A deadly tornado decimated Hackleburg, Ala., and one nearby CrossFit affiliate owner aims to help it rebuild. Andréa Maria Cecil reports.
It was a “normal” tornadic storm, Brad Thompson said.
In northern Alabama, such weather events are par for the course.
“We get that often here. We get a lot of F1s. No big deal,” he explained.
Those little funnel clouds typically don’t manifest into anything. But around 3 or 4 p.m. on April 27, Thompson saw “the clouds moving in the wrong direction, graphically.”
“We really didn’t know the full effect until the following day—how devastating it was,” said Thompson, who lives in Florence, Ala.
A year later, Hackleburg is still recovering and rebuilding. Enter Thompson and his affiliate, CrossFit Shoals.