This is the story of the EF5 Rainsville tornado from 2011. One of the strongest tornadoes of the April 27, 2011 Super Outbreak (and possibly of all time.) Be sure to subscribe if you enjoyed this video.
Rainsville – The Strongest Tornado You’ve Never Heard Of
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Hope you guys enjoyed this one! I put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into it!
Edit: at 12:30 when talking about the safe, I was told by the owner Tammy Robinson that the door was "never found." So I don't have an explanation for what could possibly be the safe door to the left. I'd assume with how long ago the tornado was, it's hard to remember small details like that. Hope this doesn't take too much away from the video. Love you guys <3!
Thank you for making this video. Tuscaloosa got all the attention and DeKalb County was ignored. Another EF4 or EF5 also came up Bucks Pocket. Paul Todd's video is an excellent capture from Lookout Mountain and shows the sheer magnitude of this monster.
It’s like EF4 oak lawn IL 1967 tornado/EF4 metro Chicago tornado because of what happened in the Belvedere IL EF4 2 hours earlier both hit the high schools oak lawn had more fatalities because it was in Chicago metro proper but Belvedere was mainly at the school my grandparents were in the oak lawn one and how the school was closed for months for repairs
I was 11 years old when this tornado came through Rainsville, living barely a mile from the redlight at the heart of the city. I'm 24 now, and that Wednesday was likely the most horrific experience I could've imagined ever being a part of. I'll never forget the harrowing feeling of my father leaving the house with our neighbor (a DeKalb County Sherriff's Deputy at the time) to go looking for the bodies of those lost in the path of the storm. In the following days we helped hand out supplies in the surrounding communities, and I watched as one family embraced then Governor Robert Bentley as everything they owned had just been swept away. In that moment I knew April 27th, 2011 would be a day never forgotten. The scars are still there, with the path of the tornado clearly visible as entire forests have huge paths taken out where the vegetation within it is much younger, new homes around that path showing where people have rebuilt what was lost, and lastly the memorial to all who died that sits outside my high school- constructed where the tornado touched down at 8:54.
In the background of the picture showing the mangled school bus lies a hidden story – in the upper left corner near the two cars through the fallen tree sits a commercial-sized cooler. This is all that is left of a Huddle House that was popular amongst the high-schoolers at the time (as a 5th grader I'd always watch the varsity football team run across the highway to go eat there during the day.) A kid in my grade, who's mother worked at that Huddle House, was there that day. Once the tornado began to form, they and all the customers and employees took shelter in that cooler and all survived. That cooler sat on that vacant lot until this past year. As many terrible stories there may be from this day, just as many miraculous stories such as this exist.
I've never seen a community come together as close as Rainsville and the surrounding areas did after this day.
I have indeed never heard of this one;
And indeed, I've never seen such a strong one.
Very good docu; with a very accurate title 👍
Very thorough and thoughtful video! Some of the shots people took are incredible!
WOO NEW VID
Crazy I never heard about this one till now.
Alabama is now more notorious than Oklahoma for tornadoes.
I heard of Rainsville Tornado on my high school history class I think either on my sophomore year (2020) or most likely my junior year (2021) after one of my teachers were aware it was forgotten.
I find it quite strange as to why would an EF5 tornado just be forgotten that not any local news media even made any further coverage of the damages and yet other tornado damages such as the Joplin MO (2011) or El Reno (2013) is remained remembered or discussed by anyone.
It takes the Deadman Walking for at 8:05
Imagine still perpetuating the exploding house myth in 2024.
Matt 24:7
I think part of the reason this tornado gets overlooked is simply because it was so late into the outbreak. People were already exhausted from all the other traumatic news coming in from the other violent tornadoes before it. I have always been curious about this tornado and why nobody really talked about it, so thank you for this video!
@12:30 just found the door underneath the safe…you can see it in the video 12:30
A
1:16 "The first storm cell erupts at 2PM… Then within half an hour, at 2PM, the storm immediately shows signs of being tornadic"
I dont think thats how time works.
This was just an insane year for EF-5s/Tornadoes in general. The Ringgold, GA EF-4 toward the end of the outbreak doesn't get brought up much either and that was a pretty nasty one. I guess when you have so many massive tornadoes in the outbreak(Tuscaloosa probably being the most visible nationally) and Joplin, monsters like this get passed over.
Just thinking about that outbreak as a whole, this tornado along with the other 3 EF5s at the bare minimum had windspeeds of 220mph. I'd solely argue that Rainsville was probably 250-265mph, because the damage that the bus received along with a well-constructed and anchored stone residence being mangled and swept is behavior only capable with the strongest of storms.
Rainsville honestly needed much more recognition for what it did, and i feel like it was overshadowed by the other storms greatly despite its' horrific damage.
Amazing Analysis, TornadoTRX. I can't wait to see more of your content ❤
Thank you for making this! This needs more attention
Multi vortex tornados are say aw inspiring
an above ground tornado shelter didnt stand a chance?
666
Not only was rainsville a powerful and invisible monster,but it was forgotten
Unsettling
Very well doccumented,better than Netflix true crime documentaries
“We have a tornado…. Heading towards….. this-a-way”
– famous last words
I know its not funny but the "OMG IT TOOK THE TREE" had me laughing lol
This tornado could’ve wiped a major populated area off the map and kept on churning. Wow. Mother Nature was ready to murder someone that day, and it did. This is Jarrell, TX levels of crazy twisting. A true dead man walking.
"It's not that bad, It's not gonna get me." Turns into an EF5 tornado and shifts Its path back toward her.
It's insane to me just how destructive WIND can be…
Wow! What a nightmare! It's pulling up asphalt? Ripping up driveways? How do you survive that?! Those people in the storm cellar were so lucky. That made my stomach drop when I heard it pulled up the shelter!! So storm cellars should be mandatory and be at least 10 feet underground. I hope this isn't in my dream tonight but it will be. I have tornado dreams all of the time. 🌪
The storm shelter getting heaving off the ground from the tornado was similar to the people sheltering in the Hackleburg-Phill Campbell tornado. It was strong that door was ripped off in which the people inside storm shelter were sucked into the storm therefore killing them.
Incredible editing! One of the best real time tornado videos I’ve seen.
Very well done so instructive I particulalrly liked that you mention people taking videos of the tornado at hand along with their precise geographic locations. It is alas riveting. RIP to all who perished and thoughts to all surviving families and forgoten communities.
Damm I live in Neshoba
This reminds me of what happened to Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina. I’m from Louisiana, and yes, it was devastating for us, truly catastrophic, but it was catastrophic for Mississippi too, and arguably they got hit harder initially by the storm itself, and no one ever talks about that it acknowledges what the people there went through.