Three years later

Chris Callies could hear the unmistakable roar of an approaching tornado.

Instantly, his emergency response training kicked in, and he hurried his wife and 3-year-old daughter to a safe place. It was the morning of April 27, 2011, and from underneath a pool table, Callies and his family watched an EF-2 tornado slice an eight-mile path of wreckage across Cahaba Heights. 

“It felt like it was sucking the house off the ground,” Callies said. “I was watching trees fall outside the window from my safe place.”

After the tornado passed, Callies found a different world outside his house. Roads were blocked by debris, houses were heavily damaged, trees were splintered or uprooted and a dangerous array of toppled power lines and exposed gas pipes covered the ground. In the six minutes the tornado was on the ground, it had made parts of Cahaba Heights almost unrecognizable.

Now that three years have passed, Callies has seen a resurgence of homeowners and local businesses in the area. Through months and years of community effort, the neighborhood has been rebuilt and is thriving again.

The aftermath

The landscape immediately after the storm passed was bleak. Many houses had been subjected to the destructive power of flying debris, and almost no one had access to electricity or gas. Some residents were injured or trapped in their houses, but there were no working phone lines to call 911. Even if calls could be made, emergency crews couldn’t respond due to the number of fallen trees blocking the roads.

Efforts to clear the roads would take hours, so many residents began their own cleanup efforts. As a member of the Vestavia Hills Community Emergency Response Team, Callies began going door to door to make sure his neighbors were uninjured and accounted for. He saw residents repairing their homes, helping neighbors remove debris and taking chainsaws to the trees blocking the road. 

Milton Baker, one of Callies’ neighbors and a Vietnam veteran, was helping to clear debris and rescue trapped neighbors that day. He had taken a break from helping when a broken tree limb fell and struck him on the head. Nearby emergency personnel attempted CPR, but Baker was pronounced dead before he could be transported to the hospital.

In the retail areas of Cahaba Heights, business owners hurried to their stores to see what could be saved from the tornado damage. The Cahaba Heights Village shopping center was especially hard hit, and some stores, including Manhattan South and Serendipity Boutique, lost their entire inventory in one morning. The awning of Serendipity Boutique was smashed and the entire roof was lifted from the building and dropped back down. Samantha and Vicky Jones, the owners, had not gotten to work yet and did not even know about the tornado until they saw their store on the news.

“All of a sudden you look and our roof is missing and it’s collapsed all in front,” Samantha Jones said. “We were just in total shock.”

Beginning to rebuild

The ensuing weeks saw a massive cleanup and rebuilding effort by the community and official emergency management agencies. The city removed an estimated 300,000 tons of debris and spent more than $800,000 on repairs and cleanup. Electricity and gas capabilities were mostly restored within eight to 10 days, though access to cable, landline phones and Internet took about a month to be reconnected. Some sidewalks and roads, destroyed by uprooted trees or traffic from emergency management vehicles, also had to be repaired.

Many residents vacated their homes, staying with family or friends as they dealt with insurance companies and returned their houses to a livable condition. Some families were able to return home within a few months, while others took more than a year.

“It was horrible. It was so depressing,” said Lisa Jackson, a Cahaba Heights resident whose home, cars and lake house were damaged that day. “None of us had ever seen anything like that. And I hope I won’t again.”

Jackson and her family had to stay with friends and relatives for six weeks before they could go back to their house.

“We were very fortunate to have people who would take care of us,” Jackson said. “It just reminded us what’s important.”

Stores and homeowners who hadn’t been heavily affected were quick to provide help wherever they could. Churches and student groups were especially active during this time, delivering food, water and supplies to residents across the area.

“I think a lot of the local businesses and local residents appreciate the community in whole for stepping up,” Callies said.

The damage to area businesses varied widely. Ray Jordan, co-owner of Flowerbuds, said his store experienced minimal damage and was only closed over the weekend, though he recalled a few days of preparing floral arrangements using the light coming through the front window. Serendipity Boutique, located only a few storefronts away from Flowerbuds, was so badly damaged that it couldn’t be reopened until August. 

Lost inventory and construction caused heavy financial strains, which were compounded by months of slow sales as the area recovered. One of Serendipity’s neighbor businesses, the Nesting Place, had to shut its doors for good that summer. The other businesses in Cahaba Heights Village, however, were up and running again within four months of the tornado.

“We had great reception from all of our customers. They were just so happy,” Vicky Jones said about reopening Serendipity. “That’s the good thing about this community; it seems to be real close-knit and support the businesses, which is important.”

Returning to normal

Three years later, most signs of the damage have disappeared. Houses are rebuilt and inhabited again, and most businesses have seen their profits recover to pre-storm levels.

“The small business community here in Cahaba Heights rebounded well, but it took a while,” Callies said. “For the most part, most of our residents, our small businesses, our churches have all come back.”

“We [Flowerbuds] are pretty much, I think, exactly on track as to where we were before,” Jordan said.

However, business owners and residents across the area sorely miss the abundant trees that were destroyed by the tornado. Though the city and some other organizations sponsored some tree plantings as part of the rebuilding, these young saplings will take years to replace the towering trees that once sheltered Cahaba Heights.

“Obviously, I’ve never been able to see the Summit from my daughter’s bedroom window, but now I can,” said Callies, who would like to see another replanting effort. “I think that’s the only thing we don’t have long-term: just the trees and the forest seclusion that we all enjoyed in this community.”

Callies has also seen an expansion of the Vestavia Hills rescue team group. The group had about 15 members before the tornado, but now more than 60 people attend its emergency preparedness training sessions and drills. If another devastating storm strikes Cahaba Heights, more residents will be able to safely handle cleanup and rescues.

As the tornado’s damage recedes into memory, there is a widespread sense in Cahaba Heights that good things are still being brought out of a terrible tragedy.

“I think the hard things you go through definitely make you more aware of people’s lives and how special and precious they are,” Vicky Jones said.

“I feel like us having to go through that was God’s way of saying ‘OK, you’ve lived it, now you can be understanding and do the same for somebody else,’” added her daughter, Samantha. “Any time you can inspire somebody or give them hope or fill an immediate need — whether it be clothing, food or just a hug — you just do it. You don’t think twice about it.”