Six months later, it is impossible to ignore the physical and psychological scars left in the wake of the tornadoes that swept through the region on April 27. The loss of life was too high, the damage was too devastating, the suffering too widespread and the aftermath too stressful to do otherwise. There are many signs of recovery in the area, but the beating delivered to the region and its residents by numerous tornados that day is still too fresh to forget. Indeed, it is likely that those who lived through that stormy day will never forget it.
How could they? Forty-seven tornado tracks, moving from southwest to northeast crisscrossed, marched across Chattanooga and surrounding area that day. The twisters and associated storms directly or indirectly caused 81 deaths in the region, left many more injured and caused billions in damage. And that's only part of the picture.
The storms here were part of a much larger system that spawned other twisters that killed and injured many more people and cause billions in additional property damage. It was, a senior forecaster for the National Weather Service, says, "the big event of our generation -- it's the big event of recorded history."
That might seem, at first hearing, to be an exaggeration. Experts concur that it is not.
Meteorologists call the April 27 storms a super tornado outbreak, a completely appropriate description of a series of events that produced 345 tornados in a short period of time. The number was more than double the previous record outbreak which occurred in 1974. The result, as area residents know to their sorrow, was catastrophic.
Some neighborhoods and businesses in Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama were obliterated, with concomitant loss of life and property. Others in the region were damaged so heavily that structures that survived could not be rebuilt or required major and extensive and expensive repairs. Damage in other areas not adjacent to the tornado tracks was nevertheless substantial and will take time and money to repair. In many instances, unfortunately, families do not have the money to repair and rebuild or are unable to start the rebuilding process because of disputes with insurance providers. The result, six months after the tornadoes, remains eye-opening.
Many once-populated neighborhoods and once-thriving business districts still are mostly vacant. In others, repairs and rebuilding have started, but the pace is uneven and the area has taken on a gap-toothed appearance. And everywhere, individuals are still coming to grips with what the saw and experienced on that day in April. Doing so is and will be a difficult process.
There is a general feeling among those who survived the tornadoes that the passage of time and the comfort and assistance provided by faith, family and friends will heal most -- but certainly not all -- the wounds, both physical and psychological, inflicted on the region and its residents on April 27.
Thursday's official and unofficial observances of the six month anniversary of the tornadoes are a reminder of that day and the time since. The events might provide some closure for those in the region, but it is unlikely that anyone affected by the deadly tornado outbreak on April 27, 2011, ever will forget what they saw, heard or felt that day.