Story from the Huntsville Times
Tornado deposits items in Waterfront, South Sauty areas
A home security alarm system bleated as the scent of fresh pine wafted across the south shore of South Sauty Creek where a tornado had devastated the area Friday.
The National Weather Service classified it as an F-2 on the Fujita scale with 130-mph winds. Official touchdown was 3:06 p.m. at Waterfront Cove on Alabama 79, where trees were toppled in the aluminum boat dock parking lot and houses were destroyed before it crossed the lake to Langston and South Sauty.
Davey Lance of Huntsville and Tim Gillispie of Fyffe were on the lake practicing for a bass tournament when they decided to tie up at the South Sauty store boat slips. The area is just upriver from Church House Slough.
"We tied up the boat and got inside the store, and the sirens went off," Lance said. "I figured the boat was a goner."
Gillispie said the storm moved quickly.
"They said it was eight minutes away," he said, "but it was nearly on top of us when we heard that."
The boat slips are only covered by a roof. Although homes on one side and an RV camper park on the other were severely damaged, the boat docks and watercraft tied up in them appeared to be fine.
"There wasn't a bit of debris in the boat," Lance said.
But there still is plenty of debris in the water.
The Alabama Marine Police is patrolling the areas 24 hours to provide security. Boaters are advised to stay away during the cleanup and exercise caution in the areas.
In the South Sauty cove, an aluminum V-hull boat was wrapped around a tree and a second boat was tossed several yards inland. Boat docks and boat houses were splintered. Channel marker buoys ripped from their anchors in South Sauty Creek on the main lake floated at the shore.
The jagged end of a 2-by-4 stuck up near the campground, either impaled in the lake bottom or as part of a larger piece of submerged debris. Chunks of wooden boat docks floated along with life jackets, lawn furniture, swimming floats, tree limbs, appliances, mangled sheets of tin and other items.
Fishing guide Mike Gerry is among those picking up the pieces after his home in Waterfront Cove was destroyed.
"It looks like when the tornado hit it just sucked everything from the top down," he said. "The boathouse is all messed up. We spent all day (Saturday) with the adjuster trying to figure out where to start."
