EF0 Tornado Tears Through Andalusia RV Park
One of the homes in the RV Park was flipped over and smashed by the tornado.
Storms are nothing new for Brian Jones. He was in an area hit by Hurricane Katrina, and didn’t think anything could be worse than that. After experiencing the tornado that tore through the Andalusia RV Park he lives in, he changed his mind.
“Between the two of them, which one would I rather go through? I’d rather go through Katrina again. This was worse than Katrina was,” Jones says.
Jones lives in the RV Park off East 3 Notch Street, and also helps out with the park maintenance. He was in his trailer when the tornado touched down, and considers himself extremely lucky.
Brian Jones lived in the area hit by Hurricane Katrina but says his experince in the Andalusia tornado was worse.
“I was laying in the bed, relaxing,” he remembers. “And all of a sudden the winds picked up, and then it died down. All of a sudden there was pressure. A lot of pressure in my head, my ears, my eyes felt like they were fixing to pop out of my head. And it was basically over in like three or four minutes, it was over.
“When the storm actually hit, I mean my trailer went up about six foot in the air and came slamming down twice. Trailer right next to me, I mean it come up about six foot cleared a motorcycle and actually rolled twice before it came down at a stop.”
Many of the homes in the park were flipped, knocked over, or pushed into one another by the winds. Jones says he and the other park residents didn’t hear the tornado sirens and weren’t able to get to safety before the tornado came through. Even though no one was able to take cover from the storm, county officials report there were no serious injuries to anyone in the county.
EMA Director Susan Harris says the tornado moved into the area extremely quickly, which is unusual outside of tornado season.
“The peak season is March, April and May! So we’re not there yet, but as you can tell, in our area, a tornado can happen any time of the year, any time of the day,” she says.
Residents figure out how to flip a knocked over trailer upright.
Jones says the owner of the RV park plans on staying open, and he plans on staying in the park to help others clean up.
Three Andalusia churches are offering help to those who suffered storm damage. St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, First United Methodist, and First Presbyterian donated money and laundry supplies to the Rubber Ducky Laundromat for storm victims to wash their clothes. Volunteers say they can come to the laundromat Thursday night from 4-7 PM to clean their clothes free of charge.
