Up Close and Personal with the Brent Tornado – May 27, 1973

Clanton resident John Brasher was a reporter/photographer at the Centreville Press back on May 27, 1973. He was covering the operation of the NWS Radar Station at Centreville/Brent when he and the staff there became a part of the story. He was gracious enough today to share his acccount. He also has an excellent website about the day.

Here is John’s account…

May 27, 1973, 34 years ago today, was also a Sunday. But this was a very different kind of day. The air took on that certain “feel” that is indicative of possible trouble ahead. At the time, I was a photographer/reporter for the Centreville Press and thought this might be a good opportunity to head down to the Centreville radar site to document their operations during severe weather. Turned out I was right.

The staff at Centreville radar that Sunday afternoon were Dale Black and Bob Coe. Dale was the radar operator. Bob’s primary duty was manning the teletype machine, passing information along to the National Weather Service Forecast Office on West Oxmoor Road in Birmingham.

The weather situation turned very serious, very quickly that Sunday afternoon. Dale was tracking tornadic storms that were popping up before him on the radar screen almost constantly. A steady stream of warnings went out from West Oxmoor that day based on teletypes from Centreville radar.

Then, late in the day, a monster storm in the making, indicated by a very distinct hook echo, appeared to our southwest. I was standing beside the radar console, watching Dale work when he first saw what would become Alabama’s longest track tornado. He worked the radar controls, scanning up and down the height of the storm and plotted its anticipated path on the radar screen. I’ll never forget Dale saying that if the tornado held together, it would pass right over us. It did hold together.

A tornado warning went out almost immediately for counties upstream. The Centreville radar continued to track the storm as it worked over Greensboro and targeted Bibb County. The radar site and Brent, about 8 miles to the northeast, were in the crosshairs.

After the warning had gone out, the weather guys and I walked outside to the northwest corner of the building. We wanted to see what the conditions were like. Dale or Bob, can’t remember which, made the comment that the wind felt like it was coming from a blast furnace.

That steady, strong wind, which I think must have been at about 25 or 30 miles per hour, was indeed a very warm wind. And it carried a “sweet” smell, like that of freshly cut hay. I’ve never felt conditions like that before or since. It is something you don’t forget. After being outside for a couple minutes, we went back into the station.

A few minutes later, as Dale was at his console, I was standing in a hallway door that lead into the teletype room. Bob was at the teletype sending a message regarding another storm in another part of central Alabama that was also being tracked.

Suddenly, Bob and I felt very sharp pain in our ears. It was an abrupt and dramatic drop in atmospheric pressure. Bob looked up at me with an “uh-oh” expression, for lack of a better word. I’m sure Dale felt the same thing. We all met in the hallway and headed for the lobby of the building. That room had glass almost from floor to ceiling and faced north. We watched in amazement at everything but the kitchen sink swirled around and past those windows. Then we realized that maybe it wasn’t the best idea to be standing at that particular spot. We retreated to the hall.

Seconds later, I felt what reminded me of fine grain sand hitting my face and arms. The roof of the building was rapidly peeling away. Dale and I dove into an office, and onto the floor, beside a sturdy office desk. I don’t know where Bob ended up as the storm struck with full force. The F4, borderline F5, tornado effects ended as fast as they had started. The three of us were unhurt, but not unaffected. Strangely enough, a telephone line was continued to operate for a short time.

Centreville radar had been blinded and dealt a crippling blow, but weather guys were still able to get word out of the situation and what was coming for Brent. “We’ve been hit” and other info was phoned in to Oxmoor. And Bob Coe was able to reach his wife at home in Brent to make sure his family took shelter. Minutes later, the house was totally destroyed. Bob’s family was safe after having taken refuge in an interior closet.

We walked outside to inspect the damage. The radar dish had been blown from its tower and lay on the ground no more than 20 feet from the office Dale and I had jumped into. The roof was two thirds gone, and the rest of the building looked as it had been sand blasted.

The Brent Tornado went on to kill 5 people in Brent and continued to Mt. Cheaha. Several days later, Centreville Press published Jim Oakley and I followed the path of the storm in a plane from Brent to Columbiana. The tornado never lifted from the ground as it followed highway 25 the entire way.

It was a day not easily forgotten.

A little humor in a bad situation…the tornado had worked us over pretty good. With nothing left to do at the radar site, Dale, Bob, and I headed to our cars to try to get home.

Bob and I had fairly new vehicles and several windows in each car were blown out. Dale had driven his old “fishing truck” to work. it was fairly beat up even before the storm. But all of his windows were still intact. Dale gave Bob and me a lot of grief about how his truck had come through unscathed. We watched Dale pull out of the parking lot on onto the road. At that point, the rear window fell out of his truck.
Justice prevails.

I don’t know if he got one or not, but Dale Black deserved commendation from the weather service for his work and keeping on task that day.

About our contributor…
John Brasher was born in Birmingham, and raised in the Shelby Community in Southeast Shelby County. Born in B’ham, raised in Shelby community in SE Shelby County. He worked darkroom for a while at the old Waldrup Studio in Mountain Brook. He attended the University of Alabama and was taking classes there in 1973 while working in Centreville. He had been in Centreville only two weeks prior to the Brent Tornado. The night before the storm, he was covering a rodeo in Centreville. His photo on the front page of the Centreville Press that week showing Brent Baptist Church, sign, and clock won the Best News Photo from the Alabama Press Association for 1973.

Thanks John for that outstanding story…

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