Birmingham, Alabama April 27, 2011. Camera: Vivitar PN2011 with flipped lens. Film: "Memories" brand (actually Fuji) 200ASA.
Quinlan Castle (built in 1927) is in downtown Birmingham and I happened to be on a business trip near the city that week. My business completed by noon on the 27th, I ate lunch and then drove into Birmingham to take some photos. I shot this photo around 4 pm that day. Soon after, the tornado sirens sounded all throughout the city.
Now, I live in earthquake country (Southern California), where twisters are rare. So when the sirens sounded in Birmingham, I wasn't quite sure what to do. The one or two people I spotted on the streets didn't seem hurried, and the occasional motor car I spotted still seemed to be proceeding along at a speed close to the posted limit, so I resolved that I had no need to panic. I therefore made my way in a leisurely fashion back to my hotel, some 10 miles outside of town.
Immediately upon my return to the hotel all guests were ordered onto the basement, where we spent the next hour and a half until the National Weather Service announced that the storm had passed us.
Had I known, when on my photo excursion, what destruction that storm was about to reap perhaps panic would have seemed the best option.
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