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Subscribe to RSSSquinting through the jet lag of my three flights in 24 hours (New York-London, London-New York, New York-Tuscaloosa), I was met at the airport by two of our colleagues. We set off from the airport onto local roads, then the interstate. The air smells wet, and carries the unmistakable smell of freshly exposed wood — the sheer tonnage of snapped, uprooted and shredded trees that this storm left behind, and the distinctive aroma that is released when a tree's insides are suddenly splayed open. The new air is trying to push in, in the wake of the raw energy that worked its way through this countryside. Our drive is typical of our work: We often arrive in places where tragedy is fresh, where others are being kept away or told to leave.
In our case, we were violating a 10 p.m. curfew by being on the interstate. And then, in keeping with the sweeping, swinging, twitching elephant trunk nature of an unpredictable monster storm, we come upon the first random prong of damage: cars in a pile, overturned violently and clustered around an underpass. A lone Alabama trooper, no doubt pulling his second 24-hour shift, stands guard with strobes flashing. Highway signs and steel water tanks are part of this entanglement. Huge piles of collected straw, grass and other small debris, inconsequential in the scope of this but notable on a normal day, are everywhere. And then they're not. The next mile of highway shows no scars. Our motel parking lot, miles from the heart of the damage (many other motels are damaged or without power or water) is full of freshly minted rental cars and well-worn news vans.
During our impromptu staff meeting in the lobby, while a flat-screen TV incongruously blares Oprah's interview with Rob Lowe, the manager approaches and tells us, solemnly, that the motel, as he gently puts it, "has been touched by this tragedy." My friend Garrett, sensing the sensitivity, took him around the corner for a chat. The manager tells him his front desk clerk, a 22-year-old working her way through college by working the night shift at an interstate motel, is gone. Her father is here. My eyes fill up — for a lot of reasons: the dread that I feel on assignments like this one, the sheer sadness of her loss — just a nice kid, not from a fancy family, but wanting a degree from Alabama and doing the work it requires. She's someone's pretty, lovely angel, and one man just a few floors below me is coming to grips with the fact that his life will never, ever be the same. And of course I'm thinking of my own 23-year-old daughter, suddenly so very far away from me in New York, and what I will say to her in an email tonight — and what I'll say to a torn-up, grieving father when I meet him. I will ask if there's anything I can do. But I imagine he'll say no.
There will be a lot of this tomorrow. Sadness. Kindness. Acts of volunteerism that are breathtaking. And entire vistas of scorched, upended, sanded and all-but-vacuumed earth.
The effort to educate more Americans to the dangers of tornadoes (badly needed and needs to be virtually nationwide) will owe its new urgency to this disaster. Put as simply as possible: 300 Americans, people from around here who were doing nothing wrong, were killed by highly energized air, over-fueled and perversely formed into a freakish vortex vacuum capable of doing to the surface of the earth pretty much anything the human mind and imagination can come up with.
I note another one of our guys has dropped off a bag of beef jerky in my room. It made me smile when I saw it — not just because of their kindness (the act of hunter/gathering as presented to a fellow man) but it’s the sheer utility of it that strikes me: That bag and its contents will be my staple meal in this region where restaurants are rubble and where local victims in need should always and unhesitatingly be given what food and other supplies are available.
This is going to be a long haul. One man in this hotel is working through the realization that he's not getting his 22-year old daughter back. For others, the need will be money, food, nails, boards, blue tarps (FEMA blue, we call it). But it's all about need here. And loss. And the people who, undamaged in any demonstrable way, are just going to have to live with the image — the knowledge and lifelong memory of having seen a monster, of historic size, the day everything changed in Tuscaloosa.
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Brian,
Thank you for coming to Alabama. I am a faithful watcher of NBC Nightly news, and think it speaks volume that you turned around once you landed in England. Will you be coming to North Birmingham? Where will you be broadcasting the news? Id love to watch live?!
Thanks!
Dear Mr. Williams,
I lived in Montgomery as a child and attended Auburn University as does my niece as freshman at Auburn this year.
Although I now live in the Northeast, the state of Alabama is a very special place filled with humble, generous and wonderful, wonderful people who work hard and enjoy the beauty of their state very much. They are particularly proud of the state university system and I cannot imagine the the alumni and faculty and U of Alabama community are just in shock.
Your post was so eloquent. Thank you for respecting this southern soul of our nation at their time of great suffering. They deserve no less.
So a couple got married, who cares. people are infatuated with this ceaseless drama because they have no life. Then again any other news to take my mind off mankind self destructing helps. There should've been protesters at the wedding. Thousands spent on a wedding when their economy is in shambles.
Thousands, 10mi? Try millions.
wrong article, try again
You seem like a person with no life, ironically making statements like, 'SO a couple got married, who cares?' Was it your money that was spent? So if you really don't care, why bother with leaving a comment? And ah....get a life.
I find it refreshing to see that you and your staff did the right thing. You could of just stayed where you were with all the pomp and what ever goes with that, but instead you saw what needed to be reported {the right way} so thank you. My preyers go with you for all that you have to go through to get the news to all of us. God bless.
How very well written. How extremely difficult it must be for you, emotionally, to go from the pomp, silliness, crowds that is London to being in what is left of Tuscaloosa.
Both extremes happening over a two day period.
I applaud your efforts to try and make sense of what happened - to realize that the tragedy is much more important, more real than the fantasy wedding you were scheduled to cover.
It was difficult to watch the videos of the approaching tornado, knowing that some lives were about to end and many more were about to be permanently altered.
So many are suffering real pain and are in need some way to cope with what happened. By telling the story, by sharing the pain, I believe you are doing a real service to help the people cope.
My heart breaks for that father even as I rejoice with tremendous gratitude that my daughter, 18 and a student at the University of Alabama survived as the tornado passed right over the house she was in with a group of friends from the University that was located on 13th Street. Even though I am a pastor, I cannot answer the whys--why his daughter died while mine survived. I will continue to pray for him and for all who lost loved ones, expecially those who are still searching and hoping that they will find their loved one alive.
Powerful words. I am very proud that you recognized the more important story and came back to the U.S. for this coverage and appreciate your sacrifice (jet lag-sleep deprivation). I am a big fan of Nightly News. Be safe.
Heart goes out to these people - very well written
YOU ARE A TRUE caring human being and I Thank You for all you do.............
This makes you realize how fragile life is. I hope that the Insurance companies will repay those that lost their homes...It could have happen to my wife & I sitting in our Family room in Marietta, GA the night of the storm.
There is really not much I am able to say...
Mr. Williams,
Your well written and heart felt post brought home to me the depth of this tragedy and your reasons for doing this heart-wrenching work of covering a story like this. I think we all have become cynical and disenfranchised with news in this country. It is refreshing that there are news people such as yourself that really do care and are not afraid to share that emotion.
While it will be personally difficult for you, you are doing us all a great service and I very much applaud your work!
73s, Greg Evans, K5GTX
Mr. Williams, when I read your words it is pretty clear how you became the Managing Editor. Thank you for sharing with us not only the news, but also the feeling of the devastation. Enjoy your jerky.
An absolutely beautiful piece of humanity...thank you.
Beautiful statement on such a sad event. Thanks for helping us know more.
I am a dedicated viewer of NBC Nightly News. The sincerity I hear in your comments and reports is commendable, so I was not surprised that you chose to return to home base and cover this tradegy in Alabama. People from across our state are heartbroken for those touched by this event. My prayer is for the individuals who are suffering and also for the Emergency personnel, volunteers, and those who are meeting materials, food, shelter, emotional and physical needs.
Brian
I always watch your news. This article captures my feelings and I am sure of most of the emergency responders in the United States. As an Emergency Management Director in southwest Missouri I watch the radar displays of these terrible storms as they were born. I prayed they would spare my City of 15,000 and day after day watched as the storms moved south of us. I watch with horror as they formed close to my in-laws in Arkansas and then in the next 24 hours grew so large the cells covered mutiple counties and while I could pray for the people in the storms path I knew many would not survive. Your touching thoughts are the very core of our emotions during these events. Until people wittness nature's power first hand the power, they scoff at warnings and the need to prepare with safe rooms, underground personal shelters, or a plan of where to go to be safe. Your discriptions of the aftermath or so vivid, because unfortunately I too have experienced that moment in time just after the passing of hugh storms. We always say they will re-build, but life has always changed and will never be the same.
Thanks for your dedication
My thoughts and prayers go out to all the parents who are dealing with the loss of a child. I simply can't imagine the grief they must be dealing with. Our 20 year old daughter is also UA student. She lived in condo at University Downs on 15th Street about a block from McFarland and watched the tornado come towards her and a group of her friends. They ran inside a ground floor unit to take cover, when they returned the world as they new it had changed. The text messages I was sending her were telling her to meet your ground floor neighbors a tornado was spotted about 1 mile away. Then, how are you? It seemed like an eternity before she responded with "Ok 15th is gone through". She's arrived home here in GA safely with a busted up car an some essentials. We fee very blessed, yet sad for all those who suffered any loss during the storms that struck this Easter week.
Brian,
You are the best. Your dedication and sincerity is well reflected in your actions.
Well said, and it came from the heart. I live in SE TN where there is much devastation as is the case with our adjoining county, Catoosa, in GA. Thanks for remembering the South, a place where no matter how bad things are, we find good in it. My good friend in Australia made the comment as to why so many of us were thanking God. We thank God because things could always be worse, and our lives were spared. It doesn't have the pain, but we must remain positive.
Thank you for deciding to forgo a wedding across the ocean to focus on the pain and hardship going on in our country. I've only recently started watching (for the last year) and have been incredibly impressed at your news judgment and clarity in which you cover stories. As a former journalist, my hat is off to you and your staff for your professionalism and for putting a face on this tragedy. My loyalty to NBC Nightly News is cemented.
I'll have to quit thinking of you as an anchor after this. It is uplifting to watch the responses of the victims in an area the east and left coasts refer to as "flyover country".
Mr. Williams,
Your compassionate presentation and truely caring are comforting in these troubled times and heaven knows we need someone to present the facts in a compassionate way. I thank you for that from my heart. I am a father of two children attending the University of Alabama and were horrified after receiving text messages from our children that they were sitting in bathtubs as the sirens were alerting everyone of the tornado. My wife and I text'd back to remain in place and we would turn on the weather channel to see what was going on. The next 1 hr. I will never forget for the rest of my life. To our horror we watched as the weather channel presented a horrific tornado bearing down on Tuscaloosa with the weather man anxiously describing it's location. One child was safe on the west side of campus but the other was in it's apparent direct path. My wife and I were in full panic. We both attempted many time to call and text but the phone system was down. As we continued to watch the tornado destroy Tuscaloosa it was if we were watching our child die. For almost 1 hr. no phone connection to either child. We were hysterical. Finally a call for the fist saying she was OK and then 10 minutes later a call from the other that he was OK. We went from hysterics to overwhelming joy with that call. Our children are shaken but safe now and our thoughts and prayers go out to all "Touched" by this event. Thank you again for your compassionate presentations in as you say "the day everything changed in Tuscaloosa".
Thank you Mr. Williams for being a "News" reporter, while others beam in on a wedding in England and still others follow a carnival barker on his quest for more attention, you a true newsman focus on what is important. The frailty of life and the power of Mother Nature. I pray for all those who have been left with nothing and for those who have lost lives and children, mothers, fathers, friends, one can only hope that you will emerge from this tragedy much stronger and move forward, yet always remembering that horrible day when so much has been taken from you. This world can be sometimes a cruel place, but sometimes one gets a glimmer of hope when ones fellow man comes to the aid of another and it makes you think, it will be OK.
Glad to have the early morning update, as we wonder how it's going.
Through your incisive, insightful description of your experiences, you allow us to be there and be a part of lightening the load for everyone with the power of our collective thoughts and prayers.
I hope uplifting sights balance the tragic today. Meanwhile, here's to jet lag, all nighters and beef jerky.
Thank you.