Winchester Native Survives Alabama Tornado

He’s lived in the south now for 10 years – Alabama to be exact. But the sounds Wayne Suhrbier heard six weeks ago as tornado after tornado ripped through Tuscaloosa, is something the Winchester-native won’t soon forget.

“It was just so surreal,” said Suhrbier.

He had been watching the news most of the afternoon and saw that the storm was tracking south – towards his home – when he lost power. That’s when Suhrbier – whose parents still live in Winchester – looked out the window.

“I saw trees torn right from the ground and just blown away,” said Suhrbier, whose father, John, serves on the board of the Winchester Housing Authority. “I ran to my cats to try and comfort them. You knew the tornado was here.”

This isn’t the first time that Suhrbier has seen a tornado, but he may never have been so close to one before.

He held onto his cats – two of which ended outside by the time the storm ended – when his windows shattered.

Then came the wind.

The speed of the tornado was approximately 190 to 200 mph.

“I didn’t have anything to hold on to,” Suhrbier said. “I just tried to stay low, keep my head down and my eyes shut. It felt as though I was being sandblasted.”

Then, it was over. He estimates it couldn’t have lasted more than 30 to 60 seconds.

There’s not much he remembers as the tornado ripped apart his home.

“I must have been hit by debris because I had bruises on my body, but it happened so fast, you don’t know what happened or what’s going on,” he said. “You’re not really thinking about anything, just hoping it ends. When I opened my eyes and got a chance to look around, I saw there was a lot of stuff that was inside our house that ended up on our front lawn and a lot of stuff that ended up in our house that wasn’t ours.”

Suhrbier recalls staggering outside to assess the damage. He was lucky. Only one major injury was reported in his neighborhood.

His home was not as fortunate.

“It was totaled,” he said.”

The foundation was still there, but the home itself had been moved a few feet off of the concrete slab. Walls that had been attached to the floor were now separated, a floor that was once connected, now showed gaps in it.

For now, Suhrbier and his wife are renting a home. They hope to rebuild, but are not sure where or when that may happen.

“We grabbed some stuff that night and stayed at a friend’s house,” Suhrbier said. “The next day we tried to pick up whatever we can that wasn’t damaged and put it in storage.”

Living in Alabama, Suhrbier is used to tornado warnings and sirens, but until this past April, it’s never been more than a simple weather advisory.

“We’re used to hearing about tornadoes,” he said. “But it didn’t occur that we were going to be hit until the tornado was right on top of us. It’s something, growing up in Massachusetts, that they don’t really prepare you for.”