Ringgold-Apison tornado; Alabama absorbed far more of that outbreak’s total damage than any other state. On April 27, 2011 alone, 62 tornadoes touched down across Alabama, including the Tuscaloosa-Birmingham EF4, which killed 64 people along an 80.7-mile path, and the Hackleburg EF5, one of only four EF5-rated tornadoes in the entire outbreak. Alabama’s statewide death toll from the outbreak exceeded 230, more than any other state affected. See the Risks page for the full data.

Hurricane Ivan: a direct hit on the Alabama Gulf Coast

Alabama’s coastline carries real hurricane risk independent of its tornado exposure. Hurricane Ivan made its first U.S. landfall near Gulf Shores, Alabama on September 16, 2004, as a Category 3 storm with sustained winds over 120 mph and a storm surge of 10-15 feet along the coast into Mobile Bay.

What this means for how you use the rest of this manual

The manual’s Tier structure and the skill guides apply without modification. What’s different in Alabama: tornado season preparedness, a safe room, a weather radio, and a practiced shelter plan, deserves the highest priority this manual gives it anywhere, Alabama’s death toll from a single day in 2011 makes the stakes concrete, and Gulf Coast households need hurricane evacuation and storm surge planning on top of that.

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