(WILMER, Ala.) The National Weather Service headed out to survey tornado damage along the Alabama and Mississippi state lines Thursday. Meteorologists measured the damage to confirm the number of storms and just how big they actually were. They looked at everything from the metal ties that hold structures down to snapped trees.
There were three tornadoes on Christmas day in our area. Two in Mobile County the other near Picayune Mississippi. "Our mission today is actually to go back here and see if this tornado path here actually extends further southwest, " said Jeff Garman with the National Weather Service.
A tornado hit around 7:30 p.m. Christmas day along the Mississippi-Alabama line.
"I needed to see it the tornado went a little southwest of here but I see no evidence. It looks like unfortunately you guys are where it sat down, " said Garman.
This is a fact finding mission which includes talking to those who experienced damage.
"My grandpa got scared the most probably he quit talking yesterday after the loud noise came in he started talking the next morning. But other than that it is what it is. It's all fixable, everybody is alright, " said Moses Baraniuc, whose home and work trailers were hit by the tornado.
All the information gathered here, as in all storms, is about the science that will lead to saving lives.
"These tornadoes that occurred the other day were close enough to the radar sight where you could see down low. What we are interested in with this event is to see how well that matches the wind speeds we are estimating from the damage on the ground . We go to back and try to learn from that for our warnings in the future," said Garman.
Warnings that save lives. Betty Eady who was inside her trailer when the tornado hit knows she's thankful.
"That little trailer shook. I just thought we were gone man, but God spared us. We tried to do right for the Lord," said Eady.
