Alabama Power crews tackle tough terrain, tremendous damage, during December storm
Alabama Power crews worked overnight and in treacherous conditions to quickly restore power after tornadoes swept through the Birmingham area. (Alabama Power)
When two tornadoes roared through some of the most densely populated and heavily forested suburban areas of Birmingham earlier this week, there was bound to be significant damage.
And there was.
The fast-moving front that swept across the state overnight on Saturday, Dec. 9, and during the wee hours on Sunday, Dec. 10, actually spun up four tornadoes: two in the Birmingham area and one each in Barbour and Lee counties, according to the National Weather Service.
In the Birmingham metro, the storm and the two EF-1 tornadoes caused numerous, towering trees in the communities of Homewood, Mountain Brook, Vestavia Hills and Hoover to topple – crushing roofs and cars, and taking down power lines and poles. Weather Service officials estimate that the two tornadoes, which skipped across areas of Homewood and Mountain Brook, including Samford University, just after midnight Saturday generated top winds of 90 mph and 100 mph respectively.
Alabama Power crews sprang into action, as soon as it was safe, to restore power to customers. More than 58,000 customers statewide were affected by the storm, including more than 34,000 in Jefferson and Shelby counties.
Not only did the scope and intensity of the damage, with many large trees coming down, pose a challenge. So did the very hilly terrain, which included treacherous, steep hollows and lots of downed poles and lines at the rear of heavily vegetated properties – with no easy way to get to them.
Alabama Power mobilized additional resources from outside metro Birmingham to tackle the job as quickly and safely as possible. By 4 p.m. Sunday, only 16 hours after the storm tore through Birmingham, crews had restored power to nearly 85% of customers statewide affected by the severe weather.
Typically, crews concentrate their efforts first in areas where the most customers can be restored as quickly as possible. From there, storm teams focus on more scattered and isolated locations with the worst damage.
In the case of this storm, many of the hardest-hit locations required a complete rebuild of infrastructure with additional crews and specialized equipment.
In all, preliminary estimates show the storm destroyed 125 power poles, 86 transformers and more than 430 spans of wire statewide. In the Birmingham area alone, more than 100 poles came down, along with 56 transformers and nearly 350 spans of wire.
With all resources directed now to the toughest cases, crews continued their work, many staying on the job overnight. By Sunday at midnight, Alabama Power crews were able to restore service to 99% of customers who were capable of taking power.
“We have comprehensive plans and protocols in place that enable us to coordinate restoration logistics swiftly and effectively,” said Corey Sweeney, Alabama Power Storm Center operations manager. “Having these plans in place ahead of time allows us to get to customers in need whenever outages do occur, and especially during severe weather events.”
Alabama Power crews have extensive experience restoring service in a variety of conditions, thanks to the state’s notorious range of fickle weather, from tornadoes to hurricanes, ice storms to severe summer downpours packed with dangerous lightning. The company has been honored multiple times by industry experts for swift and effective emergency storm response – for restoration efforts both within Alabama and out of state, when utilities around the country call on Alabama Power to help them restore service following natural disasters.
To learn more about how to prepare for severe weather, and how to stay safe after storms strike, visit Alabama Power’s online Storm Center.
